In-Flight Internet Too Tempting for Some

Brad Garlinghouse, left, senior vice president of Yahoo, demonstrates the capabilities of a laptop during a media preview flight aboard "BetaBlue," an Airbus A320 aircraft equipped with an onboard wireless network, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007. JetBlue will start offering free online messaging services on one of its planes next week, becoming among the first airlines to offer in-flight Internet access. Passengers can use Yahoo e-mail and instant messaging services on laptops equipped with Wi-Fi wireless access. They can also check other personal and work e-mail on two BlackBerry models that have wireless capabilities. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (Mark Lennihan - AP)

NEW YORK -- Warren Adelman's colleagues know him as "Thumbs": Like many executives, he is adept at checking e-mail on his BlackBerry and does it almost constantly.

Unable to do so during flights, Adelman welcomes business trips as "an opportunity to decompress a little bit from the constant flow of e-mail, perhaps catch up on a book."

"It's one of the few downtime environments you get in this day and age," said Adelman, president and chief operating officer of GoDaddy.com Inc., a registration company for Internet domain names.

An invasion of his sanctuary is imminent, though, as airlines around the world would make available in-flight Internet services.

On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways Corp. began offering e-mail and instant messaging on one aircraft. Broader high-speed services, including Web surfing, are to come next year on some flights of AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines.

And in-flight entertainment provider Panasonic Avionics Corp., a unit of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., has been testing Internet offerings with Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. Other airlines are to join next year.

Airlines see airborne Internet access, which typically uses Wi-Fi technology deemed safe for flights, as producing both revenue and a competitive edge against one another and over trains, buses and automobiles.

Frequent fliers said the temptation to go online would be overwhelming, though they were divided over whether they would rejoice.

Jay Pease, a regional marketing director for Exstream Software LLC, said he needs to rest during trans-Atlantic flights for morning meetings in Europe. But he often has trouble sleeping, and he worried that "the temptation would be there to say, `I'll just log on and surf the Internet for a while.'"

Jon Carson, chief executive with online fundraising company cMarket Inc., said that between kids, meetings and electronic interruptions on the ground, "I get some of my best work done on the plane."

Good decisions and breakthroughs often arise from "the kind of deeper, reflecting thinking" not possible when new messages continually arrive, Carson said.

Adelman's colleague, GoDaddy General Counsel Christine Jones, disagreed.