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All US Flights To Have Email In 2004
from the yes,-but-will-anyone-actually-use-it? dept
The airlines certainly are quick to copy a single innovation from one competitor and offer it themselves. So, I guess it's no surprise to hear that, following United and Continental's plans to offer Tenzing's ridiculously priced in-flight email, the folks at Tenzing now expect all domestic US flights to offer email in the air by next year. Of course, there's a big difference between offering the system and seeing whether or not people use it. Even with the clarified pricing scheme, it's simply way too much for most people to bother with such a limited offering. The airlines are signing up with the Tenzing solution rather than the much more advanced and useful Connexion solution because Tenzing just requires a software upgrade, and Connexion requires adding special equipment. Airlines that offer full internet access via Connexion will actually be providing something of value that people might be interested in paying for, unlike the Tenzing solution. Since when did it become so hard to calculate both sides of the cost-benefit equation?
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Well, just adderssing that last question. It became hard after 9/11 when revenue's fell but costs didn't. There's tremendous cost pressure on the airlines, and if the ROI of a project has any revenue components, there has to be a good deal of confidence in those projections before getting approval. Plus going back to the fact that UA began this series of announcements, and they are in bankruptcy, and have no money right now.
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