Sky’s No Limit for Cyberspace, as In-Flight Computing Arrives

Fasten your seat belts on the flight. Cyberspace is headed for the stratosphere.

The telephone, fax machine, pager, interactive video games, stock quotes, cyberspace shopping mall and more have landed at your seat.

About 50 USAir, Continental, America West and Carnival planes already feature the system designed by In-Flight Phone Corp., a venture capital firm largely owned by MCI Corp. Under current contracts, the so-called FlightLink II system will appear in more than 1,000 commercial aircraft by mid-1996.

“FlightLink brings the information highway to the airline seat. Whether traveling for business or pleasure, FlightLink has something for everyone,” said Neal Meehan, chief marketing officer of In-Flight Phone.

The system features a computer screen at the back of the seat in front of the passenger and a telephone handset with a full-sized computer keyboard tucked under the armrest.

As with regular airphones, users will swipe a credit card in a slot on the receiver and dial to pay for connect time. The FlightLink people say the new service uses a technology that gives a clearer digital connection than existing flight telephones. To carry data, as well as voice, this higher level of clarity is required.

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The service isn’t cheap. Calls are $9 to $11 a minute if a special satellite link is required in some areas over the ocean, but only $2 when planes are over land. But FlightLink is offering a promotional rate of 99 cents a minute for at least two months, a spokesman said.

In the paging system, messages appear on the screen and passengers can return calls at the touch of a button. They can also type a message on the screen and send it to any fax machine.

Airline passengers can also make airline, limousine or rental car reservations, and even check into a hotel from the sky. The system includes a way to send flowers, greeting cards, cookies and spirits on-line, or they can shop on the SkyMall catalogue till they drop, and have the merchandise awaiting at the destination.

Adding a laptop computer to the system, the airline passenger can use the system to handle services that the PC may provide, such as trading stocks on-line. Business travelers can download a spreadsheet from the office computer, journalists can file stories from the air, and users of on-line services such as Internet can access their accounts to send and receive e-mail around the world.

Weather information, a city guide, news headlines and even a flight map showing the airplane’s location on the planet are slated to join the menu.

While such high-flying frills might seem like services that only the rich can enjoy, In-Flight believes it has found a big market niche.

“We would be surprised if other companies didn’t try to imitate us,” said Darren Leno, In-Flight Phone’s director of communications. “It’ll be a $1-billion industry by the year 2000, in terms of revenue from phone calls, and value-added services.”

The Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based company is installing the FlightLink system at the rate of one aircraft a day, and is actively marketing the product in Europe. It has already signed contracts with Air UK and CrossAir in Britain, Leno said.

USAir, which unveiled the system on its 10 of its Boeing 757 aircraft in January, will decide whether to have it replace all of the carrier’s airphones after a 90-day trial, he said.