Many companies are scrambling to get onto the the cliche-strewn information highway, but the USAir Shuttle is testing the information skyway.
This month, the USAir Shuttle, which operates hourly between New York and Washington and New York and Boston, rolled out a plane with a new digital air-to-ground data communications link for business travelers who want to fax a note or check E-mail while in flight.
Built into the back of each seat is a liquid-crystal display linked to a small handset. The handset has a QWERTY-style alphanumeric keyboard and directional cursor keys on one side and a telephone and key pad on the other.
The keyboard is used for navigating through menus offering 18 capabilities, which include sending Fax Grams, at $1.50 a message; setting up conference calls, at $2 a minute, plus $1 a minute per called party; reserving a rental car; or checking stock quotes-at no charge-from 35,000 feet.
A “data link” option, for $2 a minute, allows a passenger to attach a portable computer to the system, using a special cable supplied on the plane.
The system, called FlightLink II, is a product of the In-Flight Phone Corp., an Oakbrook Terrace-based partially owned by the MCI Communications Corp.
The USAir Shuttle is conducting a 90-day test to gauge demand for the system among its largely business clientele. If the test is deemed a success, the system will be installed on all USAir Shuttles.
Besides the USAir Shuttle, In-Flight recently has placed FlightLink II on more than two-dozen other airliners operated around the country by USAir, 17 by America West and 1 by Continental, though Continental has ordered systems for several hundred other planes.
FlightLink II is tied to a local area network on the plane that uses a wireless connection to communicate with any of almost 100 In-Flight ground stations across North America. The company says it can provide passengers with service in airspace anywhere in the U.S. and southern Canada and soon will add Mexico.
A spokesman for Delta Air Lines said his company will not offer FlightLink II on any aircraft, including the Delta Shuttle, which plies the same routes as the USAir Shuttle.
Delta said it will continue to use the digital telephones supplied by GTE Airfone available on many airlines. Since 1993, Airfone has been a wireless link for people with portable computers and modems.
But FlightLink II provides computer-like capabilities to people who haven’t toted their own machines aboard.
Some basic computer games also are available on FlightLink II, but the system is different from the in-seat entertainment systems offered by Virgin Atlantic (and recently tested and discontinued by Northwest Airlines).
Those systems offer movies and full-motion video games, such as ones made for Nintendo Entertainment Systems. FlightLink II’s screens cannot show full-motion video. Nevertheless, In-Flight is considering upgrading the system so it can receive over-the-air television broadcasts.
Officials for GTE Airfone and another In-Flight rival, AT&T’s Claircom Communications Group, said their companies are at work on screen-based in-flight communications systems that place a heavier emphasis on entertainment and full-motion video.
