Are South Africans using in-flight Wi-Fi?
Mango, the low-cost South African Airways subsidiary, says that its in-flight Wi-Fi service “has been well received and take-up levels continue to be high”.
Claiming to be the only African airline to offer on-board Wi-Fi, Mango launched its in-flight service in the first half of 2012, through G-Connect.
Mango said that the service is presently available on 6 of its fleet of 10 aircraft with plans afoot to install across the fleet, ultimately.
“The service has been well received and take-up levels continue to be high. On aggregate we have 7-8% usage, well in line with global averages on similar products,” the airline said.
“There are several innovations planned for this year, soon to be announced,” it said.
To use Mango’s in-flight Wi-Fi passengers can buy a voucher either through the Mango site or directly from WirelessG which costs from R50 for a single flight (valid for 3 hours from activation), to R250 for a “Super Travellers Pass” which is valid for a month and offers 300 minutes of G-Connect Wi-Fi access whether in the air or on the ground.
Alternatively, passengers can purchase SMS bundles starting at R10 for 5 SMSes, to R30 for 20 SMSes.
Mango offers a 30MB in-flight and Wi-Fi bundle for R29, and a 60MB amount for R49.
Rival carrier, Kulula.com, recently told BusinessTech that it will not pursue an in-flight Wi-Fi offering for its flights due to the associated costs to deliver the service.
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