Mango, the\u00a0low-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”.<\/p>\n
Claiming to be the only African airline to offer on-board Wi-Fi, Mango launched its\u00a0in-flight service in the first half of 2012, through G-Connect.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“There are several innovations planned for this year, soon to be announced,” it said.<\/p>\n
To use Mango\u2019s 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 \u201cSuper Travellers Pass\u201d which is valid for a month and offers 300 minutes of G-Connect Wi-Fi access whether in the air or on the ground.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, passengers can purchase SMS bundles starting at R10 for 5 SMSes, to R30 for 20 SMSes.<\/p>\n
Mango offers a 30MB in-flight and Wi-Fi bundle for R29, and a 60MB amount for R49.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n