For South African low cost airline Mango the first week of August signals the final stretch of the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi beta period. Five out of the airline’s six aircraft are now enabled with the service with the sixth is scheduled to come online at the end of September.
Marking the final home stretch of the beta phase, Mango and partner G-Connect will discount all on-board Wi-Fi access by 50% during August between Johannesburg and Cape Town while all social media functionality on Facebook and Twitter will be at no cost to travellers, bar video uploads.
“Uptake of in-flight Wi-Fi has been phenomenal,” says Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout. “Approximately 8% of all guests on enabled aircraft are online during flight at this time. This is in line with global usage benchmarks. Discounting usage as we approach the end of the beta phase as well as opening up social media at no cost should drive increased adoption of the service.”
He says that Mango aims to achieve at least 30% usage per flight by November.
