Runway Girl Takes Flight While Playing Ring Girl to AirCell and Row 44

Hello Runway Girl readers,

The time has finally come for me to transition from Blogger to my journalistic home, Flight Global. What better way to celebrate than with a blog post that shows just how competitive the in-flight connectivity sector has become? Many thanks to the CEOs of AirCell and Row 44, Jack Blumenstein and John Guidon, respectively, for their candid thoughts.

Here's the blog - http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/runway-girl/ - but here's a little taste:

Blumenstein says: "The only thing I know of with Row 44 is temporary authority on a month-to-month basis to do ground trials. They don’t have the authority to fly anything at least from [what we see] on the public record.”

Guidon says: "Rather than engaging in a war of words, we’re circumspect about what we say in our releases to the public and we prefer to let our actions speak for us. We cordially suggest that Jack [Blumenstein] might follow the same policy.”

Who wins round one? You know I'll let you decide. And give me your thoughts about this post, my Flight blog in general, and anything else on your mind, won't you please?

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/runway-girl/

Double-Teaming: Runway Girl and IAG's Addison Schonland Talk to Row 44's John Guidon About Southwest Win, Future Plans

This afternoon, I teamed up with IAG's Addison Schonland to interview Row 44 CEO John Guidon for a podcast.

I thought I had covered everything with John last week, when I spoke with him about Southwest Airlines' decision to trial Row 44's satellite-based connectivity solution onboard four Boeing 737s. It turns out there was more to be said.

In addition to addressing future widebody installations and cellular competition, John discusses air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity (and whether this is likely - or not - to be explored in Europe).

Check out the podcast link here: http://iagblog.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2008-01-30T13_24_17-08_00

Interestingly, proposed "global" air-to-ground connectivity provider AirStellar has updated its web site, saying it is "currently offering validation flights for airlines that wish to enter our demonstration network program".

I must admit I'm still not sure how global ATG is possible (it seems like a bit of an oxymoron) but here's what AirStellar told me in September 2007. I just emailed company director John Page for an interview and the message bounced back. A call is in order me thinks.

(Row 44 logo from http://www.row44.com/)