Jet Airways will offer WiFi facility on-board from March 2017: Report

Jet Airways, the full service carrier has announced that it will offer WiFi facility onboard on all its aircraft by March next year. The announcement comes three months after the civil aviation ministry decided that domestic airlines should be allowed to use WiFi facility on flights.

The news will bring cheer for passengers. The concept of offering in flight WiFi services is not new. Globally, many airlines offer this facility to passengers. However, some other airlines are weary of implementing the services, since the move would directly have an impact on ticket pricing, according to a report in the Financial Express.

Full service carriers are encouraged by the government's recent proposal whereas budget carriers are not very convinced.

International carriers such as Emirates, British Airways provide Wi-Fi services on-board. Almost all carriers in the U.S. provide Wi-Fi on flights (including smart phones in air plane mode). Hence phone usage in the sky is deemed safe.

Following the news, the Jet Airways stock was trading at Rs 406.25 at around 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, up 3.24 percent from its previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange. 

Last month, Jet Airways saw witnessed a dip in its market share to 14.7 percent from 16.2 percent in September. 

Jet Airways posted mixed results for the September quarter (Q2) on Friday. On a standalone basis, the full service carrier's income from operations rose 2.17 percent to Rs 5,420 crore, while net profit jumped 23.4 percent to Rs 108 crore on the back of a sharp increase in other income. It had reported net profit and income from operations of Rs 87 crore and Rs 5,257 crore for the three-month period ended September 30, 2015.