Google Spreads Free Holiday WiFi Beyond Virgin To AirTran And Delta This Year

The holiday travel season is upon us, and once again, Google is teaming up with the travel industry to offer free WiFi. Today, the Google Chrome browser team is announcing a partnership with AirTran, Delta and Virgin America, to provide free Gogo Inflight Internet to their passengers throughout the holiday season. You can find more information here.

Travelers flying on AirTran, Delta or Virgin America between November 20, 2010 and January 2, 2011 will be able to access free Wi-Fi on domestic flights. In total, the deal brings wifi to more than 700 planes and 15 million expected passengers this holiday season.

Last year, Google had a similar partnership with Virgin America and extended free WiFi to 50 airports in the U.S. Unfortunately, Google has told us that it will not be extending free WiFi to airports this holiday season. Here’s Google’s statement: For last year’s promotion we experimented with providing a combination of free Wi-Fi in both airports and in-flight. This year we decided to focus on the in-flight experience and we are pleased to be working with three of the nation’s leading carriers to bring free in-flight Wi-Fi to holiday travelers.

On interesting deviation from last year’s offer is that Google is using Chrome as the sponsor of the giveaway. If anything, the free WiFi is a great way to spread brand awareness of Google’s web browser. But you don’t have to use Google Chrome to access the free WIFi on flights. And travelers are sure to be happy to save a few bucks on accessing WiFi on flights. Gogo’s inflight wireless connection costs $11 for a 24-hour period, so this could save travelers at least $20 for round-trip access.

Photo Credit/Flickr/MarinaAvila