I’m at the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) conference this week, and I spent awhile chatting with the folks at AirCell (provider of wifi fun) yesterday. That made me think it was a good time for a wifi update, especially since there has been so much news lately.

Delta and American continue to make progress while Southwest has announced it’s outfitting the full fleet. But the fleet coverage numbers that airlines throw out can be misleading, so I thought I’d break it down further.

Let’s start with this chart showing what percent of the fleet currently has wifi installed by airline.

You’ll notice that these numbers look WAY different from what the airlines tell you. For example, Delta just announced that it was north of 70% but I’m showing 16%. What gives? Well, Delta has it installed on 70% of the pre-merger mainline fleet. In this number, I’ve included the Northwest fleet and the vast fleet of Delta Connection regional jets and props that have no wifi at all. While the regional fleet probably won’t see wifi, the first Northwest aircraft goes in for modification on 10/1.

AirTran and Virgin America remain the only airlines with 100% completion, though it was a lot easier for Virgin America with only 28 planes than it was for AirTran with 136 planes. Oh, and remember, Virgin America has power outlets so they already have a leg up.

American has just passed 100 MD-80s with the system along with the 15 767-200s flying across the country. talking to AirCell today, I was told that they’re doing 1 or 2 a day, so they keep marching quickly. They will have 150 MD-80s, and I believe that’s the only plan so far.

Alaska is still just in test mode, but they have indicated that they want to go fleetwide eventually.

Southwest is also still in test mode, but they just announced that they would be rolling this out fleetwide beginning in 2010. There is no timeline for completion, but hopefully they can install this quicker than they can paint airplanes in their new colors.

Continental and JetBlue are in the same boat. They are both tied to the LiveTV inflight entertainment system, and that can include narrow-band access for free onboard. That means you can check email, use IM, and visit a couple websites but that’s about it. JetBlue still only has it on one airplane but they’ll begin rolling it out soon throughout the fleet. I know Continental has LiveTV on most of its 737-900s now, but they don’t have wifi of any kind yet.

United had announced that its flights from New York to LA and San Francisco will have internet but that hasn’t happened yet. US Airways will put it on their A321 fleet as well, but that hasn’t begun either.

So if you want wifi, AirTran and Virgin America are your best bet with Delta and American following. Of course, it remains to be seen how many people want wifi and more importantly, are willing to pay for it. I asked AirCell for usage numbers, but of course, they couldn’t provide that. Bummer.

Isn’t August supposed to be a pretty light month for airline news? This week has been absolutely packed with headlines, and I’m getting tired. Today I’m rolling a couple stories together that involve slot swaps. One (between US Airways and Delta) is huge while the other (between Continental and AirTran) is more of a minor thing. But one thing is clear – things are really moving these days.

The big news is the Delta/US Airways slot swap. Remember the good old days when US Airways was the “big bad predator” and Delta employees wanted to “Keep Delta My Delta”? Apparently those wounds have healed and now they’re playing nice with each other. The basic plan is this – Delta gives its Washington/National (DCA) operation to US Airways and US Airways gives its New York/LaGuardia (LGA) operation to Delta. Delta also had to throw in route authorities for Tokyo and Sao Paulo and they wanted a Pete Rose rookie card to even things out.

Why are they doing this? Well, Delta wants to “win” New York (if there is such a thing). US Airways, meanwhile, thinks the DCA slots can make them a lot more money. Ok, fine. It’s probably a smart move for both considering their strategies. I talk about that more over on BNET today.

US Airways will give up 125 slot pairs (one pair = one takeoff and one landing) at LaGuardia along with its terminal. Those slots are currently used for US Airways Express flights that buzz around the Northeast, primarily in turboprops. Here is what stays and what goes:

Everything else will go to Delta, and it remains to be seen how exactly they’ll use them. They do say, however, that they’ll add or preserve service to 30 smaller cities, including a dozen cities not currently served by US Airways from LaGuardia. They also say they’ll upgrade the props to jets and end up squeezing more than 2 million additional people a year through the airport without increasing flights. Hmm.

So Delta will set up what they’re calling a domestic hub at LGA with an international one at JFK. That’s, uh, not ideal, especially when compared to Continental’s single facility at Newark. But JFK will apparently continue as is for now and LGA will just see more flying to smaller cities. Delta really thinks they can make a go of it.

In terms of facilities, US Airways Shuttle will use the Marine Air Terminal (where Delta currently flies its Shuttle) and the other flights will go into Terminal D gates 7, 8, and 9. Delta will take over US Airways’ current terminal and pour some money into it to fix it up. (Hey, maybe you guys should pour money into that dump over at JFK instead.)

Down at DCA, it’s a different story. US Airways will pick up 42 slot pairs to add to the 175ish that they currently have. Here’s what they’ll add:

They will operate these with Embraer 190s or A319s, so it’s going to involve bigger aircraft than what Delta is using today. As far as facilities go, they need to ask the airport for facilities – Delta doesn’t own anything to give to US airways there, but this shouldn’t be a problem. US Airways is currently profitable at National and they expect this move to add to the bottom line to the tune of $75 million.

Delta will keep flying to its hubs and “select small communities.” Man, Delta is really being cryptic here, and it’s a pretty stark contrast to US Airways. I wish Delta was nearly as open as US Airways has been, but until then we’ll have to just keep guessing at exactly what they’re going to do.

But this slot swap wasn’t quite even, so US Airways has also received a route authority to fly to Sao Paulo. (They’ll go from Charlotte.) They also get slots to fly into Tokyo/Narita which they’ll run from Phoenix . . . eventually. The plan for Tokyo is to start in 2012. Until then, the slot will be subleased back to Delta. They can really start whenever they want, but they figured that it will be 2012 before air travel to Asia has recovered.

And that’s it. No cash changed hands or anything else. It’s just a swap that works for both airlines. This is subject to government approval, and it likely won’t happen until 2010, so transition plans aren’t known just yet.

We also have to talk about Continental and AirTran. AirTran will be pulling out of Newark completely. Its 10 slots will go to Continental. In exchange, AirTran will get what looks to be 6 slots at LaGuardia (for flights to Indy and Orlando) as well as six slots at National (to be used for Orlando and Atlanta). This one makes perfect sense as they play to their strengths. Continental fortifies Newark while AirTran builds in LGA and DCA. AirTran’s service in Newark ends on 10/25 and picks up in DCA/LGA on 11/4.

What a week – my head is spinning.

[Original photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiagochediak/ / CC BY 2.0 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/can10kon10/ / CC BY-SA 2.0]

I’m going light on my post today since it’s officially a holiday here in the US. What better way to kick off the holiday weekend than with a little airplane porn?

This time, there actually is a person involved, but fortunately, he is fully clothed. Apparently, AirTran is really happy that Mark Malkoff made it through June without a hitch. This has been great publicity for the airline and its wifi efforts, and they’ve decided to commemorate the event with a giant picture of Mark, literally on AirTran.

That’s Mark’s wife, who appears to be rather happy to have her husband back despite the fact that he hasn’t seen a shower since May.

I hope everyone enjoys their 4th here in the US. (And for my British readers, I hope you aren’t still too bitter – it has, after all, been more than 230 years. You know we still love you.)

It turns out that my challenge to meet with Mark Malkoff, the man spending a month straight on AirTran airplanes, has paid off . . . sort of. It wasn’t in person, so I couldn’t bring him any food, but he did call me from an AirTran lav Tuesday afternoon and we spoke for just shy of 20 minutes. Once we finished, I realized that it was basically a podcast. So, I slapped some music on there, recorded an intro, and here it is in all its glory:

Shortly after I put my post up, I received an email back from the PR team apologizing that they couldn’t make it happen. They could, however, get me on the phone with him that afternoon during a layover at LaGuardia. Perfect. Not having any fancy recording equipment, I simply put my speakerphone next to my computer and recorded the whole thing. I know, I’m so technologically advanced. But it worked.

We talked about his fear of flying (“I’d say my anxiety is dwindling by the day”), the pain of being alone at night (“I feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining”), and yes even whether he prefers the 717 or the 737 (“What is it? 7 what?”). Ok, so maybe he doesn’t quite have the dork gene himself, but it’s an entertaining conversation.

Mark did mention that wifi is the only thing keeping him sane. (Considering the number of times wifi came up in the conversation, I’ll assume AirTran must give him food only when he mentions it.) If you’d like to help keep him busy up there, you can hop on Twitter and start bugging him at @mmalkoff. You can follow him online at http://markonairtran.com/.

And let me know your thoughts on the first podcast. I know it’s long, so if you do get all the way through, send me a note and tell me what you think. Not sure I’ll be doing this often, but it could be kind of fun.

Have you ever heard of comedian Mark Malkoff? Neither have I, and I’m guessing that’s why he was willing to subject himself to some of the worst torture ever invented. Waterboarding? Nay. He’s spending 30 days on an airplane. And this isn’t on some fancy corporate jet. It’s on AirTran. And now I’ve got a challenge for him.

This is actually a great promotion. AirTran wants to promote their new plan to outfit their entire fleet with wifi by the summer, and Mark, well, he gets to be the guinea pig. He’s been posting videos from the plane (many of which are actually funny), sending tweets, blogging, and more. It’s actually pretty clever.

Now, why Mark would subject himself to this, I have no idea. He says he’s afraid to fly and this will help him get over it, but I wouldn’t be so sure about that. If he’s spending 30 days in coach, that might send him into the fetal position for life.

Here’s how it works. He’s not sticking with one single airplane but rather moving around from plane to plane in order to keep himself flying. Sometimes he flies on redeyes, but on other days, he sleeps in an airplane in the hangar at night. Either way, he’s not leaving an airplane for longer than it takes to walk to another one. He did, however, get himself a shower the other day . . . from the fire department at Flint Airport.

Some of the other videos show him washing his hair with a bottle of water over the toilet in the lav. He borrows shaving cream from a passenger in another clip. I personally liked the video clip where they presented him with elite status after only three days in the air. Pretty impressive, and hopefully that means he gets free upgrades.

The only thing that makes me bitter? I was contacted about the promotion by a PR agency for AirTran trying to get me to write about it, so I asked if he would be coming to LA. He was, but after I asked for a short interview while he was there they said they’d look into it and I never heard another peep. According to his blog, he was busy hanging out with Lisa Loeb. Booo on you.

So I’m not above resorting to bribery. Mark – If you come back to LA again on this trip, I’ll bring you an In ‘n Out Burger, no, make it a Double Double. Look at that burger. You know you want one. I’m out of town June 24 – 28, so you don’t have many days left to take me up on this offer.

[Update 6/22 @ 9a: Hmm, so I understand he's a vegetarian. This Double Double bribe clearly won't work. Fortunately, In 'n Out makes a mean Grilled Cheese that is loved by vegetarians the world over. How 'bout that, Mark?]

[Photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid via Flickr]