It will begin rolling out service to Delta Air Lines Crown Room Clubs in January. Starting in January, the Pittsburgh airport will provide free public access to equipment for downloading e-mail and other information from the Internet to Palms, Handspring Visors or Sony CLIE handheld computers. The equipment, provided by AdAlive, will be attached to billboard ads in the airport. AdAlive plans to expand the service to other airports next year. To speed check-in lines at the San Jose, Calif., airport, American Airlines provides its gate agents with wireless handhelds and portable printers.
Agents can check in and issue boarding passes to travelers in gate waiting areas.
Handhelds let agents change seat assignments, but they cannot give seat upgrades. Travel technology company Sabre says it is working with an unnamed airline and a company called Impulsity on a way for travelers to get boarding passes on their own wireless devices. A test could begin as early as next month. But wireless Internet access in airplane cabins may be more distant. One airline plans to test such a service on flights from Scandinavia early next year.