May 19 - Bringing an at-home experience to life on an aircraft is nothing like what you might go through to change your home connectivity system. At home, you can swap old equipment with the latest and greatest technology in minutes and be back up and running shortly after. Onboard an aircraft, it’s an entirely different story. From designing and certification to testing and building, bringing a new Wi-Fi system onboard any aircraft requires months of careful planning to ensure it can deliver a fast, reliable and streaming-quality connection for everyone onboard.

 

Over the last several months, teams at Delta have been hard at work to fine-tune the technology for Delta’s fleet and built a template that will allow the airline to meet an ambitious installation timeline over the coming months – upgrading more than 300 aircraft, a rate of nearly 50 installations per month, this year alone.

 

“Nobody has done what we are trying to do with this new system,” said Glenn Latta, Managing Director – In-Flight Connectivity. “Our teams have worked tirelessly to develop a process that will allow us to rapidly outfit hundreds of aircraft across our fleet to unlock what is possible for customers onboard.”

 

Adding new Wi-Fi to nearly all of Delta’s domestic mainline fleet is no small feat – it requires technical know-how, a rigorous approach to testing and innovation and a nimble team of experts from across the company collaborating to solve complex problems to reliably deliver an unparalleled experience onboard. The work being done at each stage of the process is crucial to delivering the experience customers expect onboard Delta today and provides a foundation for free service in the future.

 

With the new system also comes the new Delta Portal Platform – the front page to your experience onboard. The new platform, coming later this summer, will unify the user experience across Delta’s digital touchpoints – including the Fly Delta App and integration with the customer’s Delta SkyMiles profile – bringing a more familiar look and feel along with the enhanced connectivity. Built by a Delta-led team of software engineers, designers and product leaders, the platform is designed to take advantage of the best capabilities that come with the new Wi-Fi system.

 

“It was critical for us to own the experience of the Delta Portal Platform to make certain our customers were getting a consistent Delta-defined experience,” said Matt Cincera, S.V.P – Software Engineering. “By bringing this project in-house, we have the tools to deliver an integrated and personalized experience for customers like never before.”

 

At launch this summer, customers will be able to connect, purchase, browse and stream from their own devices and open the door to an end-to-end Delta experience in-flight.

 

Free messaging from a smartphone is available through the platform along with favorite Delta.com features at no fee. Stay tuned for additional features this year – the team is listening to and learning from customer feedback to explore new features for the Delta Portal Platform later this year.

 

This industry-leading combination of reliable high-speed connectivity, the Delta Portal Platform and seatback screens unlock the future experience onboard Delta.

 

Read about what you need to know as you reclaim the joy of travel this year.

 

 

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