JetBlue to add email, text messaging to flights

Love it or call it overrated, but there’s no denying that JetBlue is always an innovator. By the end of the year, passengers will be able to send email or text messages—for free—while in the air. It is the first U.S. airline to add this technology to its flights.

JetBlue is developing the technology through its LiveTV subsidiary, which last year won an FCC auction of airwaves to provide in-flight Internet service. “We think that is what customers want. They have told us in no uncertain terms that they do not want cell phone usage allowed onboard. So we’re looking at silent options,” Jenny Dervin, a JetBlue spokeswoman said on Thursday, as reported on USAToday.com.

Sadly, Dervin says that the airline does not have plans to add Internet access.