United to put inflight Wi-Fi on regional jets

United Airlines plans to add inflight Wi-Fi services on more than 200 regional jets.

Itasca-based Gogo Inc. will outfit the United Express planes to use its air-to-ground service. United said Wi-Fi service will be installed on its E170, E175 and CRJ700 aircraft by next summer. The first Wi-Fi-enabled flights are expected later this year.

Beginning early next year, passengers on some jets will also be able to watch movies and TV shows on their personal Wi-Fi devices.

“United is pleased to extend our growing Wi-Fi and personal device entertainment platform to our fleet of larger regional jets,” said Jeff Foland, United’s executive vice president of marketing, technology and strategy. “These new elements will enhance the entire in-flight experience for our customers.”

Gogo said the United Express jets will be the first regional jets in the U.S. to use the company’s ATG-4 network.

“United has been a great partner of ours and we are excited to extend our in-flight Internet service to a large part of their regional fleet,” Gogo’ president and CEO Michael Small said.