Airports Reduce Free WiFi Availability

Airlines have been nickel and diming passengers for years, adding fee on top of fee for everything from baggage to early check in.

Airports seem to be following suit, at least as far as WiFi is concerned. Long a foregone conclusion at many airports around the world, free WiFi may be going the way of the free checked bag. And they’re blaming it on increasingly high usage thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, tablets and laptops in airports.

Travel + Leisure reported on the topic, citing a recent survey of global airport IT managers, conducted by aviation IT experts at SITA. The study showed passengers are used to free WiFi, which they can find at 74 percent of the world’s airports.

That number is expected to drop to 54 percent by 2019.

“No airport is suggesting it will reduce availability of WiFi, but more will introduce commercial models,” said Nigel Pickford, director of marketing operations and market insight, SITA.

Some 37 percent of airports will introduce a “hybrid” WiFi model, where passengers can access free WiFi for a limited time and be asked to pay for WiFi after that. Or, there may be a lower bandwidth option and a high-speed pay wall. The study did not say which airports would be among the 37 percent, but it’s mainly expected to happen in North America and the Middle East.