American Airlines drops litigation against Gogo over slow WiFi service

The world’s largest carrier and the nation’s biggest onboard wireless provider seemed to have made up from a tiff that signaled a potential breakup.

American Airlines filed a legal petition this month that, if successful, would have given the Fort Worth-based carrier the option of breaking its contract with its onboard Wi-Fi provider Gogo.

Under its contract, American can notify Gogo if the airline believes that Gogo does not match or exceed the connectivity services of its competitors. That is exactly what American did, setting the stage for American to end its contract with Gogo.

American pointed out in the legal petition that most of Gogo’s service is too slow because it is based on Wi-Fi signals from ground-based cell towers, while other companies offer onboard Wi-Fi speeds up to four times faster through satellite-based systems.

But last week, American rescinded the legal petition, a sign that Gogo and American are ready to patch up the relationship.

Gogo did not elaborate on the legal dispute but a representative said the company plans to submit a proposal to American to upgrade the airline’s onboard Wi-Fi to a faster, satellite-based system.

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