Boredom and lost productivity in the air will soon be a thing of the past with the introduction of Internet access on aircraft.

TechCrunch said on Thursday that American airline, JetBlue had announced that it would provide services restricted to Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerries to access BB mail and messenger.

However, it has recently came out that American Airlines will start offering complete web-access onboard followed shortly by Virgin America. There is again likely to be a catch; this time not with what you can access but with the cost-of-use. Both airlines, American and Virgin are likely to charge $10 per flight for the privilege to access the Internet in-flight. Personally, I’d pay it, but…

TechCrunch says “…it could be worth a lot more to them to offer it for free, and use it to build brand loyalty”. I agree, especially for airlines trying to win business clientele.

I haven’t heard any news of the Australian airlines - Qantas, Virgin Blue and Qantas-owned JetStar - planning to offer onboard net access. I think it would be a great move for Virgin Blue, seeing they’re increasingly attacking the business segment, to offer it.

Tiger Airways today announced $9.95 one-way flights from Adelaide to Melbourne as part of their market-penetration strategy.

There has been much speculation of Tiger Airways’ introduction strategies into the Australian market but price-wars are nothing new in the aviation industry.

If I recall correctly Virgin Blue did it. Jetstar did it. What has been the product of this serious undercutting? Fierce competition!

To clarify for those spectators that sit there and wonder how this sort of behaviour is sustainable, I shall go over penetration-pricing.

Penetration-pricing means setting a low entry price to gain market-share and then increasing to a level that is realistic and within what the market is willing to pay. I see this as what Tiger Airways is doing.

I see them as wanting to gain market-share by creating an irresistible buzz which will ultimately lead to brand-loyalty.

They’re making their product accessible so people can see ‘what they’ve got’ and will hopefully choose them again when it comes to booking low-cost airfares.