A short legal scuffle between American Airlines and in-flight WiFi provider Gogo is leading to new changes for passengers fed up with slow, sometimes inoperable, connectivity during flights.

In February, American Airlines filed a legal petition to break their contract with Gogo, claiming Gogo’s competitors provide a substantially better service. However, Gogo currently offers a satellite-based connectivity system called 2Ku on other airlines that provides significantly better service and which they planned to later extend to American Airlines. If American Airlines were to move to a different provider, it’s likely they would have chosen ViaSat, the current provider for United Airlines, JetBlue, Qantas and Virgin America.

On Feb. 22, Gogo announced American Airlines dropped their petition. Subsequently, Gogo shares jumped by about 10 percent, as investors saw potential in the reinstated partnership.

One day later, Gogo put out a statement they would begin working alongside SES, a global satellite operator, as early as 2017. This new satellite-powered wireless connectivity option will cover all of North America (including Hawai’i), Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Russia.

“Gogo is all about bringing the best customer experience to our aviation partners; this deal will dramatically increase bandwidth and drive overall costs per bit down by orders of magnitude. 2Ku was originally designed to take advantage of these satellite enhancements. Airline partners who already committed to 2Ku will be able to take advantage of this new arrangement once the systems are flying without any equipment modifications,” said Anand Chari, chief technology officer, Gogo.

Currently, Gogo provides WiFi service for more than 2,500 commercial aircraft under 12 commercial airlines, as well as close to 7,000 business aircraft, and is a factory option at major business aircraft manufacturers.

Are you generally pleased or disappointed with your in-flight connectivity? Do you feel American Airlines should have gone another direction, or do you applaud them for sticking with their previous obligation? When flying on ViaSat-provided flights, do you find the connectivity is superior to what you receive when flying on American Airlines? Email us and let us know. Please include your full name and location with your email.