Clay Lacy chooses Aircell Internet service for Part 135 fleet
Southern California charter operator Clay Lacy Aviation said it will equip its fleet of more than 60 owned and managed business jets with Aircell’s high-sp

Southern California charter operator Clay Lacy Aviation said it will equip its fleet of more than 60 owned and managed business jets with Aircell’s high-speed Internet service. System installations, which began last month and will continue through next year, represent the first fleet-wide selection of the Aircell service by a business aircraft operator. The onboard hardware for the air-to-ground service will allow passengers to use laptops, PDAs and Smartphones to access the Web and e-mail at “DSL-like” speeds of up to 3.1 megabits per second. Ed Hogan, a Clay Lacy management customer who owns two Gulfstream G450s, will be the first to receive the Aircell system. “Being fully functional with a laptop and BlackBerry turns the aircraft into a 500-plus-mile-per-hour office,” he said. As part of the installations, Clay Lacy airplanes will receive an Aircell Axxess system, ATG 4000 high-speed Internet unit and two belly-mounted antennas. List price for the equipment is around $85,000, not including installation, and the service, which is available above 10,000 feet anywhere over the continental U.S., costs around $2,000 a month.