AirTran Airways has unveiled plans to equip all of its jets with Wi-Fi access, in a bid to steal a march over rivals in the battle for passengers.

The Orland-based carrier will introduce full inflight internet service across its entire fleet of Boeing 737 and 717 aircraft. All its 136 jets will provide access to internet via Gogo Inflight Internet service, which will be available for a fee based on the length of flight, according to airline.

Internet access on board its planes will cost $9.95 for flights under three hours, $12.95 for flights longer than that and $7.95 for Blackberry/iPhone access.

Delta Air Lines Inc reported Monday that it has completed its project to outfit Gogo Inflight Internet aboard its domestic mainline fleet. The airline charges from $7.95-$12.95 for Wi-Fi access aboard its planes.

Delta is the second busiest carrier at Tampa International Airport, while AirTran ranks in the bottom third in terms of market share among TIA's 25 carriers.

The airline industry has been working on integrating the technology aboard fights with varying degrees of implementation, but AirTran hopes to beat the rest in the race to offer the service on all its flights.

AirTran partnered with Aircell to equip its planes at the rate of two planes a night with wireless broadband access, but kept it under wraps until it was confident in its ability to meet the mid-summer deadline according to AirTran senior vice president Kevin P Healy.

Delta operates more than 300 planes on US routes of which, 139 now have Gogo Inflight Internet, including Delta's entire MD-88 fleet. The MD 90 fleet will be complete by the end of May with the rest of the fleet to be completed by September. 

Delta says it offers more Wi-Fi onboard than any other airline. Its installation plans also cover some 200 pre-merger Northwest airplanes which will be completed next year. With the completion, Delta will have more than 500 aircraft offering Wi-Fi.

Issues that carriers have to deal with as they try to make the service more widely available on their flights include cost, technology and passengers' willingness to pay.

Some airlines point out that it simply takes time to install the necessary equipment to enable passengers to surf the net and send mails from their laptops and PDA from the comfort of their seat thousands of feet above terra firma.

Thus far, only Virgin America has come close to equipping its entire fleet with Wi-Fi; 24 of its 28 planes have the service with the entire fleet scheduled for 25 May. The company identifies its wifi-enabled flights with Aircell sign next to its flight schedule.

United plans to install Gogo in its premium services on transcontinental flights on the New York-California route by mid-2009 while Air Canada signed a deal last September to offer Gogo on trans-border flights.