AMR Corporation

Un avión de la compañía American Airlines se ha estrellado esta madrugada (alrededor de las diez de la noche, hora local) en el aeropuerto internacional Norman Manley de Kingston, en Jamaica.

Al menos 40 personas han resultado heridas hoy en un accidente de un avión de American Airlines que se salió de la pista en el aterrizaje en el aeropuerto de Kingston, según ha informado un portavoz del Ministerio de Información de Jamaica.

La Comisión Europea ha acusado hoy formalmente a Iberia, British Airways y American Airlines -que pertenecen a la alianza Oneworld- de pretender restringir indebidamente la competencia en las rutas transatlánticas.

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, conmemora hoy el octavo aniversario de los atentados del 11-S, el primero desde que está en la Casa Blanca, con una comparecencia en el Pentágono, donde pronunciará una alocución y se reunirá con familiares de las víctimas en un acto de recuerdo a las 184 personas que murieron cuando el avión de American Airlines impactó contra el edificio que alberga el departamento de Defensa de EE UU.

Major airlines are scrounging for every dollar now that fewer people are flying amid the economic downturn, yet the carriers have been slow to install in-flight wireless Internet access across their fleets that could generate millions in fees.

Cost, technology and passengers' willingness to pay for the service are issues some of the carriers are dealing with. Others say it simply takes time to install the necessary equipment to allow fliers to surf the Internet and send e-mail from their laptops and PDAs from the comfort of their seats.

American Airlines is giving passengers Wi-Fi access in the sky. The airline will expand on its trial flight with Aircell, a provider of airborne communications.

American will move from the trial phase by installing Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet on 300 domestic aircraft over the next two years, the company said Tuesday.

Thousands of passengers traveling on more than a dozen of American's Boeing 767-200 airplanes have had access to the in-flight Internet service on nonstop flights between New York's JFK and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.

For all the annoyance of being crammed into an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet with a bunch of strangers, air travel has offered one benefit: the ability to tell bosses and colleagues, "I'll be on a flight, so you won't be able to reach me."

So much for that excuse.

Wireless Internet service is starting to spread among airlines in the United States: Delta and American have installed it on more than a dozen planes each, and several other carriers are planning to test it.

American Airlines says customers who call for flight information will get it faster because of speech-recognition technology that it is adding to its service for frequent travelers.

The technology is designed to save the airline money by reducing the need for employees to handle customer calls, although American spokesman Charley Wilson said the intent was to improve customer service, not cut jobs.

Today, Virgin America plans to become the latest airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi Internet, a service with a problematic past that still promises far-ranging flexibility in entertainment.

The San Francisco-based carrier has scheduled the service for one Airbus A320 aircraft, joining American Airlines as the only carriers in the world to offer full Internet access.