SA airline wants you to ‘fly social’, offers free Facebook and Twitter

This is interesting. South African budget airline Mango is set to give passengers on its planes free access to Facebook and Twitter in-flight for the month of August.

Using the in-flight Wi-Fi provided by Wireless G, passengers will be able to get their social media fix at 30 000 feet. If you’re feeling left out because you’re desperate to get onto Google+, you’ll be able to access using the regular in-flight Wi-Fi service at half the usual cost.

According to WirelessG CEO Carel van der Merwe, the promotion is to celebrate the end of G Connect’s Beta testing on Mango flights.

“The first week of August signals the final stretch of the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi beta period. Five out of the Mango airline’s six aircraft are now enabled with the service, with the sixth scheduled to come online at the end of September.”

“Uptake of in-flight Wi-Fi has been phenomenal,” says Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout. “Approximately 8% of all Guests on enabled aircraft are online during flight at this time. This is in line with global usage benchmarks. Discounting usage as we approach the end of the beta phase as well as opening up social media at no cost should drive increased adoption of the service.”

We can’t help but wonder how many tweets will be about cramped legs or babies crying in row five.