Virgin America held it’s inaugural Aircell GoGo WiFi flight yesterday. The in-air Internet service has already been in place via Delta, American and Air Canada but this is Virgin’s first foray. Virgin promises 100% of their American flights will use the GoGo service by April.

Here are some stats by folks who had the pleasure of attending the sky borne event:

* The connection clocks in at 3.6Mbps downstream and 1.8Mbps upstream.
* Latency is between 200-500ms.
* The system uses 802.11a/b/g, with an open AP.
* The company blocks voice and video chat to keep things less obnoxious for your fellow man.
* BitTorrent and similar programs work.
* Virgin America will not be filtering content.

Below is a short video explaining how the system works. The future is here, finally:

American Airlines is joining other carriers like Lufthansa and Qantas, to provide its passengers with WiFi access via AirCell.

Beginning with the Boeing 767-200 aircraft, which primarily fly transcontinental route, the service is an air-to-ground network.

“We understand that broadband connectivity is important to our business customers and others who want to use their PDAs and laptops for real-time, in-flight broadband communications,” said Dan Garton, Executive Vice President – Marketing for American Airlines. “This is part of our continuing effort to take the lead in enhancing the travel experience for our customers and meet their evolving needs.”

“Travelers are already bringing their own Wi-Fi enabled devices onto planes,” said Jack Blumenstein, AirCell CEO. “Bringing broadband access onto domestic flights at an everyday, affordable price provides travelers the opportunity to recapture time. Making productive use of the time in the air will give them time back on the ground with family or just relaxing.”

The cost of this service has yet to be announced, but I will gladly give up the food for this!