Avionics Update: Connexion future uncertain as airlines back out

Boeing’s planned Connexion airborne broadband data service was dealt a damaging blow last month when its three largest customers–American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines–abruptly withdrew from the project in the face of their own fiscal difficulties. As a result, Boeing is left with no equity partners in the venture and only one customer, Lufthansa, for the fledgling in-flight Internet and e-mail service. Boeing said it would now focus on the business jet market, in which it has about a dozen individual customers, while development and regulatory approvals proceed. Its plans to cut a third of Connexion’s workforce or about 200 jobs remain unchanged, said a spokesman.