Aircell began in 1991 in a barbecue joint in
Denison, Texas, where company founder Jimmy Ray sketched his idea for an affordable telephone system for private airplanes on a paper napkin. Through a partnership with cellular providers, Aircell began providing analog-based voice communications on private aircraft in North America. In 1998, Aircell received an FCC waiver granting it authority to operate its analog network. In 2002, Aircell began offering Iridium satellite for global voice and narrowband data service. On September 13, 2007,
Virgin America partnered with Aircell to add broadband capabilities to their flights. On January 22, 2008, American Airlines completed the first aircraft installation of the Aircell Internet broadband connection at American's
Kansas City maintenance base. On February 29, 2008, Aircell unveiled the product name as
Gogo Inflight Internet. On August 5, 2008,
Delta Air Lines announced it was installing Aircell's Gogo Inflight system on all of its airplanes over the subsequent year. Delta later decided to filter pornographic content on its flights after customer and employee responses. Delta now operates Gogo on all of its mainline and two-cabin regional aircraft, On August 20, 2008, Gogo went live on American Airlines. On May 12, 2009,
AirTran Airways announced it would install Aircell's Gogo Inflight System on all of its airplanes by late July 2009. In June 2011, Aircell became a division of Gogo as part of a re-branding effort. On February 24, 2010
Alaska Airlines announced it would install Aircell's Gogo Inflight system on all of its airplanes. October 2012, Aircell is awarded Dristribution Partner status by Inmarsat for its SwiftBroadband L-Band service On April 15, 2013 Aircell completed its acquisition of
Airfone from
LiveTV. The original
Airfone service was shut down on December 31, 2013. On September 2, 2014, Aircell was officially rebranded as Gogo Business Aviation. In December 2024, SmartSky Networks initiated an antitrust lawsuit against Gogo Business Aviation == Products ==