Passengers on JetBlue Airways Flight 641 from New York JFK to San Francisco Tuesday morning will be the first to have access to the carrier’s new inflight Internet service, which will allow customers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops or one of two BlackBerry models to log on to Yahoo! Mail and Messenger or their personal e-mail accounts (via PDA).

JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV paid $7 million for a 1-MHz block of former Verizon Airfone wireless spectrum auctioned off by the US Federal Communications Commission last year. The size of that spectrum will not allow passengers full access to the World Wide Web or e-mail attachments, but it is large enough to handle the limited capabilities that will feature on Tuesday’s flight. The A320, which joined the fleet this year and has been renamed for the BetaBlue product, will have three Wi-Fi access points installed behind the ceiling panels and an onboard server. A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline that the installation is a “lightweight version of what’s needed” and does not include any heavy equipment that might be difficult to install or increase fuel burn.

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