The airport authority will offer no-cost Wi-Fi in the food court (news not yet online): The rest of the airport remains a for-fee operation at $7.95 per day, operated by AT&T (formerly under AT&T Wireless, before the Cingular acquisition). The head of aviation for the city gave away the goods when he noted that connections are now 10,000 per month, double that of a year ago. A maximum of $80,000 per month in revenue for a system that surely cost millions to build and probably tens of thousands to operate each month is fairly paltry. And revenue is probably far below $80K because of roaming, in which AT&T will see quite a bit below $7.95.

Free makes sense in this equation because reducing the cost of collections and marketing reduces overall recurring operating expenses by a large factor. Increasing passenger satisfaction brings in more travelers who would then choose air over rail or car because they could get work done while waiting for flights. An addition passenger brings in several dollars (or more) of fees for the airport where their share of Wi-Fi revenue is probably substantially lower. Placing free service in the food court also increases revenue for concessionaires, which in turn produces more tax and franchise revenue for the airport.

(On a math-related front, the city's aviation chief said usage was "growing exponentially," but doubling in a year is an arithmetic progression by most definitions of both words unless it doubles again this year or doubled from the year before last.)