Since launching in 2009, GateGuru has won over nearly one million air travelers with its detailed information on the restaurants, shops and other amenities inside airport terminals. But with with its newest release, the New York-based startup hopes to establish its app as not just an in-airport guide but a comprehensive day-of-travel service.

Over the past few years, the app has added other features, including security line wait times and flight delay updates. But Dan Gellert, the company’s founder, said releasing GateGuru 3.0 is like taking the beta wraps off and launching the product they always had in mind.

“Mobile is the future of travel, but yet there was no resource to serve as an end-to-end solution for the traveler,” he said. “We wanted to change that, and by doing so, reinvent the day-of travel… from the minute you walk out your door to the minute you get to your destination.”

The new app’s car rental-booking feature, in particular, is sure to attract the attention of new travelers. Through a partnership with Avis-Budget Group, GateGuru users can now use the app to check for last-minute rentals at their destination, while they’re taxiing on the runway. If they book a car — at rates which could be 5 to 25 percent below normal prices – GateGuru gets a revenue share of the transaction. (Until now, the company has made money by licensing its airport amenity database to other travel companies.)

The Hotel Tonight-like feature gives car rental companies a way to dynamically communicate inventory levels and offer day-of discounts that they might not have been willing to give any earlier.  Although the company is starting with car rentals, Gellert said other travel supply verticals, including hotels, could be added next year.

Additionally, users can now forward their itineraries to plans@gateguruapp.com to have all of their flight information ported into the GateGuru app. Once the company has that data, it uses its proprietary matching technology to pull up all of the corresponding in-airport information.

On the day of travel, users can just open up the app to get all the relevant information they need — from terminal-specific tips about restaurants and other amenities to gate and departure updates to security line wait times. (Previously, users could integrate their Tripit or Kayak accounts with GateGuru to access their itineraries through the app, but the new itinerary feature simplifies that process.) Longtime users of the app will also notice a different, more personalized user interface, which the company said is the product of two years of tinkering.

Gellert also said that while it currently gets security wait line data from app users, it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration to access historical wait time data for predictive modeling.

Leading travel app Tripit (now owned by Concur), as well as others, also help air passengers organize their itineraries and travel plans. But in a crowded universe of travel apps, GateGuru, which has raised $1.3 million, has already established a strong brand with its database of airport amenity information. Its newest features will likely only make it more of a go-to travel companion for airline passengers.

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As of Sept. 30, Gogo is installed on 1,177 planes, representing 85 percent of the Internet-equipped commercial planes in North America. It has inked deals with nine of the ten North American airlines that provide connectivity to their passengers. Since launching in 2008, Gogo has enabled 15 million in-flight sessions to more than 4.4 million unique users.

Through the first three quarters of this year, Gogo has generated $113.8 million in revenue, an 89 percent  increase over the same period in 2010. It has also posted an operating loss of $26.5 million, down from $66.4 million from the previous year. Almost all of the planes Gogo is equipped on are on 10-year contracts, and Gogo has contracts to be installed on 525 additional aircraft.

Gogo is poised to capitalize on the growth in air travel, the increasing dependence on connectivity everywhere and the growing willingness of consumers to pay for Wi-Fi access in the skies. Gogo said only 16 percent of commercial aircraft in North American and 6 percent of commercial aircraft internationally were equipped with in-flight Wi-Fi last year. And with the increasing use of Wi-Fi enabled devices like smartphones and tablets, the demand for in-flight connectivity is only growing.

Looking ahead, Gogo plans to build out its footprint, offer more streaming content and e-commerce opportunities and upgrade its air-to-ground and satellite technology. And it plans to expand internationally, including through a partnership with Inmarsat’s Global Xpress satellite broadband service.

Risk factors include Gogo’s reliance on good relationships with healthy airlines. Currently, Delta represents 45 percent of revenue this year. The company also needs to make good on technology improvements to ensure it can stay ahead of demand. It’s already experiencing capacity constraints at times.

Gogo did not say how many shares it plans to sell or its expected price. But it’s another sign that the IPO market, while hurting, is still moving forward thanks to Groupon , Zynga and others.

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A new Qantas trial pilot program will see one of the airline’s Boeing 767-300 jets outfitted with one iPad 2 for each passenger, according to the Australian Business Traveller. Each of the aircraft’s 254 seats will have its own iPad 2, and there will also be several spares kept on hand just in case. All seats pockets will carry an iPad 2, but business-class travelers will also get a flexible stand to use with their fold-out meal tray.

The iPads won’t be tethered to seats, but they will carry a software theft deterrent of sorts: Each boots directly into and only has access to Qantas’ proprietary Q Streaming app, which provides access to its in-flight entertainment library over Wi-Fi but which is also rendered useless upon leaving the plane.

The pilot program is about testing Qantas’ in-flight Wi-Fi streaming capabilities, Qantas Executive Manager for Customer Experience Alison Webster told the ABT. The ultimate goal is to be able to provide passengers with access to the Q Streaming service through their own devices, be they Apple’s iPads and iPhones or Android tablets and handsets.

If the initial test proves a success, Qantas plans to expand it to ten Boeing 767-300 jets, complete with iPad brackets installed in seat backs. Passengers who opt to use their own devices will also have the option of downloading a video to watch within 24 hours of leaving a plane, should they land before they finish their show or movie.

With iPads in the cockpit and iPads in the cabin, the air travel industry is becoming a perfect use case of how Apple’s devices appeal to companies for both consumer-facing and internal business use. Let’s hope Qantas’ example catches on here in North America and in the rest of the world, too. That shouldn’t be too tall of an order, since Q Streaming is based on the same technology that powers Virgin America’s just-announced in-flight entertainment system.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Katy Pearce

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