Canadian aviation firm, WestJet Airlines Ltd has said that it is planning to offer Wi-Fi connectivity to passengers on its flights in an attempt to open new revenue streams including Internet shopping.

Gregg Saretsky, the chief executive officer of WestJet said that the company is in discussions with US-based ground-to-air service provider Gogo LLC as well as another company offering satellite service to offer Wi-Fi connectivity to passengers on its flights. Mr. Saretsky did not disclose the name of the satellite service provider.

“I would say before the end of the year we will have a definite agreement with one or the other of those two vendors. And the first aircraft will be equipped shortly thereafter,” Mr. Saretsky said Thursday.

Experts say that Canadian passengers are increasing expecting Wi-Fi connectivity on board and that the passengers in the US already have access to the internet on most airlines. American carriers such as American Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Inc. and a number of overseas airlines offer Wi-Fi connectivity to their customers. In Canada, Air Canada offers WiFi on flights from both Montreal and Toronto to Los Angeles in the US space but not in Canada as ground-to-air service did not exist in the country.

WestJet is aiming to offer WiFi onboard to passengers by early 2014.