Qantas to provide inflight WiFi for domestic customers

Apr 14, 2017: Qantas will provide inflight Wi-Fi for customers travelling on board its internet capable Boeing 737-800, offering fast, free connectivity on Australian domestic flights. Following months of performance testing Wi-Fi will now operate in beta mode on a single Boeing 737 aircraft.

Testing is expected to be complete by mid-year, and from there installation of the technology is expected to begin on Qantas’ domestic fleet of Airbus 330s and Boeing 737s. The roll-out across 80 aircraft will be completed at the end of 2018.

The Qantas system offers speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional on-board Wi-Fi and gives customers the ability to stream movies, TV shows, music and news programs including through content partnerships with Foxtel, Stan, Netflix and Spotify. However, voice calls will not be allowed.

Alan Joyce, CEO, Qantas Group, said, “The technology we’re using on-board this 737 is a generation ahead of what most airlines around the world have and there’s a fair amount of complexity involved. That’s why we’ve installed it on one aircraft for the first few months until we’ve finished fine tuning and are ready to roll out to the rest of the domestic fleet.”

“On flights between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, where we have a lot of business travellers, we expect the system to get a real work out with email and web browsing. We also know customers want downtime, which is why we’ve partnered with streaming services like Foxtel and Stan so there’s no shortage of things to help people tune out.”

In addition to the benefits for customers, Wi-Fi will also provide Qantas pilots and cabin crew with real-time information that will improve efficiency and the passenger experience. Pilots will be able to access detailed live weather, which will help them steer clear of turbulence as well as making better use of tailwinds to reduce flying time. Cabin crew will have more options to better manage customers’ onward journeys while still in the air.

Up to 15,000 Qantas customers per month will experience in-flight Wi-Fi during the initial beta period, increasing to around 15 million per year once the rollout to 80 domestic aircraft is complete.