Virgin Australia to launch wi-fi

Virgin Australia may have a solution to one of the perennial problems of flying – missing the end of a movie when a flight ends - as it moves to introduce Wi-Fi on its domestic international flights from the middle of next year.

The airline is keen to avoid bandwidth-gobbling video streaming so passengers can quickly download popular functions such as email and web-surfing when it starts the new service.

One way it may do this is by bolstering the content held in on-board computer servers and allowing passengers download personalised entertainment packages.

This would allow them to watch a film or box set series and pick up a program where they left off on their return journey.

“Basically you’ve got the storage technology in aircraft that now actually allows you to hold a lot of the content so you can have anyone on a 300-seat aircraft with literally their favourite movies without them having them stream it over the satellite.’’ said John Thomas, the incoming head of the airline’s domestic and international operations.

Mr Thomas said inflight internet performed best when passengers were not using expensive satellite bandwidth to stream video. A better idea would be store the films on board and keep people’s preferences for a period of time, say 24 hours.

 “I can start watching the series on the Sydney-Melbourne in the morning and on the way back I can actually pick up where I left off in what’s in the services on the way back,’’ he said.

Virgin chief executive John Borghetti announced the decision to introduce the inflight Wi-Fi at the US launch of the airline’s new international business class in Los Angeles.

The new service will be introduced across the airline’s Being 737-800, Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft and Mr Borghetti promised it be “‘one of the world’s leading connectivity and entertainment services’’.

“We are determined to give Virgin Australia consumers the best possible connectivity and entertainment experience in the air,” Mr Borghetti said.

 “As well as providing access to email and social media, inflight Wi-Fi will improve the travel experience by providing guests with up-to-date information about connecting flights and their travel plans.’’

Australian airlines have been relatively slow to adopt inflight internet, mainly for technical and cost reasons.  Internet access on aircraft in the past has been slow and a trial of the technology by Qantas several years ago   produced a lukewarm response from passengers.

But improvements in technology and a greater desire among consumers to remain connected has made access an increasingly important differentiator among competing airlines.

Qantas is also looking at Wi-Fi and has announced it will install it on domestic flights but also has yet to announce details.

Qantas has said its service will be free while Virgin could follow the lead of other carriers and charge for access.

Virgin will have the impressive new business class suite on all five of its B777 international aircraft by September and the Virgin boss said the airline had already started a marketing campaign to convince Perth passengers to connect via its Airbus A330 services to Sydney.

The A330 service has a similar suite so well-heeled Perth passengers can enjoy the upmarket amenities through to the US and Mr Borghetti said there had already been a good response.

Virgin also revealed that it would be moving from the Tom Bradley International Terminal to the nearby facilities run by alliance partner Delta Air Lines next year. The move will allow faster and more convenient connections between the two airlines. Delta is spending almost $US2 billion renovating its T2 and T3 terminals.

Steve Creedy travelled to Los Angeles courtesy of Virgin Australia.