Australian carrier Qantas says it will have wi-fi on two domestic Airbus A330s and half its Boeing 737 fleet by the end of June.
The airline is about to throw the switch on its first wi-fi equipped A330, VH-EBB, after adding about a kilometre of wiring and a Viasat antenna. The A330s are particularly popular on longer routes such as Sydney-Perth.
The first A330 is undergoing a series of tests on the ground and inflight as part of the certification process.
The airline plans to have 75 percent of its combined domestic 737 and A330 fleet of 80 aircraft fitted with wi-fi by the end of 2018 with the rest to be finished during 2019.
It estimates this will give in-flight access to about 15 million people a year. Qantas does not charge extra for domestic internet access.
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“The vast majority of passengers connected to wi-fi are using it to browse the web, send emails and post on social media,’’ the airline said in an online post.
“Connection speeds are routinely up around 12 Mbps, which is more than enough to stream the latest movies and TV shows.
“Of those surfing the web inflight, we’ve seen an increase in customers making travel bookings and shopping online.“
New digital games such as Crossword, Sudoku and Trivia are proving popular with customers and Qantas say they an average of 10 minutes playing each one.
It has also recently partnered with Audible and Apple Music to give customers on all flights free access to audiobooks and millions of songs.
Rival Virgin Australia is also equipping its domestic planes with wi-fi and hopes to have the majority of its Boeing 737 fleet complete by the end of the year.
Virgin uses a different system to Qantas and charges $A8.99 per journey for the high-speed option on domestic flights.
It also recently activated wi-fi on its international services, where it charges $A9 for one hour of access and $A20 for an entire one-way trip on services between Australia and Los Angeles.
Neither airline allows voice calls on services such as Skype or Face Time.
