During its half-year financial results presentation today, Qantas has announced plans to bring forward the rollout of international Wi-Fi with availability on some aircraft and routes from late 2024.
One of the most common complaints about flying with Qantas internationally is the lack of Wi-Fi. Qantas has long maintained that it wouldn’t add international Wi-Fi support until it could support high-bandwidth applications, and only added Wi-Fi for domestic flights in 2017.
This is set to change soon however, with Qantas to offer fast, free Wi-Fi from late 2024 on selected aircraft and routes - starting with South-East Asia.
Qantas says it’ll begin installing Wi-Fi during routine heavy maintenance on international aircraft from March on the group’s Airbus A330-200LR aircraft. Qantas’ Boeing 787 and Airbus A330-300 and A380 fleets will progressively receive Wi-Fi support from 2025.
The eight Qantas A330s currently fly on select international routes including:
Asia
New Zealand
Hawaii
Qantas says that it expects all eight A330s to have Wi-Fi support by the end of the year but that it’ll only be available on its Asian routes initially due to the launch of a new Viasat satellite covering South East Asia.
Viasat will provide the satellite technology for Qantas’ international Wi-Fi service. Qantas’ domestic Wi-Fi service - which the airline says sometimes reaches up to 100% uptake on some flights - will continue to be powered by the nbn’s Sky Muster satellite service.
Additionally, Qantas’ new A350 and B787 fleets will support Wi-Fi when delivered from 2026.
Today’s news comes as the company rolls out a suite of changes to improve its brand in Australia, including a double status credits or points promotion, triple Qantas points for hotel bookings and promising changes to its frequent flyer program later this year.