Air Canada has just made an exciting passenger experience announcement, embracing a trend that we’re increasingly seeing among airlines.
In this post:
Air Canada’s plan to introduce free Wi-Fi
Air Canada plans to roll out fast and free Wi-Fi throughout its network for all Aeroplan members. As far as the timeline goes, this will be available on North America and Sun market routes as of May 2025, and will be expanded to long haul international flights in 2026. The service will be sponsored by Bell.
This builds on the complimentary Wi-Fi offerings that Air Canada has rolled out in the past. This includes offering free Wi-Fi in Premium Rouge since 2022, and rolling out free inflight messaging for Aeroplan members in 2023.
What’s cool is that Air Canada is even expanding the aircraft on which it will offer Wi-Fi. For example, Air Canada is installing Wi-Fi on its Q400 turboprop aircraft, which are partly based at Toronto Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ). This is clearly a competitive move against Porter, and it will be the first time we see fast and free Wi-Fi on this turboprop.
Here’s how Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s EVP of Marketing and Digital, and President of Aeroplan, describes this:
“Reliable access to streaming-quality Wi-Fi is becoming essential for both business and leisure travellers. That’s why we’re upgrading our fleet with the latest technologies. We’re excited to offer fast, free Wi-Fi to all Aeroplan members, with a customer-focused rollout plan that includes installation of service on the Air Canada Express Q400s, including those that fly from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport. Although other Canadian airlines have announced free Wi-Fi services, not all have accelerated installation across their fleets or committed to offering the service comprehensively. Air Canada plans to offer fast, free Wi-Fi across its entire fleet and will begin rolling out this service in early Spring. What’s more, over 85% of aircraft will be connected from day one, with the remaining installations being a priority throughout 2025.”
What a great passenger experience improvement!
It really is impressive to see how far inflight Wi-Fi has come over the years. At first it was exciting when airlines had it in the first place, then we saw a whole bunch of progress with the speed of inflight Wi-Fi, and now we’re seeing big improvements when it comes to cost.
An ever-increasing number of airlines are rolling out free Wi-Fi on a widespread basis, and that’s an awesome development which helps keep passengers entertained. Air Canada primarily uses Intelsat for 2Ku connectivity, which is among the better services out there (though in fairness, Starlink is raising the bar).
Now, I will say this — while I like the general trend of airlines offering free Wi-Fi, I personally (for me) prefer airlines that do charge for Wi-Fi, and have a low, fixed cost. Why? Well, I value inflight connectivity for getting work done, and unless we’re talking about Starlink, offering everyone free Wi-Fi generally slows down speeds considerably.
As much as I like Delta’s free Wi-Fi, I find the speeds to not be as good as American’s (paid) Wi-Fi, even on the same aircraft with the same service provider. But still, for a vast majority of passengers, this is good news.
Bottom line
Air Canada plans to roll out free Wi-Fi throughout its fleet for Aeroplan members. This will start in May 2025 on flights within North America and to Sun destinations, and then it will expand to long haul international flights in 2026. I’m very impressed to see this, and am delighted by the general direction of the industry when it comes to connectivity.
What do you make of Air Canada rolling out free Wi-Fi?
"I like the general trend of airlines offering free Wi-Fi, I personally (for me) prefer airlines that do charge for Wi-Fi, and have a low, fixed cost. Why? Well, I value inflight connectivity for getting work done, and unless we’re talking about Starlink, offering everyone free Wi-Fi generally slows down speeds considerably."
In other words, Wi-Fi for me, but not for thee.
Nonsense.
An unnecessarily uncharitable take.
My primary airline is Alaska, and they charge $8 for wi-fi. Most of the flying public is able to pay $8 for wi-fi. However, a lot of said public won't value wi-fi at $8, and won't connect, but they will connect to an open or semi-open network.
Also, bear in mind that once a phone is on the network, it's using bandwidth even if the owner is reading, sleeping, eating, or...
An unnecessarily uncharitable take.
My primary airline is Alaska, and they charge $8 for wi-fi. Most of the flying public is able to pay $8 for wi-fi. However, a lot of said public won't value wi-fi at $8, and won't connect, but they will connect to an open or semi-open network.
Also, bear in mind that once a phone is on the network, it's using bandwidth even if the owner is reading, sleeping, eating, or otherwise not actively using the phone.
It really is the case that requiring a small investment for a scarce resource can be a good thing in some cases, and this is one of those cases.
Once Starlink rolls around, however, I expect this value judgment will no longer be sound.