In early 2023, Qantas revealed that it would introduce fast and free Wi-Fi throughout its long haul fleet. This announcement came at a time when the oneworld carrier announced more details about its upcoming Airbus A350-1000s.
I want to take an updated look at this, based on the latest developments. While Qantas was supposed to equip all international A330-200s with Wi-Fi by the end of 2024, none of the planes have Wi-Fi yet, so what’s the latest?
In this post:
Wi-Fi coming to Qantas A330s, A350s, A380s, and 787s
Qantas intends to introduce fast and free Wi-Fi throughout its long haul fleet. That’s right, we can expect Wi-Fi to eventually be installed on all Airbus A330s, Airbus A380s, Boeing 787s, and upcoming Airbus A350s.
Qantas will be partnering with Viasat on this new Wi-Fi offering. We can look forward to great speeds here, as Viasat is the same Wi-Fi provider you’ll find on American, Delta, JetBlue, etc.
Qantas is going from one extreme to the other here when it comes to Wi-Fi. Currently none of Qantas’ international wide body jets feature Wi-Fi (among wide body jets, only some domestic A330s), while eventually we’ll see fast and free Wi-Fi on all of these planes.
When will Qantas introduce fast & free Wi-Fi?
Initially the plan was for select international flights to get Wi-Fi as of March 2024, though that obviously hasn’t happened. So what’s the latest on Wi-Fi installation for the international, wide body fleet?
- Airbus A330-200s should start to get Wi-Fi installed as of some point in early 2025, as the planes go through heavy maintenance checks
- Once the A330-200s have Wi-Fi, Boeing 787s, Airbus A380s, and Airbus A330-300s, should also start to get Wi-Fi as they go through heavy maintenance checks; this should start at some point in 2025
- Airbus A350-1000s will be delivered as of 2026, and they’ll have Wi-Fi installed as soon as they enter service
As you can tell, the rollout isn’t going as planned. Wi-Fi installation on the international A330-200s has now been delayed by a year or so, and I imagine we’ll similarly see delays on other aircraft types.
This delay is reportedly due to challenges with retrofitting the equipment on aircraft, though it’s not entirely clear why this is proving so challenging, especially since the domestic A330-200s already have this technology.
Bottom line
Qantas will be introducing fast and free Viasat Wi-Fi throughout its long haul fleet, including on A330s, A350s, A380s, and 787s. Unfortunately the timeline isn’t looking so good — we’ll now start to see A330-200s receive Wi-Fi as of some point in 2025, with A330-300s, 787s, and A380s, reconfigured after that.
I suspect it’ll be at least a few years before this project is complete, so don’t expect Wi-Fi on long haul Qantas flights to be a sure thing before 2027, or maybe even 2028.
What do you make of Qantas’ plans to introduce Wi-Fi on long haul flights?
... c'mon Ben, I'm seeing a little 'QF-negativity' bias in this article.
Yes, the schedule for implementing WiFi on the QF *international* fleet is currently in flux and now, further delayed. That is definitely disappointing.
However, you provide no reason for this, despite knowing full well that the real *problem* is the current and complete lack of Viasat satellites to cater for coverage in the Southern Hemisphere. You have previously referenced this in...
... c'mon Ben, I'm seeing a little 'QF-negativity' bias in this article.
Yes, the schedule for implementing WiFi on the QF *international* fleet is currently in flux and now, further delayed. That is definitely disappointing.
However, you provide no reason for this, despite knowing full well that the real *problem* is the current and complete lack of Viasat satellites to cater for coverage in the Southern Hemisphere. You have previously referenced this in prior articles, but is not mentioned at all in the current article. That is slowly being addressed via Viasat. In reality, if you don't have adequate satellites. you can't introduce quality WiFi.
Your article leaves readers with the impression that QF is somehow negligent in providing international WiFi on what is a Viasat technical-deployment issue.
Over the past *many* years, QF has repeatedly stated that they wish to deploy the very best technical solution to the question of in-flight international WiFi on their fleet. That does NOT include 'drop-outs' or lack of coverage on some of the longest routes over water, including the South Pacific (USA, Canada and South America) and Indian (South Africa and much of Asia) oceans - which many of QF's competitors into Australian gateways suffer from.
Domestically, QF's approx 75 mainline B737-800's provide one of the world's best WiFi solutions via the proprietary SkyMuster network. QF's new A220-300 fleet is also similarly equipped. As was the B717 fleet, which is now almost retired. To make the point - QF's domestic WiFi solution offers WiFi *and* streaming to hand-held devices .. and is free and fast to all passengers (not just members of QFF - as is the case on many US domestic routes / carriers).
Further, as QF receives replacement widebody frames such as additional B787-9 and -10's, A350-1000 and A350-1000ULR's, the fate of the existing A330's could be under a cloud of replacement / retirement, depending on an environment where manufacturer's delivery schedules are unreliable or unpredictable. It makes little sense or imbues customer satisfaction to provide an A330 BNE-HKG service, with a few hours of coverage over Australia, and then to experience complete drop=out of service or having to shut it off. WiFi NPR's would drop dramatically, due to customer disappointment.
If one goes back 12 years ago to 2012, QF - being highly innovative - ran a WiFi trial for6-8 months on a specially equipped A380-800. At that time, international WiFi was not widespread. The trial was offered 'free of charge' to passengers and was initially widely embraced, despite the inevitable drop-outs. However, at that stage, QF indicated that such a program - if introduced - would be chargeable, which met with negative passenger response. Whilst this trial was discontinued, QF determined drop-outs to be unacceptable, particularly on 16-17 hour flights).
We have recently seen the introduction of SpaceEx / StarLink technology which seems to be being rapidly adopted for a lot of Northern hemisphere-based airlines. Is that the answer to WiFi across large swathes of major oceans such as the South Pacific? Technically, perhaps yes - but this is a very recent innovation. Whether this is a successful, proved alternative to Viasat is yet to be seen. Coverage, speed, cost to airlines, cost to passengers are all variables in this scenario.
It will be great for Qantas to add wifi.
I would like to try the Qantas wifi
It’s a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s great to get on these flights and not be contacted but it’s frustrating when you jump on a flight, plan to do some work and then realise that there’s no Wi-Fi. Especially with flying from Perth to the East Coast. it’s really hit and miss if you are on one of the A330’s, as a mixture of domestic and international A330s and no wifi on the international ones.
Qantas can’t afford wifi anymore because they need to pay all their court fees and employee compensation.
I just take all qantas announcements with a grain of salt. They announce things so far in advance, that it becomes trivial. They try to build hype, but just flop instead.