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.
At the time, the airline was light on details, while we now have more information about what we can expect regarding the rollout schedule of inflight connectivity.
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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 (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?
We can expect Qantas to (slowly) start introducing free Wi-Fi this year, and we now have a more concrete timeline:
- Airbus A330-200s will get Wi-Fi installed as they go through heavy maintenance checks; the first aircraft should get Wi-Fi as of March 2024, while all A330-200s should get Wi-Fi by the end of 2024
- Boeing 787s, Airbus A380s, and Airbus A330-300s, will start to get Wi-Fi as of 2025, as they go through heavy maintenance checks
- Airbus A350-1000s will be delivered as of 2025, and they’ll have Wi-Fi installed as soon as they enter service
As you can see, we’re just months from the first Qantas international wide body jet having Wi-Fi. While the entire A330-200 fleet will get Wi-Fi pretty quickly, we’ll have to be patient when it comes to the rest of the fleet.
Bottom line
Qantas will be introducing fast and free Viasat Wi-Fi throughout its long haul fleet, including on A330s, A350s, A380s, and 787s. We can expect all A330-200s to feature Wi-Fi before the end of 2024, which is exciting. Unfortunately we’ll have to be more patient for the rest of the fleet, which will only start to see Wi-Fi installed as of 2025, and there’s no timeline for that project being complete.
What do you make of Qantas’ plans to introduce Wi-Fi on long haul flights?
Qantas gets a lot of criticism, often rightly, but one area where it is a global leader is wifi on domestic flights. It's fast, free, and has enough bandwith for an entire plane to stream videos during the flight.
It'll be interesting to see if they can replicate this internationally. The domestic wifi relies on the NBN satellite, which only really works well over Australia.
I've been clamoring for this like I'm sure a lot of readers have, but a speed test screenshot would really be a big help in your reports!
Ben, the refits are scheduled to commence from March but the APAC Viasat 3 launch isn't scheduled until late 2024 and they still have yet to announce which company will be launching it as the previous provider is no longer able to carry it (Ariane 6). It looks like a number of planes will be ready to switch on once the final Viasat satellite is launched but I wouldn't be surprised if this slips into...
Ben, the refits are scheduled to commence from March but the APAC Viasat 3 launch isn't scheduled until late 2024 and they still have yet to announce which company will be launching it as the previous provider is no longer able to carry it (Ariane 6). It looks like a number of planes will be ready to switch on once the final Viasat satellite is launched but I wouldn't be surprised if this slips into 2025 unfortunately. As an aside the Project Sunrise flights have also slipped to mid-2026 due to supply constraints. Disappointing but not surprising given all the problems manufacturers are having right now.
Now, I might be wrong here but most, if not all, of the A330-200s already have WiFi onboard as they are also used for domestic flying. All they’re really doing is activating the WiFi capability in international airspace, rather than restricting it to Australialian airspace. For example, the A330s that run between Perth and Singapore are almost always A330-200s and the crew turns on the WiFi for pax until they leave the coverage of the...
Now, I might be wrong here but most, if not all, of the A330-200s already have WiFi onboard as they are also used for domestic flying. All they’re really doing is activating the WiFi capability in international airspace, rather than restricting it to Australialian airspace. For example, the A330s that run between Perth and Singapore are almost always A330-200s and the crew turns on the WiFi for pax until they leave the coverage of the Australian mainland. Some of this announcement sounds like the Qantas spin machine has been involved.
Only the 200D domestic config has wifi. It’s only works over Australia. The 200L international ( 2 toilets in J ) does not currently have wifi.
The domestic Wifi capability is from NBN Skymuster satellites which is a part of the huge broadband rollout across Australia that happened 10+ years ago. I am not sure if this is interoperable with Viasat's technology. Would be great if it was, but the tech is now nearly 9 years old as it launched in Oct 2015.