Qantas Fast & Free Viasat Wi-Fi On International Flights: Delayed

Now that the little Irishman has left I would have hoped passengers would be treated better. But know. Customer service is still seen as an inconvenience and paying public are taken for granted.

... 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.