Turkish Airlines has just made an exciting announcement when it comes to inflight connectivity, which passengers will no doubt appreciate.
In this post:
Turkish Airlines will have unlimited free Wi-Fi
Turkish Airlines plans to offer unlimited, fast, free Wi-Fi for all passengers throughout the fleet by the end of 2025.
For context, Turkish Airlines currently offers free inflight messaging to all members of its Miles&Smiles loyalty program. On top of that, Turkish Airlines offers more extensive free Wi-Fi packages to premium passengers, as follows:
- Business class passengers who are also Miles&Smiles Elite or Elite Plus members receive unlimited free Wi-Fi
- Other business class passengers receive 1 GB of free Wi-Fi
- Miles&Smiles Elite or Elite Plus members not in business class receive 400 MB of free Wi-Fi plus free messaging
- Miles&Smiles Classic Plus members receive 250 MB of free Wi-Fi plus free messaging
So while the airline is already better than many competitors when it comes to offering some sort of free connectivity, the airline is taking it up a notch.
Currently the only global airline to offer free Wi-Fi on all flights is Singapore Airlines, as the airline offers this to all KrisFlyer members, regardless of elite status or the cabin you’re traveling in (JetBlue is also a large airline that offers unlimited free Wi-Fi, but I wouldn’t call the airline “global”). Delta is also working toward offering free Wi-Fi for all SkyMiles members, but so far this isn’t available on most long haul flights.
Turkish Airlines plans to introduce faster Wi-Fi
When it comes to airlines introducing unlimited free Wi-Fi, there are two general challenges:
- There’s the question of economics; the airline industry is low margin, so when you make Wi-Fi free, it goes from a profit center to a cost center, and that can be hard for bean counters to justify
- There’s the question of bandwidth; while unlimited free Wi-Fi for everyone sounds nice, actually getting decent bandwidth on an aircraft is easier said than done
Along those lines, in order to offer unlimited free Wi-Fi, Turkish Airlines is upgrading its inflight connectivity technology. The airline states that it will retrofit its current fleet with faster Wi-Fi, and will also install this on newly delivered aircraft. Turkish Airlines has a massive number of new planes on order.
While this is being done in partnership with TCI Aircraft Interiors and satellite provider Turksat, neither of those are global players when it comes to inflight connectivity. Turkish Airlines is reportedly currently in negotiations with international suppliers to come up with a Wi-Fi solution, so we should learn more details soon.
Given the quick timeline here (given the size of the company’s fleet), and that the airline plans to offer free Wi-Fi fleet wide by the end of 2025, it sounds to me like maybe Turkish Airlines will be partnering with Starlink on this? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough…
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines has some exciting plans when it comes to inflight connectivity. Not only is the airline upgrading inflight Wi-Fi to improve speeds, but the company will also introduce unlimited free Wi-Fi for all passengers. The plan is for free Wi-Fi to be available throughout the fleet by the end of 2025, so we should start to learn more details soon.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines rolling out unlimited free Wi-Fi?
I hope this extends to all its aircraft including short haul narrow body
What on Earth is the opening picture and what decade is it from?!?
Short haul A330s on some routes
It's a reflection that even 3 huge men can sit comfortably.
@ Chris G -- Lol. See here:
https://onemileatatime.com/reviews/turkish-airlines-business-class-a330/
Better than Lufthansa's intra-Europe business class offered on the same route. :p