Air New Zealand taps Starlink to launch high-speed in-flight free Wi-Fi

Flights across New Zealand will be some of the first in the world with high speed internet after the country’s largest airline nabbed a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Air New Zealand has landed a deal with Starlink to offer high-speed internet on domestic flights. Picture: Supplied

Domestic flights across New Zealand will be among some of the first in the world with high speed, low latency internet access after the nation’s largest airline struck a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Air New Zealand on Wednesday announced it had partnered with the company to use its lower-earth orbit satellite constellation to provide free Wi-Fi to customers on domestic flights.

A trial is set to kick off in mid next year across two classes of aircraft, the A320 and the ATR 72, which would hardware installed to access the LEO satellite constellation. The four to six-month trial is the first time Wi-Fi has been added to an ATR 72 aircraft.

Nikhil Ravishankar, Air New Zealand’s chief digital officer, said he believes the era of switching off when heading into the sky is over.

“Being in the air was one of the last places where you could completely disconnect, but that has been changing progressively over the past few years,” he said.

“Now rather than accessing a service that isn’t really meeting expectations based on what we’ve experienced on the ground, (this deal is about) really bringing that up to parity.”

Starlink Wi-Fi on-board an Air New Zealand flight.

The new service would change the way we travelled, opening up opportunities to work and collaborate in real-time in the sky as well as a number of eCommerce opportunities, Mr Ravishankar said.

“What this will enable is things like e-commerce and your ability to shop while you’re in the air,” he said.

“It opens a plethora of opportunities in my view around services you can access over the internet just as you would at home or there will be specific services, no doubt, that get built into the in-flight experience.”

The Air New Zealand deal arrives after a number of Australian telcos have landed deals with SpaceX and Starlink to use satellites to provide connectivity across the country.

Telstra was the first this year to announce it had partnered with Starlink to sell its broadband services as well as offer its own option which required the customer to purchase specific hardware.

Optus followed shortly after with a deal with SpaceX, in which users could connect directly to a satellite constellation from their handset, with no further hardware required.

Mr Ravishankar said he expected a number of changes would come in as higher speed internet became normal aboard aircraft and that the believed services like Airplay or Google Cast, which allow users to stream content to compatible devices, would be available on its own in-flight entertainment screens. Its in-flight entertainment screens are a Panasonic product.

Starlink hardware to be installed on top of Air New Zealand’s aircraft.

The problem most airlines faced with providing Wi-Fi on-board was that it typically came from higher earth orbit and was limited in capacity, Mr Ravishankar said. Inmarsat is Air New Zealand’s Wi-Fi partner on international flights.

“We’re trying to be part of a community that’s trying to solve a very specific challenge, which is increasing the size of the (internet) pipe into the aircraft. Once we solve that sort of connectivity issue, the world is your oyster,” he said.

“We think that there is no reason why, if you have access to the internet on the ground, you shouldn’t have access to the internet at 30,000 feet in the air. We see access to the internet here in New Zealand as a human right, frankly.”

While internet access to social media and streaming services should work without issue, passengers will not be able to make calls or use video call functions for safety reasons, Mr Ravishankar said.

Starlink vice president Jason Fritch added: “We’re proud to work with Air New Zealand to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet to their aircraft and extend this game-changing in-flight connectivity experience to more passengers around the world.”

Originally published as Air New Zealand taps Starlink to launch high-speed in-flight free Wi-Fi