Qantas and The Australian ink landmark digital deal

The airline’s customers will soon have free access to The Australian’s digital products while in the airline’s lounges and on-board its domestic flights.

A reader looks uses his Apple iPad to download an electronic version of The Australian newspaper.

Qantas customers will soon have free access to The Australian’s digital products while in the airline’s lounges and on-board its domestic flights, in a landmark deal between News Corp and the nation’s largest carrier.

With the numbers of domestic travellers surging back towards pre-Covid levels, Qantas customers will from August 1 be able to read The Australian on their personal devices with full access to the masthead’s breaking news, expert analysis and commentary, as well as the nation’s best sportswriting and arts coverage.

The airline is transitioning away from the practice of providing customers with hard copies of newspapers in Qantas lounges and at departure gates — a deal which ceased in March 2020, when the pandemic hit.

The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Christopher Dore, said: “As our freedom to travel returns to normal following the pandemic disruption, The Australian is pleased to partner with the nation’s biggest airline to offer passengers access to the country’s best journalism.”

In a similar deal to the partnership between Qantas and News Corp, publisher of The Australian, the airline’s passengers will also have digital access to The Australian Financial Review in the carrier’s lounges and on domestic flights.

Qantas is also expected to sign a deal with the ABC to screen the national broadcaster’s news bulletins on domestic flights, which is likely to start from July 1.

The ABC will replace Sky News Australia as Qantas’ on-board TV news service.

Sky News Australia will continue to offer news services to travellers through a number of other commercial partnerships, such as on-board cruise ships.

Qantas is also understood to be in negotiations with a major streaming platform to offer on-board entertainment services to passengers.