Tech issue delaying long-awaited rollout of Wi-Fi on Qantas international flights

A technical issue has pushed the rollout of Wi-Fi on the embattled national carrier’s international flights into 2025.

Qantas won’t offer free high-speed Wi-Fi on international routes until next year.

Qantas passengers will have to wait a bit longer for the long-awaited rollout of high speed Wi-Fi on international flights, with connection now expected to happen next year.

Although the airline has had free high-speed Wi-Fi on its domestic fleet for more than seven years, it’s become one of the last premium carriers to offer the service on international flights.

Qantas has previously defended the delay, saying it wanted to be sure of a similar quality connection to that provided on domestic flights before rolling out the technology.

However, other airlines, including Qatar Airways, are already offering internet speeds in-flight capable of supporting video calls and streaming services, at no extra cost to passengers.

Qantas had promised to begin switching on Wi-Fi across its international fleet by the end of 2024, but with just a few days of the year remaining, it is now expected to happen from late January.

It’s understood a technical issue is to blame for the hold up, related to provider Viasat.

The global broadband company is partnering with Qantas on the project, fitting the latest Viasat antenna to A330-200 aircraft, which mostly operate medium-haul routes to southeast Asia.

Once all 16 A330-3200s are connected, work will begin on installing the antennae on other widebody aircraft, including A330-300s, Boeing 787-9s and A380s.

New A350-1000s on order from Airbus to fly ultra-long-range Project Sunrise routes for Qantas will come fitted with Wi-Fi capability.

A Qantas 737 being fitted with hardware for high speed Wi-Fi in 2017.

Qantas executive manager of produce and service Phil Capps has previously said retro-fitting Wi-Fi to aircraft was a “fairly complex job”.

A380s posed the biggest challenge because of their size, and the fact they were not fitted with on-air infrastructure during the manufacturing process.

“You have to essentially put a hole in the roof of the aircraft to install the radome and antenna to create that Wi-Fi environment,” Mr Capps said in April.

Although most of Qantas’ competitors offer Wi-Fi on international services, often at a price, there are a few exceptions.

South Korean low cost carrier T’Way Air has no Wi-Fi or in-flight entertainment, leaving passengers to pass the time the old-fashioned way on 10-hour services from Seoul to Sydney.

South American airline LATAM is also a late adopter, with Wi-Fi limited to its flights within Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

At the other end of the scale, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways have become the first to connect to Elon Musk’s StarLink network, with Air France and United set to follow in 2025.

StarLink’s constellation of over 7000 satellites in low-earth orbit allows connectivity from remote locations, including trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights.

The strength of the connection allows for high speed internet access across every cabin, with Qatar and Hawaiian offering the service free of charge.

The network was considered superior to Viasat, which had relatively few satellites in orbit, causing longer time delays.

As well as Qantas’ planned rolled out of Viasat technology, Delta and American Airlines used the provider.

Originally published as Tech issue delaying long-awaited rollout of Wi-Fi on Qantas international flights