Virgin Australia will restore in-flight wifi from the end of this year, with high-speed internet to be rolled out across most of the airline’s fleet over the next 18 months.
Virgin Australia previously offered wi-fi on board most of its planes before the pandemic. This service was free on domestic flights and for the first 15 minutes on trans-Tasman flights. Passengers had the option to pay to upgrade to a higher speed option on domestic flights, and to access the internet for the full flight duration on international sectors.
When it returns, Virgin’s default in-flight wi-fi will be faster and available for free to Business Class passengers as well as Platinum frequent flyers. The service will be available to all other passengers for a “nominal fee”.
Wi-fi will be gradually rolled out in partnership with Intelsat, with the first Virgin Australia Boeing 737 to be retrofitted before Christmas. The rollout will be completed by the first half of 2024.
“We are laser focussed on creating great travel experiences for our guests when they fly with Virgin Australia. We also listen to our guests, and overwhelming they told us that Wi-Fi was important to them, and so we’re really pleased to be bringing it back. Our guests value choice and having in-flight Wi-Fi will give them more flexibility on how they spend their time onboard,” Virgin Australia Group Chief Customer and Digital Officer Paul Jones said.
In a recent survey of Virgin Australia customers, 1 in 3 passengers travelling for leisure and almost half of Business Class passengers said that wi-fi was important to them when travelling.
Virgin’s main competitor, Qantas, currently offers free high-speed wifi to all passengers on most of its mainline domestic flights operated by Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A330-200 aircraft, in partnership with Viasat.
Meanwhile, Rex offers in-flight internet on some, but not all, of its Boeing 737-800s. Where available, Rex Business Class passengers can connect for free while Economy passengers have access for a fee of between $6.50 and $14.99 per flight.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Return of Wifi
