Air New Zealand has joined Delta, Qatar Airways, Philippine Airlines, Turkish and Scandinavian Airlines as the next major international carrier to offer free unlimited Wi-Fi onboard its aircraft. As an industry, airlines are collectively discovering that Wi-Fi is now deemed as an essential service by passengers. This move comes at a time where they are actively unbundling, and in turn charging for many other services, such as free baggage and certain meals.
This comes after a 3-month test of free Wi-Fi, whereby Air New Zealand decided to expand the experiment. However, those flying with the airline may not have immediate free Wi-Fi access. It will be available on the airline’s new Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft. But Air New Zealand said to expect the services to take through the rest of the year for installation on older aircraft.
Travel and Leisure noted that “There are several different approaches to bringing Wi-Fi to passengers. Already, JetBlue offers free Wi-Fi for passengers. Delta’s CEO made an announcement this month that the airline plans to offer free unlimited Wi-Fi to passengers within the next year or two. Southwest, Alaska, and Delta already offer free messaging (on apps like iMessage, Whatsapp and Viber) via Wi-Fi, but passengers must pay for browsing capabilities.”
Below is a list of the airlines that offer free wi-fi:
- Virgin America (all flights)
- Airtran Airways (all flights)
- Qatar Airways (all flights)
- Turkish Airlines (all flights – for frequent flyers)
- Philippine Airlines (all flights)
- Scandinavian Airlines (all flights – for frequent flyers)
- Qantas (all domestic flights)
- Aer Lingus (Free for business class)
- Alaska Airlines (Free messaging)
- American Airlines
- United Airlines (depends on aircraft)
- Southwest (Free messaging)
- Delta Airlines (Free messaging; all flights free as of 2022)
- Air Canada (all domestic flights)
- JetBlue (all flights)