Qantas now offers free Wi-Fi on trans-Tasman flights, as it continues its international Wi-Fi rollout.
The airline’s Boeing 737s and Airbus A330-200s have already offered free Wi-Fi on Australian domestic routes for years. In 2023, Qantas also switched on Wi-Fi on these aircraft on selected international routes – but only while flying in Australian airspace.
Finally, about a month ago, Qantas quietly added free Wi-Fi to flights between Australia and New Zealand. The internet is free and works not only while flying over Australia, but also over the Tasman Sea. It’s a welcome addition to Qantas’ trans-Tasman offering, given rival Air New Zealand has already offered free Wi-Fi on its trans-Tasman services for years.
What to expect from Qantas’ trans-Tasman Wi-Fi
I had the opportunity to try out the Wi-Fi on a Qantas Boeing 737-800 flight from Melbourne to Auckland a few days ago. The cabin crew announced at the start of the flight that free Wi-Fi was available, and that it would drop out for a few minutes as we left the Australian coastline.
This did indeed happen. I assume the brief outage is because the network switches over from a land-based connection to a satellite-based connection at that point.
The Wi-Fi worked fairly well for most of the flight, cutting out only briefly again when we began descending towards Auckland.
I conducted a speed test while flying over the Tasman, with the results shown below:
Other AFF members have had similarly positive experiences with the Wi-Fi on Qantas flights between Australia and New Zealand in recent weeks. Here’s what some of them had to say on the Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) forum:
Was on VH-XZD as QF157 MEL-AKL last night, but not expecting the WiFi to be available for anything more than just Qantas Entertainment. Was very pleased to find that, save for some brief interruptions, internet was available for most of the flight.
Brettmcg on the AFF forum
I also had this experience on 738 VH-XZN SYD-CHC the week prior to last – functional Wi-Fi for most of the flight. No announcements or mention that the flight was Wi-Fi enabled or anything, and it worked most of the way right up to landing with a few dropouts during certain times. Was very surprised.
dylarr on the AFF forum
16 down 1 up on WLG-BNE today. (As we speak). No announcement but hinted early on that you could fill in your arrival card online as no cards had been loaded. Tried it and found it worked, hence the message.
beano on the AFF forum
Also flew TT 737. Able to connect on the ground before departure, got 10 down 1 up, after half way across I had 17-18 down and 1 up. No drop outs. Was very happy with this. I’m not sure when it switched off but it was still on well into descent and I think when we were lining up for final approach.
NZflygirl on the AFF forum
Qantas’ international Wi-Fi rollout
Qantas has also recently begun offering Wi-Fi on Airbus A330-200 flights between Australia and Asia. While this was already available while flying over Australia since 2023, it’s now available for part of the remaining journey as well. However, there are still some blackout areas with no coverage.
The airline has now also started installing Wi-Fi capability on its Airbus A330-300 fleet. VH-QPH was the first of Qantas’ 10 A330-300s to get this.
There is still no Wi-Fi on Qantas’ flagship Airbus A380 or Boeing 787 fleets, which are used for Qantas’ longest flights including Sydney-London. However, Qantas said last year that it expected to start retrofitting these fleets with Wi-Fi capability in 2025.
Qantas Executive Manager for Product and Service Phil Capps explained last year why installing internet on the A380 fleet is a bit more of a challenge.
“When we acquired the A380s it was before 2010 and the available on-air infrastructure was quite limited, so the work that’s involved in us now taking an A380 and fitting it with the latest gen Wi-Fi is considerably bigger,” Capps said.
“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. On the 787s which we acquired later, we provision the aircraft hull itself with enough infrastructure so at a later time when we wanted to put Wi-Fi in, we were on the way.”
