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Around 24% of airlines offer some form of Wi-Fi on board, although the speed and quality of the Wi-Fi vary hugely. So which airline should you choose to fly on if Wi-Fi is an essential factor when booking your travel?
This question is not as easy to answer as you would think. Many airlines offer excellent Wi-Fi on some planes and non whatsoever on others. Below I have outlined the main geographical regions and the best Wi-Fi enabled airlines to choose within these regions. I hope this will help you choose which airline to fly with for a decent Wi-Fi service.
Which American Airline Offers The Best Wi-Fi?
Delta Air Lines (DAL) is currently the most connected airline (as measured by Routehappy who rated available seat-miles with at least a chance of getting a wireless connection). More than 500 million of Delta’s available seat-miles are covered. Delta is closely followed by United Airlines (UAL) and then American (AAL). Virgin America (VA) is almost entirely Wi-Fi equipped with only a few Virgin America flights operating to and from Hawaii don’t have Wi-Fi yet.
Which European Airline Offers The Best Wi-Fi?
Finnair offers Wi-Fi on all its A350’s (10MB is free and an additional 600MB for $1 USD). The Oneworld member provides free connectivity to business class passengers and elite members of its frequent flyer program. Icelandair is also approaching full adoption rates.
Which Asian Airline Offers The Best Wi-Fi?
Singapore-based Scoot, a low-cost long-haul airline owned by Singapore Airlines (SINGY) offers a speedy Wi-Fi on its entire modern B787 fleet, which makes it the only carrier in the world to offer Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft.
Garuda Indonesia is another contender for best Wi-Fi on an Asian Airline, and although this airline did not have the best reputation in the 1990s, there have been massive improvements and its new B777-300ER aircraft now offers an excellent cabin product complemented by an excellent Wi-Fi service (free to first-class customers).
Nok Air is the first Asian carrier to offer free onboard Wi-Fi to all passengers. The new service debuted on two aircraft in May 2015 but has since been extended to other planes with a download bandwidth of up to 8Mbps.
Which Middle Eastern Airline Offers The Best Wi-Fi?
Emirates offers Wi-Fi on all its A380s and select B777s. Every passenger traveling on a Wi-Fi-enabled aircraft receives 10MB of data for free (an addition 600MB will cost you only $1 USD which Emirates donates to charity).
Over the past year, more airlines than ever have begun or planned for major fleet-wide rollouts, so the picture is ever-changing.
When will British Airways Offer In-Flight Wi-Fi?
British Airways will offer Wi-Fi onboard their planes in early 2017. They have chosen Gogo technology for inflight connectivity on long-haul flights. BA had been trialed long-haul Wi-Fi on a B747-400 with the Panasonic Global Communications Suite but since this trial ended, only BA’s London City service to New York has offered onboard connectivity.
The first long-haul aircraft equipped with the inflight connectivity will be a B747-400 early 2017. Four Aer Lingus B757s and up to fifteen Iberia long-haul aircraft will be fitted with the same technology later in 2017. This is in addition to the existing Iberia and Aer Lingus A330s which have Panasonic GCS connectivity.
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