Qantas to finally offer inflight broadband

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Dan Warne15 July 2006, 5:46 AM

A buried Flash animation on Qantas' website confirms that the airline will start offering inflight internet services on its fleet of next-generation Airbus A380 superjumbos.

Qantas has used its website to announce that it will finally offer inflight internet when it starts flying its new fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos.

A Flash animation linked from the 'business traveller' page of Qantas.com shows the services that will be available on the A380.

The page says that from mid-2007, Qantas will start operating 12 of the next-generation aircraft, and will offer "access to the internet, e-mail, SMS and telephone so you can stay in touch. You can also find out about your destination before you arrive
and catch the latest news, sport and weather."

The site also says travellers will "also be able to create individual play lists from a huge music library and shop online".

There has been speculation for some time that Apple's iTunes Music Store could easily sell music via inflight services, though there's no suggestion on Qantas' site that it is aiming to sell music in the air.

Availability of internet on Qantas flights is of particular importance to IT industry travellers, who often have to make the trip between Sydney and one of the world's key technology hubs, San Francisco.

Currently, the Australian government only allows Qantas and United Airlines to offer direct flights, neither of which currently offer in-flight internet.

However, despite Qantas' 'mid-2007' statement, it's no longer certain when the airline will get the new planes in the sky. Airbus has twice delayed delivery of the aircraft, by six months each time, the most recent delay announced only last month, with industry analysts speculating that the planes may not arrive until the end of 2007, or early 2008.

Qantas says it is considering pursuing Airbus for compensation and will need to keep some of its ageing aircraft fleet flying for longer.

Qantas was banking on flying the Airbus A380 as soon as possible as an update to its fleet before its massive consignment of the new Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" aircraft started arriving in 2008. Qantas has placed firm orders for 45 and reserved up to 115 of the 787s.

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PP:

Guys, given that Connexion was always known as 'Connexion by Boeing' do you really think that this is going to be offered on the new A380s - If/when they're ever delivered? I think you can be fairly confident that any offering on the Airbus will not be a Boeing product.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Chris Mann:

Thanks for another content free article Dan. What we all really wanted to know is whether Qantas is offering Connexion.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dan Warne:

Chris, thanks for your generous comments.

I'll see if Qantas will tell me if they are planning to use Connexion.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

DavidF:

I certainly hope that Qantas is going to use Connexion on their A380s, because my understanding is that the Airbus system is very limited in its 'live' capabilities - that there's a relatively thin and low-grade pipe for email, along with the money-making and not-at-all-revolutionary in-seat phone and SMS offerings, while their in-flight Web offering is merely a massive cache of content from selected sites, all sucked down shortly before the plane leaves the ground.

Reading between the lines of Qantas' spiel, this could certanly be the case. "Access to the internet, e-mail, SMS and telephone" is very broad, and Internet access doesn't have to mean live access as we know it. "Finding out about your destination before you arrive" could easily be cached travel, tourism and city guide sites. "Catching up with the latest news, sport and weather" could also be from an offline cache, depending on how strict one wishes to be with the definition of "live" (ask any TV station who shows those 'live delayed telecasts').

So if Qantas choose the native Airbus system, boo his to them, and may the flying kangaroo develop whatever disease that kangaroos find most bothersome (floppy tail? Arthritis in the paws?).

But if they take a more realistic and longer-term view and implement Connexion for a true "Internet at 30,000 feet" scenario, then yay team!

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Chris Crappon:

I see that everyone is qualified to talk about "The Airbus system" vs. Connexion by Boeing ? I suggest that all of you are not in the slightest, just basing your comments on Boeing propaganda and experience that you may have had using a free trial on Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines. Contrary to what has been written above, the short term solution is Connexion as it as a shared medium. What does that mean? It means that its great now because you only have 10-20 aircraft using a shared bandwidth of say 10mbit, but what happens in 3 - 5 years time when 100-200 aircraft start using it ? Do the maths, your lucky if you get dial up speeds. The Airbus alternative offers fixed bandwith so you will be always provided fixed bandwidth that is not shared regardless of Aircraft using the service. So before any of you "arm-chair pilots" comment, do some research !

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dan Warne:

PP: Connexion by Boeing can be installed into Airbus planes. Airlines make the decision about which system to install, not the manufacturer of the aircraft.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

DavidF:

PP: Despite what the admittedly confusing 'Connexion by Boeing' moniker indicates, Connexion can be fitted onto any aircraft, and that includes Airbus. It's not restricted to Boeing.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dan Warne:

Chris: couldn't Boeing just provide more bandwidth though?

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Will:

Connexion may be offering only a limited amount of bandwidth at the moment. Because it's a satellite based service, it won't be difficult to increase bandwidth.

None of the inflight services are ever going to be cheap - regardless of the other costs, satellite capacity is going to be the expensive part for a long time to come.

The Boeing service is (apparently) a very well designed system, and is quite revolutionary in its configuration.

I've flown on Singapore Airlines aircraft with Connexion (Sydney, Singapore, London) and it appears to work well from the brief look I had.

I was using a PDA with wireless that didn't support their javascript enabled signup page, but apparently they offer a limited free service for news and sports IPTV. "Proper" internet access you still need to pay for.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Buster:

This doesn't look promising for all those Internet junkies who take long distabce flights....

Service Advisory from connexionbyboeing.com

Dear Customer,

On August 17, 2006, the Boeing Company announced that after a detailed analysis of the Connexion by Boeing business, the company has decided to exit the high-speed broadband communications connectivity market. Boeing is now working with its customers to facilitate an orderly phase out of the Connexion by Boeing service. Passengers traveling on Internet-equipped flights will be able to use the service until it is phased out which will occur between now and the end of the year, depending on the airline. For the full text of the company's announcement click here.

Starting on Oct. 2nd, 2006, the in-flight Internet service will be free of charge.

Source: www.connexionbyboeing.com

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend