Wi-Fly

Far fetched? Hardly. The above scenario has long been the reality, with carriers in Europe, North America and Asia turning on inflight internet Wi-Fi in ever increasing numbers.

Just not in Australia. Until now.

Qantas and Virgin Australia flicked the switch on their Wi-Fi offerings in April, with the service initially offered on one aircraft each operating on domestic routes.

Virgin Australia group executive for airlines John Thomas said having the internet onboard will transform the customer experience.

“I shouldn’t say this, but flying is sort of dead time for a lot of people so how can we actually use that dead time to make it more productive for people,” Thomas told reporters when launching Virgin’s inflight internet Wi-Fi offering on March 31.

Thomas, who for many years led consulting firm LEK’s aviation and travel business and was based in the US before relocating to Australia in September 2016 to run Virgin’s airline operations, also talked up the commercial opportunities for airlines, given the captive audience on board the aircraft.

“We are already talking to a number of companies in the Australian context of how we could wow people on a Melbourne to Sydney flight,” he said.

“Could I actually get on board an aircraft in Melbourne thinking I need a new credit card? How can I actually get off the aircraft and actually go to the wine shop downstairs and actually use this brand new credit card that I have just been approved for in the space of 20 minutes?” Thomas was also hopeful connectivity would pave the way towards the introduction of a duty free offering on Virgin flights.

“We currently operate some fantastic international services but we don’t have duty free on board,” Thomas said.

“Duty free is always questionable for a lot of airlines. You’ve got all that weight on the aircraft. By bringing connectivity to our international fleet, we could have virtual duty free where people pick up their duty free products when they arrive at the airport.

“All of a sudden you go from 100 products that are available from an inflight duty free opportunity to a thousand products that people can buy and then pick up when they arrive at the airport. ”

Qantas first to turn on inflight internet Wi-Fi in Australia

While the future is here, no more than a handful of passengers will be connected for the next few months given Virgin and Qantas are still in the midst of passenger trials on a single aircraft.

Qantas debuted its first – and indeed Australia’s first – Wi-Fi connected aircraft on April 7 when Boeing 737-800 VH-XZB conducted a demonstration flight for media, representatives from providers ViaSat and nbn, airline staff and invited guests including the co-creator of Wi-Fi Dr Terry Percival from the CSIRO.

The flight took off from Sydney a little before 1100 and flew along the New South Wales coast before turning towards Albury near the Victorian border and returning to Mascot for landing at about 1240.

Wi-Fi was available from the moment the doors were closed. The connection Australian Aviation experienced was a little sluggish as the aircraft took off and climbed through the clouds.

However, once at the cruising altitude of 38,000ft, those on board experienced a solid connection that enabled streaming from Foxtel, Netflix and YouTube, as well as posting on social media and downloading emails. It was understood a software upgrade being developed ahead of the full deployment would improve the connection during climb and descent.

In addition to all the entertainment options, Qantas’s welcome screen gave passengers suggestions about what to do at their destination, how to travel from the airport and where to stay.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline was keen to present information to passengers in a way that “knows who I am, knows what I like and makes it easier for me to pick things I am interested in, whether that is content or whether that is services,” Joyce explained to Australian Aviation on board the Wi-Fi demonstration flight.

“If there are ways of working with partners, and we have certain partners on our website we promote like car hire and hotels, and if we can do that on board the aircraft and work with them to improve their performance but also get commission for ourselves then that’s a win-win for us and our customers,” Joyce said.

“We can commercialise some of these things ourselves, to give customers something that they may want. It’s not forcing things on people, it’s actually giving people more information and more data.

“That will be part of what we will do with these services. ” The first commercial passenger flight was QF469, which departed Sydney at 16:15 that Friday and arrived in Melbourne 90 minutes later. The aircraft has been used almost exclusively on the Sydney-Melbourne route since the Wi-Fi was turned on. Qantas estimates about 15,000 passengers a month would be given the opportunity to get online during the trial phase.

Connectivity on the domestic fleet is provided by ViaSat and uses nbn’s Sky Muster satellites on the Ka band. Qantas at this stage has committed to rolling out Wi-Fi technology on its domestic 737-800s and Airbus A330-200s (80 aircraft in total) following the trial period. The rollout is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The fit-out of the ViaSat-supplied equipment would be conducted at Qantas’s Brisbane engineering facility.

It is working through details for international operations.

“We want to have a similar experience to domestic and satellite coverage is the issue. There are more satellites coming that will cover it,” Joyce said.

ViaSat vice president and general manager of commercial mobility Don Buchman said in a statement: “We’re building Qantas a mobility service platform to scale, ensuring passengers, cabin crew members and pilots onboard, as well as flight and operational crew members on the ground have the opportunity to access a fast, high-quality internet connection.

“As we prepare to launch the official inflight Wi-Fi production system, we will continue to test the trial aircraft and fine-tune the network with the goal to continually enhance the end-user experience. ” Virgin has also chosen satellites for its onboard Wi-Fi offering. However, the airline has gone for a different technology, partnering with Gogo and utilising Optus’s Ku-band satellites for domestic and New Zealand flights, with Intelsat and SES for its other international flights. The initial three-month trial will be on 737-800 VH-YIG and was due to commence in mid- April.

While Qantas touts the increased bandwidth of the Ka-band satellites providing the connectivity, Virgin says it was drawn to Gogo and 2Ku’s proven track record.

(The 2Ku technology features a dual antenna – one for the forward link that transmits data to the aircraft and the second for the return link that receives data. ) Thomas said Virgin had chosen what it thought would be the best solution for its passengers.

“We went through a very rigorous program over the last six months of actually saying what is all the technology out there given how we believe this will be used with our customers, what solution gives us the most reliable, the most prudent technology,” he said.

“Our decision-making process was very much around let’s not get carried away by speed and all of that. This was all about we want to give our customers the most reliable proven technology. ” Gogo said in early March about 3,000 commercial aircraft and 4,200 business jets were fitted with its internet connectivity technology. Further, about 130 of the 3,000 commercial aircraft had Gogo’s 2Ku technology that leveraged its global satellite network.

“2Ku delivers a ground-like performance to aircraft flying around the world today, including the ability to stream video,” Gogo chief executive Michael Small said in a statement.

“Importantly, 2Ku is built on an open architecture and can leverage new technology advancements in the future, which means the technology can provide passengers with a superior connectivity experience now and in the future. ” Thomas said the rollout of the hardware on its 737-800, 777-300ER and A330-200 fleets would take about 12 months. Work on the 737-800s would be done in-house at Virgin’s engineering facilities.

It is understood ViaSat, as a wholesale customer of nbn, is free to offer its inflight internet connectivity technology to any airline customer as there was no exclusivity with Qantas.

Air New Zealand said in October 2016 its international and domestic jet fleet would be progressively equipped with Wi-Fi utilising the Inmarsat new global GX satellite constellation. Trials are scheduled for the second half of 2017 on a new A321neo and a refitted 777-300ER.

IFE has a future

The introduction of inflight internet Wi-Fi in Australia also places the future of the inflight entertainment system (IFE) under the spotlight.

Qantas and Virgin have partnered with content providers to offer streaming entertainment from the likes of Netflix and Stan (available on both carriers) and others.

So could IFE’s days be numbered? Not in the short to medium term, Joyce said, pointing to Qantas’s investment in seatback screens on its Boeing 787-9s due for delivery from October 2017.

“We’re not backing off on IFE. We think that’s still important,” Joyce said.

“But certainly in the longer term, when the Wi-Fi is there domestically, regionally, internationally and people have access to their own content there will be less reliance on the inflight entertainment we have.

“That will be something that may change well after I retire. ” In a potential combination of IFE and inflight internet Wi-Fi, Panasonic in October 2016 launched its ZeroTouch Service, which would allow airlines to update content stored on board the aircraft via Wi-Fi at the airport gate, over a cellular network or through inflight connectivity. Currently, airlines load IFE content to the aircraft servers in person.

“Applications such as movies, games, advertising, live news, and more will be automatically loaded at any time, over any available communications pipe to an entire fleet,” Panasonic said in a statement at the time.

ZeroTouch also had applications in system health monitoring and aircraft maintenance, with critical operational data able to be downloaded during flight. This would allow maintenance teams to be more quickly notified of upcoming tasks and make preparations while the aircraft was en route to its destination.

The product is currently in a trial phase. Panasonic says full commercial availability, including content, media and software loading as well as operational data offloading, was “expected to immediately follow the Q3 2017 trial”.

Connectivity brings operational benefits

During its pre-launch testing phase, Qantas also investigated the operational benefits of having a connected aircraft, particularly with regards to en route weather information, passenger disruption management in the event of delays, implications for maintenance and medical situations.

Qantas Boeing 737 technical pilot Captain Nigel Rosser, who was part of the flightcrew that conducted the trial flights on VH-XZB, said the additional weather data provided increased situational awareness.

“We will be able to watch it from above as opposed to just watching it out of our current aircraft radars,” Captain Rosser explained to Australian Aviation.

“I can actually be looking at meteorological information for my arrival route into, by way of example Hamilton Island during Tropical Cyclone Debbie. I get to make these decisions many hours out. Currently, I am limited to the last 300 miles of what I can see. ” Also, Captain Rosser said there was the prospect of reduced fuel burn thanks to more real-time monitoring of up to 1,000 parameters during the flight.

“We will be able to build applications that can interrogate that data,” Captain Rosser said.

“It will be things as simple as a little bit more rudder trim to save 15kg of fuel.

“It’s got huge potential to save a lot of fuel. We are very excited about it. ” As far as the impact of the radome located to the rear of the fuselage just in front of the tail, Captain Rosser said it has made little difference to the flying of the aircraft.

“It’s very minor,” Captain Rosser said.

“It is sitting right back in the aerodynamic shadow. We monitor all fuel burn for every aircraft and for this one we are talking about 0. 3 per cent of an increase, so it is very small for the potential savings. ” Qantas also trialled a device able to scan the heart condition of someone experiencing chest pains. That scan was sent to a medical officer on the ground, who would assess the data to determine if the aircraft should divert or was able to continue on to its original destination. And cabin crew would be able to organise new flights and give passengers those details prior to landing in the event of a delay.

Qantas engineers also anticipate being able to receive data generated by the aircraft en route that would allow ground crews to begin work on any issues that pop up before the flight landed at its destination.

“Our engineers can closely monitor the technical performance of the aircraft in real time and be ready if something needs attention,” the airline has said previously.

“If they detect a replacement part is needed (like, a new fuel filter) they’ll get a head start on making sure it’s available when the aircraft lands. ”