Garuda Indonesia is now serving up sky-high Internet access plus live TV on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with Australian travellers able to enjoy the service when the big bird begins flying on the Sydney-Jakarta route in the middle of next year.
The state-of-the-art satellite system from Panasonic provides wifi Internet throughout the plane, free to first class passengers but charged at US$22 for 24 hours or US$12 for 1 hour to travellers in the business and economy cabins.
It's a clever pricing structure – almost nobody will pay US$12 for a single hour when less than twice that will cover them for the full duration of the trip, even if the Boeing 777-300ER currently can't fly from Sydney to London via Jakarta.
That 24 hour pass will also be a boon for some channel surfing through Garuda's selection of live TV feeds from CNN International, BBC World, BBC Arabic, NHK World Premium, Euronews and CNBC.
Garuda plans to "gradually introduce" the inflight Internet and TV service across its A330 fleet "for domestic and international routes including Australia."
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter – we're @AusBT
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 Oct 2013
Total posts 93
Actually, I'm not really interested in the internet access that they're offering - although connectivity is always awesome to have - it's the Live TV offering that I'm enthralled about! I've always thought the news offerings on IFEs were pitiful for domestic airlines - let alone international, although that's more understandable - but having a decent live stream with a good mix of channels is wonderful to hear. Inflight internet bandwidth has never been enough for channel streaming.
Never really gave Garuda much attention or enthusiasm, most notably because their safety record in the past decade, but seriously, kudos for the innovation, GA!
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1245
Kudos indeed to GA for their continued efforts at improving themselves. Definitely a far cry from years past.
03 Oct 2013
Total posts 3
Etihad wifly had a similar "clever" pricing structure, Something like $12 for 1 hour or $24 for 24hr so everyone naturally buys the 24 hour bundle (of course BNE-SIN-AUH you got your money's worth for sure). Live TV is definately an interesting offering, although I do wonder how it will fare with the occasional periods of lossed connectivity/out of range. Wouldn't this then mean when it comes back into range either a) it's no longer live, or b) you have missed 15mins?
UA Star Gold
23 Oct 2013
Total posts 1
How is the "free for fist class" done? Do they hand out some kind of voucher? If it is a code that must be entered, how long is it? Or does one log into Garuda frequent flyer program to verify your first class reservation?
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Garuda flicks the switch on inflight Internet, live TV