Free WiFi on Qantas flights to Asia

Qantas passengers on some flights to Asia this week will enjoy free satellite WiFi as the airline's international satellite system is activated.

First to come online will be the Airbus A330 jets which mainly fly into South-East Asia – including Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali, Jakarta and Manila.

Boeing 737s darting across the Tasman to New Zealand will be switched on in the middle of the year.

Qantas is expanding its free WiFi service to international routes.

Qantas is racing to catch up to the many competitors which already permit overseas travellers to remain connected above the clouds.

Most of Qantas' domestic fleet – including Boeing 737s, Airbus A220s and A330s  – is already equipped for the Australias NBN Sky Muster satellite network, with a nation-wide coverage footprint.

So whenever those planes are assigned to international routes the Sky Muster system provides WiFi only while the aircraft are over Australia; once your flight leaves the Australian coastline behind, you can wave goodbye to WiFi.

The footprint of the SkyMuster satellite which powers Qantas WiFi.

Qantas is now in the process of upgrading this sky-high WiFi service through its partner Viasat, to tap into what Viasat describes as “capacity from various owned and partner satellites in the region.”

The upgraded aircraft automatically switch between the Sky Muster anbd Viasat networks as they move from the coverage of one to the other.

This serves as a stop-gap measure until the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite comes online in early 2026, completing a global constellation which is already delivering upwards of 100Mbps to individual passengers on the initial Americas-focussed F1 bird – and “we are anticipating even better performance with F2 and F3,” the company says.  

The ViaSat-3 trio will provide global coverage at ultra-high speeds.

Once the Viasat kit has been installed and activated across the international A330, the Qantas 787s will follow from the start of 2026, followed by the A380 superjumbos.

In addition, the nimble Airbus A220s already work with Australian NBN and international Viasat satellites, switching between networks depending where the aircraft is flying – which will be put to the test when the A220 begins flying to Singapore in October 2025.

The Airbus A350s intended for non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York will come with ViaSat-3 tech already installed; the same will apply to the A350s and 787s replacing the aging A330s from 2027-2028.

The Qantas A220s already work with domestic and international satellites.

Viasat exec Don Buchman says Qantas’ international WiFi on the “ultra-high-capacity” ViaSat-3 network will match the domestic service for “the digital experiences it can provide, from live TV and sports to social media and streaming.”

However, Qantas is definitely playing catch-up to the raft of airlines offering free WiFi – most notably Qatar Airways, which by mid-2025 will have all its Australia-bound Boeing 777s fitted with super-fast Starlink WiFi (as will the planes being leased to Virgin Australia for flights to Doha).

Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airline all offer free WiFi to varying degrees.

(Jetstar will also introduce onboard WiFi on its international 787 fleet from 2026, as part of a refresh which will include new business and economy seats.)

On domestic flights, Qantas WiFi regularly delivers 10-15Mbps.

So what’s the WiFi experience like on the handful of Qantas international flights using the WiFi-equipped domestic 737s and A330s?

Connect to the Qantas Free Wi-Fi hotspot on your laptop, tablet or phone and click the big red Connect button.

After watching a short video advertisement, you’re online.

Getting online with Qantas' WiFi service.

We regularly clock download speeds around 10-15Mbps: that’s more than enough for streaming video or music, let alone basic email and Web browsing, and much faster than what’s currently available on the global satellite-based network of most airlines

(Things are different when you’re using a ground-based network, as is commonly the case in North America for example.)

Uplink speeds for Qantas WiFi tend to be clipped around the 1Mbps mark, so file uploads and cloud computing may need a little patience.