Qantas, Virgin Australia swing WiFi focus onto A330s

While Qantas and Virgin Australia continue to expand their WiFi-equipped Boeing 737 fleet, both airlines are also stepping up the rollout of inflight Internet onto their larger twin-aisle Airbus A330 jets.

By the middle of 2019, all domestic Qantas A330s plus domestic and international A330 flights by Virgin Australia will let travellers stay connected above the clouds.

Qantas has earmarked a dozen of its A330s to be fitted with the same fast and free WiFi service as its workhorse Boeing 737s, with the first expected to take wing later this month and all 12 flying by early 2019.

Read the Australian Business Traveller review of Qantas WiFi 

The move will be welcomed by passengers on the transcontinental flights, which are largely the domain of the Airbus A330-200s for the 4-5 hour cross-country trek. 

While the airline currently has no plans to bring international WiFi to its international A330-300 jets, when a domestic A330-200 is rostered onto an international route such as to Asia, WiFi will be available to the tip of the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Virgin Australia will begin installing WiFi on its own Airbus A330s from the beginning of 2019, with CEO John Borghetti telling media on board last week's inaugural Sydney-Hong Kong flight that he expects all six A330s to be upgraded by the middle of 2019.

At the time of writing this will see four of Virgin's A330s offering WiFi on east-west flights, with the other two providing inflight Internet to passengers on the Sydney-Hong Kong and Melbourne-Hong Kong routes.

Virgin Australia already has inflight WiFi on all five of its Boeing 777s which cover the trans-Pacific routes from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles.

Review: Virgin Australia's Boeing 777 inflight Internet

David Flynn

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.