Your complete guide to Regional Express inflight WiFi

While Regional Express – or Rex, as it’s better known – is well established as Australia’s regional workhorse, the airline also challenges Qantas and Virgin Australia on key capital city routes with its own fleet of Boeing 737 jets and fares aimed at the ‘value-seeking’ segment of the market.

Part of that proposition includes inflight WiFi, which is free for some passengers while priced from $6.50 for others.

In comparison, Qantas offers free Internet access to all passengers on its WiFi-equipped Boeing 737s and Airbus A330s, and at high speeds – travellers regularly clock more than 10Mbps, which is ample for streaming HD video.

However, at the time of writing, Virgin Australia has yet to reactivate its inflight WiFi system,  which was previously offered at low speeds for free, and higher speeds for a price, before the airline switched off the service following its collapse in early 2020.

Here’s your guide to Rex’s inflight connectivity service.

 

Does Regional Express (Rex) have inflight WiFi?

Yes, but only some aircraft in the Rex fleet have WiFi onboard. 

Specifically, those are the Boeing 737 jets which dart between the larger cities on the Rex network – such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.

Each plane’s WiFi network also streams a selection of free movies and TV shows, along with inflight information and weather, which passengers can view on their own smartphone, tablet or laptop.

However, the airline’s regional Saab turbo-props, which connects most regional centres, do not have WiFi.

Inflight Wifi is also not available on Pel-Air, a Rex Group subsidiary which operates smaller and mostly turboprop aircraft on charter, corporate, freight and contracted mining and medical routes.

Regional Express (Rex) Boeing 737 WiFi

At the time of writing, Rex is flying six Boeing 737 jets but only four of those offer inflight WiFi. 

A spokesperson for Regional Express tells Executive Traveller the WiFi on those two jets will be activated “in a few months”.

The Rex website doesn’t specify if a particular Boeing 737 flight will have WiFi, so for now it’s a bit of a lottery where you have a four-in-six chance of flying on a Rex Boeing 737 fitted with inflight WiFi.

How fast is Regional Express (Rex) WiFi?

The Intelsat 2Ku satellite system which beams the Internet down to each Rex Boeing 737 is capable of delivering speeds equal to the average home broadband connection, so it’s certainly fast enough for anything from email to streaming video, with speeds of up to 15Mbps.

Of course, a variety of factors – ranging from weather conditions to the number of users on your flight – can affect the overall speed.

How much does Regional Express (Rex) Boeing 737 WiFi cost?

Travellers in economy class on Rex Boeing 737 flights can choose between two WiFi packages, depending on what they need to do.

The basic browsing package – which Rex rates as being “suitable for simple Web browsing, email, instant messaging and social media” – costs $6.50 for 30 minutes or $10 for the entire flight. 

The faster streaming package costs $9.75 for 30 minutes or $15 for the entire flight. Beyond streaming video this is also the better option if you have to deal with sending or receiving large files, and perhaps also cloud-based work.

Given that most Rex Boeing 737 routes average 90 minutes, paying a flat rate for the entire flight – $10 for the browsing package or $15 for the quicker streaming service – represents the best value.

Does Rex offer free WiFi?

While economy passengers have to pay for WiFi on Rex Boeing 737 flights, all business class passengers enjoy free WiFi.

This complimentary WiFi is offered to business class travellers as a flight pass lasting for the entire flight at basic browsing speeds.

Rex currently lacks a frequent flyer program, apart from its Rex Business Flyer corporate loyalty scheme, so there’s no mechanism for very frequent flyers seated in economy to receive free WiFi as one of their status perks.

How do I access Rex WiFi inflight?

Connecting to the WiFi on your Rex Boeing 737 flight is no more difficult than connecting to the WiFi at a cafe or hotel, except that of course you must have enabled Flight Mode on your device and then switched WiFi back on.

Check your phone’s Network section and look for a hotspot named REX, then join that network. You won’t need a password to initially connect.

Once you’re on the network, open your device’s Web browser and enter the site address wifionboard.com – from here you’ll be able to purchase a package to start surfing.

Can I use my Rex WiFi allowance on multiple devices?

No: each purchase of inflight WiFi on Rex is valid only for the device on which it is purchased.

If you’d like to have both your laptop and phone online at the same time, you’ll need to buy two passes.

Additional reporting by David Flynn