‘Burning money’ — Air NZ to charge $40 for Wi-Fi

Air New Zealand passengers will be able to access Wi-Fi on international flights — for a chunky price.

The airline is charging $40 a sector, more than that charged by many other airlines, some of which offer some connectivity for nothing.

The Kiwi airline has four Boeing 777 aircraft equipped with Wi-Fi, mainly on transtasman routes as well as Nadi, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Buenos Aires.

Air New Zealand says it will review pricing as it is bedded in.

“This is a new service — we’re still exploring customer demand, satisfaction and pricing options and we expect that pricing will evolve over time,” a spokeswoman said.

Passengers can use Airpoints dollars to pay for Wi-Fi and the airline would investigate more purchase options, such as buying just an hour of connectivity.

All international aircraft will be fitted with the technology needed for inflight Wi-Fi by the end of next year and the airline was still looking at the feasibility of introducing it on domestic jet services.

Passengers are able to access email, messaging, social and web browsing and should expect to get speeds suitable to support this. Music streaming and short video clips, such as those you find on YouTube or news websites, can be viewed.

But one frequent flyer who was on one of the first flights to offer Wi-Fi said he was disappointed with what he said was speed similar to dial-up.

He said $40 was much more than other airlines charged.

“I am all for paying for premium services but, sorry, this is just burning money.”

Among other airlines offering WiFi on New Zealand routes, Cathay Pacific and United Airlines charges US$19.95 ($28.95) on long-haul flights and Emirates offers the first 20MB of data free and beyond that up to 150MB for US$9.99 or up to 500MB for US$15.99.

Air New Zealand uses satellite company Inmarsat and Panasonic Avionics for hardware in the cabins.

A signal goes from a passenger’s device to an antenna on top of the plane, which is then picked up by a satellite and sent back down to collect data.

All of this takes place in about two seconds and, with the aircraft travelling at more than 800km/h, by the time data gets back to a passenger they have travelled the length of about five rugby fields.

FCM Travel manager Andy Jack said the Air New Zealand service offered great choice for customers.

“The pricing is at the higher end in comparison to other airlines, but it’s good to see passengers will also have the option to use their Airpoints dollars,” the corporate travel specialist said.

Inflight Wi-Fi could be divisive, said Jack. Many corporate travellers appreciated time off from distracting emails, while others enjoyed having the option to stay connected in the air.