8 days ago Qantas switched on their brand new in-flight wifi test on one of their 737-800’s. The aircraft (VH-XZB) will be doing trials for the next few months all around Australia to see how the wifi performs.

I’ve talked a little bit about the wifi on the blog but if you’ve missed the previous posts on the subject, hereQ they are:

• Qantas Trialling NBN Internet On Selected Flights From February
• Qantas Will Soon Have Netflix, Foxtel And Spotify Available To Stream Onboard

Anyway, I myself have been extremely busy the last few weeks with constant travel, meetings etc and I haven’t yet had a chance to test the wifi for myself.

My good friend Zac flew on the aircraft today and was kind enough to send me the results of how it performed, safe to say it’s pretty impressive. All images property to Zac.

On the flight, they provide an instructional brochure to explain how it works, what to do etc. They also announce over the speaker that the flight is specially equipped with wifi.

The wifi system is turned on once the last cabin door is closed. This was the speed while on the ground:

Here’s the speed on the takeoff roll:

Here’s the speed while cruising:

Zac said the system only had one hiccup and that was during descent, that’s pretty impressive.

It’s good to see that the wifi is performing well and reaching the speeds that Qantas said it would, keep in mind the flight was also full. Next to switch on wifi is Virgin Australia and they will be using 2ku and Gogo which is a completely separate system. Virgin have apparently already turned on their test aircraft and I hope to trial that soon, pending time.

Featured Image – James Lusher