Wanna fly i? With your own iPad, you’ve been able to do so since 2010, but if you wanted the service provided by your airline, you’ve had to wait until they offered the service.
Well, that’s now happened, with Qantas having earlier done a trial that was obviously so successful, the entire Qantas B767 fleet is now able to enjoy “over 200 hours” of free in-flight entertainment (comprising on demand TV and audio) streaming directly to iPads in every seat – as was previously announced when only one B767 was outfitted this way.
Now, the entire B767 fleet will be equipped in the same manner, with Qantas Domestic CEO Lyell Strambi saying in a weekend press release that: “Following the successful trial of our QStreaming service this year, we will partner with Panasonic and use their eXW solution to provide over 200 hours of on-demand IFE content via iPads to every passenger in Business and Economy travelling on our B767 fleet.
"Our customers were the first in the world to experience the ground-breaking wi-fi entertainment technology and we received great feedback from our customers during the trial this year.
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"We’re now looking at ways to evolve this technology platform even further with our partner Panasonic to bring new standards of in-flight entertainment to our customers."
Qantas notes that “The first aircraft is set to roll out in the fourth quarter of this year and will predominantly operate east coast routes and also across to Perth”.
Unfortunately, however, while Qantas does offer this service over Wi-Fi, there’s sadly still no Internet access provided by Wi-Fi, a great shame for those passengers travelling to Perth or elsewhere who’d rather be surfing the net, checking email, playing with Facebook, posting to Twitter or something else rather than watching TV on an iPad.
However, there is hope that one day affordable Internet might arrive on Australian skies as is available to Americans, especially given all those NBN satellites going up over the next couple of years.
Until then, you’ll have to make do with a Qantas provided iPad for all that free in-inflight entertainment – or, if you’re a media fanatic, on your own iPad pre-loaded with your own schedule of ultra-personalised entertainment.
