Air Canada <\/b>plans to make its onboard Wi-Fi free for its loyalty members with a sponsorship from Canadian telco Bell<\/b>, the airline announced Thursday. Air Canada\u2019s onboard Wi-Fi is powered by Intelsat<\/b>. <\/p>\n
Beginning in May, Air Canada will offer complimentary Wi-Fi for its Aeroplan Members on equipped aircraft for flights within North America and its \u201csun\u201d destinations like the Caribbean. The airline also plans to expand free Wi-Fi service to long-haul international routes in 2026. Customers without an Aeroplan membership can purchase Wi-Fi at a reduced flat fee.<\/p>\n
The airline has already offered free Wi-Fi texting service for its loyalty members, also sponsored by Bell, since May 2023. <\/p>\n
Most of Air Canada\u2019s in-flight connectivity (IFC) is through Intelsat\u2019s GEO 2Ku solution. Intelsat confirmed to Via Satellite<\/i> the operator is ramping up installations of its multi-orbit ESA service starting in January on smaller regional jets, under the deal announced last year. <\/p>\n
Mark Nasr, executive vice president of Marketing and Digital at Air Canada said more than 85% of Air Canada aircraft will be connected from day one when the service goes live in early spring. <\/p>\n
\u201cReliable access to streaming-quality Wi-Fi is becoming essential for both business and leisure travellers. That\u2019s why we\u2019re upgrading our fleet with the latest technologies,\u201d Nasr said. \u201cAlthough other Canadian airlines have announced free Wi-Fi services, not all have accelerated installation across their fleets or committed to offering the service comprehensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free Wi-Fi is gaining steam \u2014 Delta made a splash in 2023 announcing the rollout of free IFC for all customers. Starlink customers Air France and United Airlines are also set to offer the service for free. <\/p>\n
Novaspace analyst Vishal Patil recently wrote for Via Satellite<\/i> about how Starlink\u2019s free IFC offering is pushing more airlines to make IFC free. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe free streaming service for all passengers will soon be a norm and other service providers will be compelled to follow to remain competitive,\u201d Patil wrote. \u201cFree streaming services will typically see a take-up rate above 50 percent leading to massive increases in the capacity demand per plane.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Air Canada plans to make its onboard Wi-Fi free for its loyalty members with a sponsorship from Canadian telco Bell, the airline announced Thursday. Air Canada\u2019s onboard Wi-Fi is powered by Intelsat. Beginning in May, Air Canada will offer complimentary Wi-Fi for its Aeroplan Members on equipped aircraft for flights within North America and its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}