Severe thunderstorms batter the capital, experts look to alternatives amid the Government’s smokefree plans and how you could soon be getting Wi-Fi on a domestic flight in the latest NZ Herald headlines.
Video / SailGP / Supplied / NZHerald
Air New Zealand says its Starlink internet on planes will redefine domestic travel. The new service will allow passengers to stream movies and do a wide range of work.
Starlink will be installed on an ATR (regional aircraft) and a domestic jet in late 2024. After a successful trial of four to six months, Air New Zealand will roll out Starlink internet on other aircraft in its domestic fleet in 2025.
“With latency as low as 30 milliseconds [ms], all passengers will be able to use internet like never before,” said Air New Zealand chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar.
‘”From streaming video content to working while onboard, and instantly messaging friends and family with multiple devices connected, Air New Zealand customers will be able to access internet as if they were in their lounge at home.”
The airline is not disclosing details of the price of its plans or what it cost to modify planes, but a Starlink business plan costs about $5000 a month. It is not known how many plans it will need for its domestic fleet. It has 32 Airbus A320 aircraft that can fly domestic routes and 29 ATRs, turboprops that fly primarily on regional routes.
Ravishankar said: “We’re always looking at how new and innovative technology can deliver improved customer experiences and with the world’s largest satellite constellation, exploring in-motion connectivity on our aircraft with Starlink was a no-brainer.”
Maintaining “seamless internet connectivity is something that would transform” the travel experience for customers.
Connectivity would be especially important for doing cloud-based work.
“As more and more is moved into real-time collaboration and all of our work has moved into the cloud, then connectivity becomes almost critical for you to be able to do work. Without connectivity you’re hamstrung.”
As of Friday, all the airline’s international fleet had onboard Wi-Fi provided by Inmasat. Its popularity had encouraged Air NZ to extend it to its domestic fleet.
Like existing onboard Wi-Fi on international aircraft, after enabling flight mode, passengers will be able to enable Wi-Fi on their devices and connect to Starlink internet once the service is available. Safety regulations meant it wouldn’t be turned on during take-off and landing.
Like downloaded content passengers could bring on to domestic planes now, the airline expected livestreamed material to be appropriate.
“We will need to continue to reinforce messages around what’s appropriate. Our passengers are of all demographics and ages.”
He stressed logging on is a choice.
“Don’t worry though, if you’re the type of traveller who loves some downtime while in the air, you’re under no obligation to connect and can still use the time to switch off from the world below.”
Jason Fritch, a vice president of Starlink (which is owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk), said the inflight connectivity would be game-changing.
Starlink has a constellation of about 5000 low-Earth-orbiting satellites it says deliver a better service than single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at 35,786km. As a result, the round-trip data time between the user and satellite - known as latency - is high, making it nearly impossible to support streaming, online gaming, video calls or other high-data-rate activities.
Starlink satellites orbit much closer to Earth at about 550km, and cover the entire globe. Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, latency is significantly lower - around 25 ms vs 600-plus ms.
Starlink has a network of six ground stations in NZ, which connect its satellites to the internet.
Ravishankar said Air New Zealand was the first airline to install Starlink in turboprops and the trial would be important in determining how quickly and easily it could be rolled out on the ATRs and jets. The smaller Q300s, which are being phased out as the airline moves to low-emissions alternatives, wouldn’t get the new equipment, a cluster of antenna which are fitted to the top of the fuselage.
Hawaiian Airlines, airBaltic and Qatar Airways are among a growing number of carriers that have installed or committed to Starlink internet.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
