Airline ranking: Who offers the best Wi-Fi on board?
The US company Ookla tested the Wi-Fi services of leading airlines. Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways ranked best in class, while Lufthansa came in last.
Airlines distinguish themselves through service. In the age of the internet, in-flight connectivity is playing an increasingly important role. In recent years, airlines have therefore begun offering Wi-Fi, initially for a fee, but now increasingly for free, especially in premium classes. Today, no airline with a three-class system can afford not to offer Wi-Fi at an altitude of 10,000 meters.
Wi-Fi is expectedHowever, connection quality varies considerably. In many cases, the internet experience above the clouds is significantly worse than on Earth. This prompted the connectivity specialist Ookla to test the speed and performance of various Wi-Fi services. Good Wi-Fi performance can set an airline apart from the competition. If Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways perform best and Lufthansa comes in last, this is primarily due to the network providers, who operate different systems.
Onboard connectivity is not seamless. Depending on the flight route or aircraft model, different connectivity providers may be used. Furthermore, governments sometimes restrict access when crossing certain areas. Furthermore, upgrading old onboard equipment is time-consuming and costly.
Essentially, all airlines that operate on Elon Musk's Starlink satellite constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO), such as Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways, currently have an advantage. They achieve download speeds of over 150 megabits per second. Lufthansa, at the other end of the download speed rankings, is limited by Deutsche Telekom's LTE ground-to-air network. While the airline offers other connection options, according to Ookla, a significant number of its passengers still use this less powerful service. This is despite the fact that Lufthansa was the first airline to offer in-flight internet to passengers on a trial basis back in 2003 – with choppy performance and at hefty fees.
Many other airlines, however, offer acceptable speeds. Spirit Airlines, Air Canada, Delta Airlines, Breeze Airlines, American Airlines, and Aeromexico offer download speeds of over 10 megabits per second. The upload speeds of most of these airlines are generally sufficient for basic uplink connections like email. However, the upload speed, combined with the high latency, makes gaming and video calling unsuitable.
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