A regional airline is celebrating a customer service milestone: one million free in-flight passenger broadband sessions served.

One year after Air New Zealand switched to a free-of-charge model for its inflight broadband service, it can now boast of serving more than one million free inflight broadband sessions for its passengers.

In addition to reaching this milestone, last December was Air New Zealand’s biggest month ever for free inflight Wi-Fi sessions, with more than 122,000 customers connecting. This beats the airline’s previous record of 103,000 sessions in July 2019.

This surge in uptake for free inflight Wi-Fi from Air New Zealand passengers chimes with recent findings from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), as part of the final installment of their “Sky High Economics” report with Inmarsat Aviation.

The research had found that there is an immediate US$33 billion market share shift available for airlines developing the digital inflight experience. The report also revealed that Gen Z (born between 1997-2012) will become the largest group of airline flyers by the end of the next decade, bringing with them new expectations of technology and travel.

Chris Rogerson, Inmarsat Aviation’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, said: “Air New Zealand is one of the airline industry’s biggest advocates of free inflight broadband. Whenever and wherever passengers fly with them, they will be offered unrestricted internet access at zero cost. It is a prime example of how this leading airline always seeks to delight and surprise their passengers.”

Air New Zealand’s in-flight broadband was powered by Inmarsat’s solutions, and its milestone is a   testament to the incredibly strong demand for high-speed, reliable and easy-to-access inflight broadband. The solution is currently available on almost 25 aircraft within the Air New Zealand fleet, operating on Trans-Tasman, Pacific Island, US and London routes. This includes a combination of Boeing 777-200, 777-300 and 787-9 aircraft, in addition to Airbus A320 and A321 neos.