China Airlines Announces Free Inflight Wi-Fi

China Airlines will make permanent the promotional free Wi-Fi program it offers on board most of its fleet from 1 August 2025.

China Airlines offers two connectivity packages today, unlimited and messaging. Those will continue going forward. Passengers in business class and premium economy will receive complimentary unlimited packages on board. So will top members (Gold, Emerald, Paragon tiers) of the carrier’s frequent flyer program. Everyone else will get free access to the messaging tier.

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Inflight connectivity remains available on the carrier’s 777, A350 (mostly fitted with Panasonic’s Ku-band solution, though B-18919 carries Viasat hardware), and A321neo aircraft (fitted with Viasat’s Inmarsat GX offering). The A330s and 737s are not being fitted with the system, though the 737s have the Fantasy Sky Wireless In-flight Entertainment solution on board. That wireless IFE offering will be expanded to the A330s.

“New” but very much the same

The carrier has been offering a free option to many passengers for more than a year now, depending on the aircraft type and flight route.

That typically required redeeming a voucher associated with the ticket purchase, however, and could not be completed once in flight. The new program streamlines the login process and access to the service.

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First from Taiwan?

The carrier claims itself the first Taiwan-based carrier to offer complimentary access nose-to-tail, though that part is a bit complicated; Starlux might have some thoughts about that. The upstart offered a similarly structured complimentary option to passengers in the past.

But Starlux also suspended its inflight internet service late last year citing challenges with the network. It announced plans in February to upgrade the kit on board its fleet to Viasat’s latest hardware to support bringing the service back online.

Regardless of the “firstness” of the offerings, both carriers are moving towards much more customer-friendly options on board.