Visaat’s annual inflight connectivity survey is out and, once again, it paints a rosy picture for the industry. Wi-Fi is a major factor in flight booking habits, if the 11,000 respondents are to be believed, driving airline selection for a significant share of travelers.
Alas, as with similar iterations from prior years, connecting the survey responses with actual passenger behavior is more challenging. Inflight connectivity is absolutely a factor in how well passengers enjoy a trip, and there are perhaps some useful bits to be gleaned from the data. But with a decade of these surveys now published the numbers remain very much in the “with a grain of salt” category.
A look back at history
In 2018 more than half (53%) of passengers surveyed said they’d swap an inflight tipple for access to inflight WiFi. In 2023 that number dropped to 34%. In the 2024 edition of the survey 62% of passengers say they would connect to Wi-Fi to pass the time on board, besting the 57% who enjoy having a drink (a slightly different question, so the numbers cannot be directly compared).
In 2024 75% of passengers claimed they’d be more likely to select or rebook with an airline if quality inflight Wi-Fi was provided. That number is down from 83% in 2023 and 82% in 2022. It is, however, up from 67% in 2018. To Viasat this suggests “Any airline looking at those percentages can only draw one conclusion: good quality Wi-Fi is now a significant commercial driver and a key factor in securing customer loyalty.” Never mind that the number decreased and there is minimal clear evidence of book-away behavior for airlines without the service on board, despite many iterations of similar survey results.
In 2017 the survey reported that 52% of passengers would use inflight internet to make purchases on board and collect those goods on arrival. Airlines expected to cash in on this demand, earning a commission on the transactions to fund the service. It never came anywhere close to delivering on that promise.
The survey also takes an interesting angle on the idea of personalization, noting “personalized entertainment is a key focus for passengers.” What that means, however, is that passengers simply want an open pipe over which they can consume whatever content tickles their fancy at the time. More passengers favor access to their own licensed content subscriptions via the connection, for example, than a library provided by the airline. Calling that personalization is quite a stretch.
The numbers don’t quite add up
There’s also evidence passengers don’t fully understand what they’re agreeing to in the surveys, with just 35% willing to share their “interests and purchase preferences” but 48% expecting personalized food and drink offers. Nearly 90% are ready to accept that ads are part of the experience to get a free connection on board, an all-time high for the many years of this research. This number bodes well for Viasat‘s efforts to market its inflight adverts platform, something that has seen some success in recent years.
The confusion among passengers is not new. In 2023 half of those surveyed said they were unlikely to pay for the service, while 29% said they’d pay more for the ticket if they didn’t have to pay for the connection once on board. In practice, however, even airlines with a quality inflight connectivity offering have failed to drive a revenue premium for their services.
Similarly, the 89% of passengers who claimed in 2017 a willingness to pay for WiFi on long-haul leisure flights have decidedly not done so, despite plenty of opportunities. Paid usage rates on inflight internet is higher on longer flights, but it is nowhere near 90%. Indeed, in the intervening seven years the survey results have massively shifted, with with 83% of respondents now expecting the service to be free on trips longer than six hours.
But those same passengers also claim they’re willing to pay extra for “key services” on board. About a third of passengers seem to thing it is reasonable to pay a little extra to access to their own streaming or social media accounts. A quarter of passengers say they’d pay extra to watch live television. Another 15% say an extra charge to access a group chat on the plane is reasonable.
None of these numbers make a ton of sense when considered in aggregate.
Peering into the future
And, if all those numbers aren’t confused enough, there’s a new bit this year, with a forward-looking section of the survey. “Futurist” Shelli Brunswick tells us that can tell us that passengers need modular seating or special lighting that adapts to circadian rhythms.
With rising demand for personalization and comfort, airlines are moving beyond traditional seating layouts and amenities to offer adaptable, modular designs that cater to varied passenger needs. For instance, multi-functional seating configurations allow airlines to create dedicated zones for work, relaxation, and socializing—spaces that adapt just as spacecraft do to optimize human engagement and comfort in tight quarters.
A handful of airlines put social spaces in their A380s. Other than that, there is minimal evidence of any of these multi-functional seating configurations flying today or likely to do so in the future. And if they do come about it will not be related to human spaceflight in any way.
Also, the lighting systems described have been on the market for a long time. Airlines are getting somewhat better at using them for sunrise/sunset/northern lights displays rather than the disco rainbow mode that was a fun way for the 787s to show off the new hardware early on.
We further learn that 55% of passengers think floor-to-ceiling windows and wrap-around screens are welcome improvements to the inflight experience, despite pretty strong evidence those aren’t going to fly.
Just over half think it’ll be great to have seats that adapt to passenger size/weight and also spa or gym space on board. Again, those are not happening anytime soon.
And “47% would like to see enhanced in-flight automation, including robot cabin crew; pilotless aircraft; and virtual travel concierges.” Ibid.
A third of passengers think Artificial Intelligence can be used to predict their food preferences. A similar number trust AI to generate a trip itinerary. I wish them luck.
Given the occasionally competing numbers and mixed signals from the survey results PaxEx.Aero requested additional details of the questions asked to better understand how the results were developed. Viasat declined to make that data available.
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