56 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION
V
irgin Australia general manager
for customer experience and
product Tash Tobias recently
flew home from Los Angeles.
The flight took off late in the
evening Los Angeles time, or late
afternoon on Australia’s east coast.
That meant her children were
still in school and would normally be
uncontactable from the time the doors
closed until the flight landed.
However, the aircraft operating
the flight was one of Virgin Australia’s
Boeing 777-300ERs trialling inflight
internet Wi-Fi ahead of the official
rollout.As such, Tobias settled into her
seat, enjoyed some dinner and then,
once school was over, got online
to exchange a few messages with
her family before ploughing through
a few emails and then getting some
sleep.
The Virgin Australia executive
said the experience made for a much
more relaxing flight and highlighted
the appeal for onboard connectivity
as not just the exclusive domain of the
business traveller.
“These days, there is so much
more combined travel, you know
business and leisure combined,”Tobias explained in an interview with
Australian Aviation.
“The lines are not as clear cut
as they used to be and the world is
changing and there is a lot more
diversity in the people who are
travelling for business too.
“And it is just not as clear as
business people only want to use it for
email and people who are going on
holidays want to use social media and
stream Netflix.
“There is a lot of crossover between
both and we are really pleased to be
able to offer that to all our guests.”
Australian Aviation spoke toNO MORE NET LAG?
VA W I - F I
WRITER: JORDAN CHONG
Virgin
Australia
expands Wi-Fi
reach to Los
Angeles