Air New Zealand slashes the price of its in-flight Wi-Fi by 25 per cent

Air New Zealand has dropped the price of its Wi-Fi to $30 a sector.

When it was introduced about 10 days ago the price was $40 a sector but today the airline said today it had now been cut.

The Weekend Herald reported the $40 pricing and the reaction of a customer who said he felt he was ''burning money'' for the service on a three-hour flight to Melbourne. The cost is the same as that on long-haul routes.

The airline last week said the prices were under review.

A spokeswoman said today this remained the case.

''We're still exploring customer demand, satisfaction and pricing options and we expect that pricing will evolve over time,'' she said.

The reduced price brings it more into line with other airlines on long-haul routes.
Cathay Pacific and United Airlines charge just under $30 for flights of around 12 hours.

Emirates offers the first 20MB of data free.

Four of Air New Zealand's Boeing 777s have Wi-Fi and the airline will roll the service out throughout the next 18 months.

The airline has said last week it had seen ''fantastic'' uptake and promising performance of the service.

Passengers can use Airpoints Dollars to pay for the service and the airline said it would also look to introduce more options, such as offering the ability to purchase an hour of connectivity.

Air New Zealand is still looking at the feasibility of introducing Inflight Wi-Fi on domestic New Zealand jet services.

The airline worked for several years to get the reliability of Wi-Fi on international services right.

Brent Thomas, House of Travel commercial director, last week welcomed the new service.

"We imagine in-flight Wi-Fi will be particularly popular with business travellers as well as holidaymakers travelling long-haul. This will allow for further on-board entertainment and easier communication between travellers and those back on the ground."

Airline consumer website, The Points Guy, reports that three airlines that offer Wi-Fi on all of their long-haul flights: Air Europa, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, Eurowings, EVA Air, Iberia, Kuwait, Lufthansa, SAS, Scoot, United and Virgin Atlantic.