Once seen as impossible, the wi-fi connection during air travel is already a reality. Companies like Air France, American Airlines, Emirates, British, Lufthansa, Qatar and many others already offer the service, which, according to a study by Juniper Research, is expected to be present on more than half of commercial flights by 2022. Brazil, Gol and Avianca Brasil already offer the service.

Currently, only one in four flights has wi-fi, but that should change soon. Airlines already signal a move to make each passenger use their own device, be it smartphone, tablet or notebook. Before, the strategy was to centralize entertainment with the multimedia screens, but that should be behind.

Another factor that should gain market space is the entertainment focused on aircraft. “Monthly entertainment revenue on airplanes is expected to increase by an average of 30 percent per aircraft,” said the company.

Qantas begins, and Emirates is already preparing to monetize

With the goal of implementing a wi-fi connection on all domestic flights by 2018, Qantas has begun a trial period. In principle, only a third of the passengers logged in, but this has changed. Over time, the connection speed has been improved and has provided an increase of 88% in the number of passengers that used it.

Browsing on news sites, shopping and exchanging messages, plus Facebook usage and streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix were the Internet’s biggest consumption factors analyzed by the study.

Emirates, meanwhile, is already working to monetize its wi-fi connection. Instead of charging for the service, the airline recently announced that it will make the internet free for certain levels of its loyalty program, following the idea of ​​customer loyalty and attracting new repeat customers.