China’s biggest airlines have started offering free Wi-fi to passengers on a growing number of domestic flights, as they vie to win back business travellers who now often prefer to shuttle between cities on high-speed trains.
China Eastern Airlines on Oct 11 launched a free “basic” Wi-fi service on all its widebody aircraft operating on domestic routes, said a company representative who spoke anonymously per company rules.
The planes cover a total of 37 routes serving major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming and Wuhan, the representative said.
Air China and China Southern Airlines, two of the company’s main competitors, already provide free Wi-fi on smaller percentages of their domestic flights, the source added.
“We’ve had ‘work from home’, and now a lot of business travellers are changing the phrase to ‘work from the air’,” he said, noting that a test of the free Wi-fi on one plane in August had met with positive customer feedback.
The offer comes as China’s air travel industry faces growing competition from the country’s high-speed rail network, especially in the lucrative business travel market where passengers often prefer the comfort and convenience of bullet trains.
On busy routes such as Beijing-Shanghai, travellers have switched from air to rail in such large numbers that the China Air Transport Association warned in April that its passenger base was being “eroded”.
Air China, China Eastern and China Southern all made losses in the first half of the year, with the companies citing intense competition, supply imbalances and the impact of high-speed rail, domestic media outlet Yicai Global reported.
A lack of on-board Wi-fi has long been a “significant competitive disadvantage” for Chinese airlines relative to bullet trains, said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform think tank.
Business travellers on Chinese high-speed trains have benefited from on-board Wi-fi for the past nine years. They can also access 5G data via their phones, except in remote areas.
“Passengers who need to stay connected online are likely to choose high-speed rail,” Peng said. “This includes those investing in financial sectors like the stock market, those maintaining uninterrupted control of businesses, and those who need to hold online meetings or reviews at specific times.”
In China, flights and high-speed train journeys now compare closely in terms of travel times and price. A train ticket from Beijing to Shanghai, for example, costs about 500-600 yuan (2,300-2,700 baht) for a one-way trip, which takes about 4.5 hours.
Max Modesti, an Italian restaurateur based in Shanghai, said he had only taken the train to Beijing over the past 10 years, as it was “more efficient and without stress” compared with catching a plane.
Unlike flights, the trains are rarely late or cancelled, and they drop passengers off near city centres rather than at a far-flung airport, according to Modesti. He could usually get a stable Wi-fi connection on the train, and if it cut out he could simply use 5G, he added.
But Jerry Li, a Shanghai-based venture capital fund manager, said he only got spotty Wi-fi on trains to Beijing and that he preferred to take flights because they kept running later at night than the trains.
China Eastern’s new economy-class Wi-fi service can be accessed without needing to download an app, preregister or sign up for membership, the company representative said. Passengers can use it for email and web browsing, but not for video streaming.
If the roll-out on widebody planes goes smoothly, China Eastern will consider making free Wi-fi available on its narrowbody jets, the source said.
But he said that China Eastern was not expressly competing with China’s fast trains. Some passengers take the train to reach airports such as Hongqiao in Shanghai, where they catch flights, he pointed out.
“High-speed rail’s relationship with airlines is more complex,” the representative said. “They are competing but also cooperating.”