Japan Airlines will power up its inflight Internet between Tokyo and Sydney this evening, with passengers able to send emails, surf the Web and stay connected to the office throughout the flight.

A feature of the airline’s newer Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, business travellers also pick up fully-flat beds in its Sky Suite business class with direct aisle access for every passenger.

On either JL772 from Sydney to Narita or JL771 on the return, it’s only US$18.80 to remain connected throughout the flight, or US$10.15 for a single hour of access.

That said, you won’t be able to browse while the aircraft is flying over Australia, so we’d expect the service to be considerably more popular on the daytime flight out of Sydney that gives much more working time, rather than the overnight service home when travellers will likely awake after the connection has been disabled.

JAL joins a number of international airlines offering inflight Internet on flights to Australia, including Etihad, Singapore Airlines and Emirates – which recently kicked off free access for all passengers.

On the domestic front, we could see inflight Internet by this time next year, with NBN Co in talks with both Qantas and Virgin Australia over a high-speed, satellite-fed connection.

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