Norwegian reveal Europe’s sky-high surfing habits as it marks five years of inflight Wi-Fi

Press release -

Norwegian reveal Europe’s sky-high surfing habits as it marks five years of inflight Wi-Fi

  • New study shows a third of passengers log into social media within 5 minutes of a flight
  • Americans and Brits most likely to show off about their holiday on social media channels
  • Just one in ten passengers said they take a break from social media during a flight
  • Flights to Tromsø, Malaga, Barcelona, Alicante and Madrid have the most Wi-Fi users

Norwegian, Europe’s third largest low cost carrier, is today celebrating five years since it became the first airline to offer free Wi-Fi on European routes - by revealing the world’s first study into sky-high surfing habits.

Norwegian remains the only carrier on the continent to offer free Wi-Fi on all routes and since pioneering the service in February 2011 over 19 million passengers have logged in at 35,000ft.

To celebrate the landmark the airline polled a representative selection of 1,000 passengers across Europe about their inflight surfing habits and combined it with data usage from over 550,000 flights to reveal what people are browsing, sharing and tagging over Europe’s skies.

Over 18,000 passengers access Norwegian’s free Wi-Fi every day, with the biggest demand on routes to and from Spain. Since introducing the free service over 500 terabytes of data have been consumed on board flights – the equivalent of streaming 1.2 million songs, receiving 170 million emails or watching 25,000 hours of Netflix.

Sky high surfing habits revealed:

  • Facebook FOMO (fear of missing out): A third of passengers (28%) log onto a social media channel within just five minutes of the flight. One in five passengers say they would be annoyed if they could not access social media during a flight – with 3% going as far as to say it would ruin their flight
  • #Holiday: American and British passengers are most likely to show off about their holiday, with 40% of Americans posting a picture or status about their trip during the flight. This is followed by 20% of Brits
  • Race to get online: German passengers are the keenest to get online, followed by Swedish and Danish. The availability of free Wi-Fi still comes as a surprise to British, Spanish and American travellers who take the longest to connect 
  • Mile high movers: The most popular websites visited at 35,000ft by Brits are news sites including BBC, Guardian and Daily Mail, followed by Right Move and Amazon
  • Digital detox: Just one in ten people said they like to take a break from social media during a flight
  • Let me take a selfie: Inflight Wi-Fi has contributed to new social media trends with half of 18 to 25 year olds logging into Instagram to take a selfie or post a wing shot. To date #flyNorwegian has been tagged over 12,900 times on Instagram
  • Checking in: Spanish are the most addicted to social media– with 62% accessing networking sites during their flight. This is followed by Norwegian (56%) and Danish (55%) passengers

Thomas Ramdahl, Chief Commercial Officer at Norwegian, said: "Five years ago Norwegian became the first airline to introduce free Wi-Fi on European routes, and five years later we are still the only carrier to offer the service.

"To celebrate five years of free Wi-Fi, Norwegian’s new study reveals some fascinating insights into the world’s sky-high surfing habits. The results show how integral being connected is to people’s travel plans - with 18,000 passengers per day accessing Wi-Fi to chat with friends, read news and continue working whilst travelling across Europe."

Norwegian’s Wi-Fi works via an antenna fitted to each aircraft which communicates with a satellite mounted on the fuselage. Inside the aircraft, there are two separate networks, one that is open for passengers and one for pilots and cabin crew that will make their work in the air easier and more efficient.

After successfully introducing free Wi-Fi Norwegian continued its technological firsts by becoming the only airline to offer a ‘bring your own device’ inflight entertainment system across Europe, and becoming the first European carrier to introduce live television in November 2015.

ENDS

Topics

Categories

Note to Editors

Norwegian first launched UK flights in 2003 and is Europe’s third largest low-cost airline. The carrier operates from London Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester Airports to 34 destinations worldwide.

  • Norwegian is the third largest airline at London Gatwick, with 3.4 million yearly passengers as of June 2015, and with 130 pilots and 300 cabin crewworking from its Gatwick base
  • In 2014, Norwegian introduced the UK’s first low-cost, long haul flights to the U.S. flying directly from Gatwick to New York, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles
  • Norwegian is the only airline to offer free inflight WiFi on UK flights to 29 European destinations
  • The airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world with an average age of four years, including next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Boeing 737-800s
  • Norwegian has been voted ‘Europe’s best low-cost carrier’ by passengers for three consecutive years at SkyTrax World Airline Awards, and was also the first airline to be awarded the ‘World's best low-cost long-haul airline’ in 2015 by SkyTrax.

Contacts

For journalists only

For journalists only

Press contact Norwegian Press Office +47 815 11 816
Marketing/sponsorhip requests: marketing@norwegian.com

Marketing/sponsorhip requests: marketing@norwegian.com

Press contact Marketing/sponsorship requests: marketing@norwegian.com

Norwegian.com

The Norwegian group is a leading Nordic aviation company, headquartered at Fornebu outside Oslo, Norway. The company has over 8,200 employees and owns two of the prominent airlines in the Nordics: Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe’s Flyveselskap. Widerøe was acquired by Norwegian in 2024, aiming to facilitate seamless air travel across the two airline’s networks.

Norwegian Air Shuttle, the largest Norwegian airline with around 4,700 employees, operates an extensive route network connecting Nordic countries to key European destinations. In 2023, Norwegian carried over 20 million passengers and maintained a fleet of 87 Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Widerøe’s Flyveselskap, Norway’s oldest airline, is Scandinavia’s largest regional carrier. The airline has more than 3,500 employees. Mainly operating the short-runway airports in rural Norway, Widerøe operates several state contract routes (PSO routes) in addition to its own commercial network. In 2023, the airline had 3.3 million passengers and a fleet of 48 aircraft, including 45 Bombardier Dash 8’s and three Embraer E190-E2's. Widerøe Ground Handling provides ground handling services at 41 Norwegian airports.

The Norwegian group has sustainability as a key priority and has committed to significantly reducing carbon emissions from its operations. Among numerous initiatives, the most noteworthy is the investment in production and use of fossil-free aviation fuel (SAF). Norwegian strives to become the sustainable choice for its passengers, actively contributing to the transformation of the aviation industry.

Norwegian
Norwegian UK