Internet-deprived airline passengers take note: Experts believe Qantas and Virgin Australia will be increasingly pressured to offer in-flight Wi-Fi on international routes now that most of their partners and competitors do so.
"American, Delta, and United now offer Wi-Fi on nearly all flights [from Australia] to the United States, but neither Qantas nor Virgin Australia do," Jason Rabinowitz, data manager for airline product differentiation platform Routehappy, said. "At some point, passenger demand is going to force them to offer it."
Mr Rabinowitz's comments came as Routehappy released its annual Global State of In-Flight Wi-Fi report. 
It has found 60 airlines worldwide offer in-flight Wi-Fi in most regions, representing 36 per cent of all kilometres flown globally and 78 per cent in the US.
Low-cost carrier Scoot is the only airline that offers it on all flights. However, Delta has Wi-Fi available the most on the basis of kilometres flown.
In more mature Wi-Fi markets, like the US, just having online access in-flight is no longer considered enough.
Routehappy said passengers were demanding a home broadband-like experience.
US carrier JetBlue is nearing the completion of a fleet-wide broadband rollout allowing connection to Netflix and other streaming services with no access charges. Virgin America has introduced the same system.
Other carriers, like Delta, Aeromexico, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa, also aim to launch high-speed systems in the near future.
Singapore Airlines has announced plans to roll out Inmarsat's KA-band Global Xpress technology with speeds 10 times as fast as some present satellite offerings from the second half of the year. 
Qantas and Virgin do not offer in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic or international fleets. Both have held off for various reasons, including passenger acceptance, the slow satellite speeds and concerns about investing a lot of capital in a technology that may become obsolete given there are several competing solutions in the market.
However, both airlines have also said they will continue to explore options.
Inmarsat vice president, aviation, Asia Pacific Bill Peltola in   November characterised the situation as not a question of if, but what and when.
Mr Rabinowitz said in the domestic market, as soon as one airline took the first step, others would be expected to follow suit.
"However, no Australian airline has taken that first step, so it may be a while," he said.
Australian Business Traveller editor David Flynn said in-flight internet appeared to be edging closer in this market with the launch of the Inmarsat Global Xpress service.
In addition, NBN's "Sky Muster" satellite, which is due to come online in the middle of the year, has the potential to deliver medium-speed connections to local aircraft. Telstra has also conducted trials of an in-flight 4G network on the Sydney to Melbourne route.
A poll of 1200 Australian Business Traveller readers last month found there was an appetite for in-flight internet on domestic flights, but hitting the right price point would be paramount.
On a short flight between Sydney and Melbourne, 40.9 per cent of travellers said they were prepared to pay no more than $5 for internet; 19.5 per cent would pay $10; and just over 6 per cent would spend $15 to $20.
The remainder said they wouldn't use in-flight internet.
For a longer flight, such as Sydney to Perth, 61.7 per cent of passengers would be willing to pay $5 to $10 for in-flight internet, while 17.6 per cent would pay $15 to $20.
Regardless of the length of the journey, 77.6 per cent believed in-flight Wi-Fi should be included in the cost of a business class ticket.