This evening I was very pleasantly surprised that my LX A320 flight (airframe HB-IJP) had SWISS Connect in-flight wifi.

The system is different to the in-flight wifi on long-haul aircraft but is still called “SWISS Connect”. It’s accessed by going to wifi.swiss.com. Seemed to be similar to the long haul LH system run by Deutsche Telekom.

Interestingly there was no announcement about it, I just saw my phone had automatically connected to a wifi network and checked what it was. Initially I thought I might have missed something and that it had been rolled out during Covid (most of my European flights at A220). The FAQ specifically says it’s being rolled out on the A320 fleet.

The purser asked me at the end of the flight if I used it, he said it’s brand new and it’s a test aircraft and he thinks there’s one other frame in the trial at the moment.

Best of all, it was free and unmetered. No need to register, just press Connect. Service was fast, connection available before the seatbelt sign went off after takeoff, but disconnected on descent as the seatbelt sign went on.

A very positive addition, let’s hope it stays and rolls out across the fleet.