Qantas puts off live internet link plans for the A380

Australian airline Qantas has put away for the time being plans to offer live internet access on its A380 planes from next month.

The move comes in the wake of American Airlines being criticised by customers and flight attendants for allowing passengers to surf porn websites.

As a result, in lieu, Qantas is choosing to offer a limited selection of "cached internet content", along with access to web-based email and chat services.

An official statement by the airline blamed the shelving of its internet plans because of "logistical and regulatory issues" encountered by its connectivity provider, OnAir. It said that full internet access was now scheduled for "later in 2009", and chose to remain silent on the technical issues faced by OnAir. 

A month ago, American Airlines started offering passengers full in-flight broadband internet access aboard its Boeing 767-200 aircraft for $12.95 per flight. 

The US Association of Professional Flight Attendants last week asked American Airlines' management to install filtering software to block inappropriate sites, following complaints from flight attendants and passengers.

In a statement, American Airlines said its preference was to provide unfiltered connections, similar to those found at the average home or office. Flight crews would have the additional responsibility of monitoring internet usage for inappropriate material.

The first of Qantas' 20 Airbus A380 aircraft is scheduled to service from 20 October, and will be deployed initially on the Sydney – Melbourne – Los Angeles sector. From January 2009, it will also ply on the Sydney-Singapore and Sydney-London routes.

Not counting the truncated internet access, the A380's in-flight entertainment system will offer 100 movies, 500 television show episodes, 1000 audio CDs, 20 radio channels and 80 games. Additionally, laptop power sockets would be provided for every passenger. USB ports, built into every seat, can allow passengers to access multimedia content from music players and portable hard drives through the seat-back screens.