Until now, Lufthansa Group passengers on short and medium-haul flights have had to pay comparatively high fees for the WiFi Internet offered by Deutsche Telekom. In mid-January 2024, at least the basic offer, which is intended to enable messaging including sending photos, is to be free of charge. Currently, most of the aircraft in the Airbus A320 fleet are equipped with the Internet technology. However, the passengers' contractual partners are not the Lufthansa Group airlines themselves, but Deutsche Telekom AG. This is the official provider of WiFi above the clouds. There has been repeated criticism of the high usage fees, as numerous competitors offer at least the basic version completely free of charge. This will probably also be the case with the Lufthansa Group from mid-January 2024. At least the messaging version will be offered free of charge on short and medium-haul flights that are operated with appropriately equipped aircraft from the A320 series. At the same time, the crane group announced that Deutsche Telekom will reduce the rates for the paid packages. The simple fact that many travelers have refrained from using the Internet above the clouds due to the high costs is also likely to be behind this. "Lufthansa is investing around two billion euros in product and service improvements. We have implemented and planned many large, medium and smaller initiatives that make traveling with Lufthansa an even better experience," says Heiko Reitz, CCO Lufthansa Airlines. "One good example is free messaging. I am delighted that our guests will be able to stay in touch with their loved ones or business partners above the clouds in the future - and all for free." The prerequisite for using the new free service is logging in.