Australian flag carrier Qantas has revealed details on the most popular movies and TV shows shown onboard its flights in 2023.
Qantas’ announcement, which has become an annual event for the airline, gives an insight into the viewing habits of its passengers as they while away the hours crossing continents.
It would appear from perusing the 2023 figures that it has been a big year for productions with an Australian link in terms of viewing figures – perhaps not such a surprise for a carrier with a large proportion of its passengers being Australian.
The year’s big winner both at movie theatres worldwide as well as onboard Qantas flight was the hit movie ‘Barbie’ which featured Australian actress Margot Robbie in the starring role. The film was the airline’s most-watched movie of 2023, followed by action-adventure ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘ and in third place ‘Ticket to Paradise’.
But it was not just on the big screen where Australia dominated. Global TV hit ‘Bluey’ took the crown for the most popular kids’ entertainment program, while top billing for the most-watched documentary went to ‘The Australian Wars’. Similarly, the TV show ‘Five Bedrooms’ was the most-watched comedy show, while ‘Couples Therapy Australia’ claimed the top spot for the most popular reality show.
However, it was the US hit ‘The White Lotus‘ that came in as number one for the most-watched TV show. Qantas customers spent a collective 300,000 hours watching the second season of the show in 2023.
Further details revealed by Qantas that shine the spotlight on its passengers’ viewing habits show that around 80 million hours were spent using the airline’s inflight entertainment, up from 60 million last year. This is indicative of how travel demand has rebounded following the end of the pandemic, according to the carrier.
Additionally, the provision of faster free Wi-Fi is growing in popularity said the airline, with overall usage up 10% over that seen in 2022.
In terms of audio entertainment, Whitney Houston was the most listened to pop artist, following huge interest in the TV biopic ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ which was also shown on Qantas flights. The album ‘Nature Spirit’ by Jens Buchert was the most listened-to audio album of 2023.
Elsewhere on the Qantas inflight entertainment offering for 2023, the wellbeing show ‘Meditation’ continued to be a popular choice among Qantas passengers to help them relax as they whiled away the hours at 38,000ft. Australian author Liane Moriarty’s ‘Apples Never Fall’ came in as the most popular audiobook.
Other insight revealed by Qantas regarding passenger behaviors in 2023 reveals that the airline served almost four million bottles of wine, 1.6 million cookies, 1.8 million chocolate bars, and 1.1 million ice-creams to passengers as they watched an inflight movie in 2023.