Ready to work, stuck downloading: Holafly for Business reveals airport Wi-Fi speed gaps
Holafly
DUBLIN, Oct. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For a business traveller, landing often means getting straight back to work: downloading a presentation or replying to a client. Without mobile data, the airport’s free Wi-Fi is often the easiest way to get online, but it can be slow and risky. So the employee connects and watches, frustrated, as the progress bar barely moves.
For companies, this means employees’ ability to work depends on the airport they land in, and it also creates security risks. Corporate data moves through unknown networks, and employees may be asked to provide personal information on Wi-Fi login pages.
Holafly’s Airport WiFi Stress Index compared eight international business hubs to understand why 86% of business travellers under 55 experience stress from connection issues while travelling. It found that downloading the same file can take seconds or minutes depending on where they land.
At New York JFK (ranked first in the index), speed reaches 151.6 Mbps, enough to download a large presentation in half a minute. At London Heathrow, ranked last, speed drops to 12 Mbps, meaning the same file takes over five minutes, or up to 13 during the morning rush.
However, speed is not the only obstacle for employees working between flights, as in some airports free Wi-Fi has time caps. In Frankfurt, sessions expire after 30 minutes and in Dubai after 60, with each additional hour costing around USD 5.40. If access runs out halfway through a task, they have to interrupt their work to log in again.
Still, Holafly’s 2026 Summer Travel & eSIM Report found that 53.4% of business travellers arrange their own connection. This leaves companies with less control and puts company data at risk on public networks while teams struggle to get their work done.
That picture changes when the company provides a solution: among business travellers with a company eSIM, 81.3% expect their connection to improve their productivity, compared with 52.4% of those who arrange it themselves.
“Every minute an employee spends waiting for a file to load is time the company is paying for,” said Davide Ilardi, Head of Sales for B2B Direct Sales at Holafly. “It adds stress to an already demanding trip, and it means working on a network the company has no control over. Businesses can address both by arranging their teams’ connection before they travel.”
This is why corporate solutions such as Holafly for Business allow companies to assign international eSIMs to their teams before departure and manage their plans through the Holafly Business Center. With mobile data available on arrival, teams can safely access work tools and continue working beyond the terminal without delays or interruptions. They make the most of their time from the moment they land.
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