Qantas has bailed on its launch of in-flight wi-fi using NBN’s Sky Muster satellites.

The company had planned a high-profile public debut of the service on Monday, before Qantas issued a statement saying the system was not ready.

“We’ve been testing in-flight wi-fi for several weeks and the performance has been strong,” the statement said.

“We were preparing to open it up to media and customers this week as we continue our finetuning over the next few months, but some stability issues have emerged that we need to fix before customers can use it.

“We’re working with NBN and ViaSat to fix these issues very soon. We remain on-track for a broader roll out to the Qantas Domestic fleet from mid-2017.”

The wi-fi service will allow passengers to stream from Foxtel, Netflix and Spotify apps. It will offer a free three-day trail of the Foxtel streaming app, and 30-days free access to Netflix and Spotify.

Qantas had invited a range of tech journalists to test the service on an invite-only flight hosted by CSIRO’s Dr Terry Percival, one of the creators the Wi-Fi standard.

When it is released, Qantas’ in-flight wi-fi will use NBN’s Sky Muster satellite signal, but will actually be delivered to the planes by US company ViaSat.

Exactly what caused the latest delay is unclear, but NBN Co insists that a series of technical issues dating back to its 2015 launch was not to blame.

“NBN understands that the technical issues that caused Qantas to cancel its in-flight wi-fi media demonstration flight did not involve the NBN Sky Muster satellite connection,” it said in a statement.

“Qantas has informed us that the NBN Sky Muster satellite connection that provides connectivity to the aircraft has been performing well but as with any technology trial, there’s always a chance things can go awry when you are the first to try something.

“While this is a disappointing, temporary setback we will continue to work with Qantas and ViaSat to get this pioneering technology off-the-ground.”