“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in an announcement Friday.United Airlines will soon become the second legacy U.S. carrier offering free in-flight WiFi to travelers when it introduces Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink.
Beginning sometime next year, the carrier will offer all fliers free in-flight WiFi on planes equipped with the Starlink service, which uses SpaceX satellites to connect to the internet. United plans to roll out Starlink WiFi to its entire fleet, representing of more than 1,000 aircraft, over the next several yearsSmaller carriers Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue also offer free in-flight connectivity. Hawaiian and boutique carrier JSX both offer Starlink connectivity on flights in the United States, and Latvian airline AirBaltic uses it in Europe.Once a rare amenity, in-flight WiFi is now standard on most flights in the United States. Nearly every airline offers some form of connectivity for a fee. Currently, United charges MileagePlus members $8 and nonmembers $10 to log on.
Delta Air Lines was the first legacy airline to offer free in-flight WiFi on domestic flights to members of its loyalty program, SkyMiles, in February 2023. The carrier expanded the offering to select international flights this August.And travelers are logging on. According to data from the Airline Passenger Experience Association, nearly 1 in 5 fliers in the United States connect to in-flight WiFi.
“Airlines offering free WiFi to everyone on board with no strings attached is still a relative rarity,” said Jason Rabinowitz, head of content creation for travel technology company ATPCO. “Plenty of airlines now offer free messaging plans, but airline passengers are still hesitant to pay for full internet access.”Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United also offer all fliers free messaging via their existing in-flight WiFi services.Airline executives claim that Starlink is superior to existing in-flight WiFi offerings.The demand for bandwidth in the sky is not slowing, just like on the ground,” said Seth Miller, an airline analyst and editor of the PaxEx.Aero website, who has tried Starlink WiFi on a Hawaiian flight. “Starlink manages to deliver that for airlines with lower latency than the prior generation of satellites, further improving the connected passenger experience.”Starlink, with all its promise of high-speed streaming, will not come quickly to United flights.
United Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo told The Washington Post that the Federal Aviation Administration and aircraft manufacturers must sign off on the hardware, the system that will be installed on United’s planes and the satellites launched to provide the bandwidth.But when it is all done, she said the impact with Starlink will be like when internet users upgraded to their first cable modem from dial-up.
“It truly is like being in your living room,” she said.