United Airlines has announced it is set to start trialling Elon Musk’s Starlink as a provider of in-flight internet services this spring, with a view to full-blown commercial rollout for select passengers by the end of 2025.
Promises of internet for all, broken
The latest timeline reveal follows up on a contract forged in September 2024 with Starlink to eventually provide in-flight internet services across United’s 1,000 plus fleet. The carrier said in a release on 5 January 2025 that the Starlink connectivity through low orbit satellites would initially be coming to its main regional services in February, operated on two-cabin Embraer E-175 aircraft.
However, after much fanfare from CEO Scott Kirby about Wi-Fi “in every seatback”, the United proposition has become less universal and more modest, contradicting earlier announcements. The Wi-Fi service, offering audio and video streaming, shopping, gaming and other online activities, will now only be something members of its MileagePlus loyalty programme are able to enjoy, it has said, which renegues on the earlier executive commitment to make free Wi-Fi available to all passenger classes.
Which other airlines do business with Musk?
United is not the only airline to have made the choice to do business with the controversial tech billionaire and free speech absolutist to give flyers high-speed internet connections on the go.
Hawaiian Airlines has signed up to Starlink for its Airbus routes between the island state and US mainland, Asia and Oceania. Regional semi-private charter operator JSX also offers free Wi-Fi on its 46 aircraft and selected Musk’s telecommunications network for the provision, meaning that, like Musk’s other enterprises, from social media to electric vehicles to space travel, Starlink is spreading its tentacles around the world “beyond consumers and households in rural areas around the world with little to no internet access”, Reuters has noted.
Like United, Delta Air Lines only offers complimentary Wi-Fi to its SkyMiles loyalty members. It announced in August last year the connectivity would be brought to international flights throughout Europe and South America moving forward.
Do air passengers really want an internet connection?
In contrast, JetBlue Airways has made Wi-Fi available at no extra cost to all flyers since 2017. Public expectations about ubiquitous connectivity have changed radically since in-flight internet first hit our skies with Boeing’s “Connexion” service over two decades ago in 2003. The plane manufacturer withdrew the product after only three years back in 2006, saying it was not sufficiently in demand. Still, some flyers are still prepared to view air travel as an opportunity for a digital detox, as last year’s trend for “rawdogging” on flights suggests.
