United Airlines has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to employ its Starlink fleet of satellites for offering free in-flight wi-fi to its customers on mainland and regional flights. The carrier expects to have Starlink on all of its over 1,000 aircraft over the next several years, with testing beginning early next year and the first passenger flights expected later in 2025.
Leveraging advanced satellites with its deep experience in both spacecraft and on-orbit operations, Starlink is engineered by SpaceX and delivers internet access around the world, including over oceans, polar regions and other remote locations previously unreachable by traditional cell or Wi-Fi signals. United is the largest airline across both the Atlantic and Pacific and will be the first carrier in the world to commit to offering Starlink service at this scale.
With Starlink onboard your United flight, you’ll have access to the world’s most advanced high-speed internet from gate to gate, and all the miles in between.
Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO at SpaceX
“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,” said United CEO Scott Kirby. “This connectivity opens the door for an even better inflight entertainment experience, in every seatback – more content, that’s more personalized. United’s culture of innovation is, once again, delivering big for our customers.”
The new service will include: access to personal streaming services and live TV, shows and movies without the need to download content in advance; the possibility to download or upload documents and edit shared files in real-time for work; playing live games and following live gaming streaming service; access to e-commerce, services such as shopping online, scheduling grocery delivery and making restaurant and travel reservations; connectivity on multiple devices at the same time; and live support from real agents through the United app.
The airline said the service will also benefit its employees, including pilots, flight attendants, technicians and gate agents, all of whom use mobile devices to help run the operation and serve customers, the airline said. “As United rolls out the Starlink more broadly, it will give those teams the same rich capabilities in the air, as they have on the ground including when working in remote location or when traditional services might be impacted like during power outages or natural disaster”, the carrier explained in a statement.
United is not the first American airline to introduce free onboard wi-fi. After introducing free onboard wi-fi on most of its domestic flights last year, Delta Air Lines has this year expanded the feature, introducing internet connectivity on most of its international routes.
