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Wireless Networking Communications

American Airlines Picks Starlink For In-Flight Wi-Fi (cnbc.com) 41

Posted by BeauHD from the mile-high-router dept.
American Airlines plans to install SpaceX's Starlink Wi-Fi on more than 500 narrow-body Airbus aircraft starting early next year. It does not, however, have any immediate plans to change providers on its Boeing fleet, which currently uses a mix of Viasat and Panasonic. CNBC reports: American in January rolled out free in-flight Wi-Fi for members of its frequent flyer program, following United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and others. Delta in March said it would use Amazon Leo for in-flight Wi-Fi for hundreds of jets starting in 2028. United, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which merged with Hawaiian Airlines in 2024, have selected Starlink. The move is a big win for SpaceX as it prepares for a potentially massive IPO next month. SpaceX said Starlink and its connectivity business generated $11.39 billion in revenue last year, accounting for 61% of the company's total sales.

American Airlines Picks Starlink For In-Flight Wi-Fi More | Reply

American Airlines Picks Starlink For In-Flight Wi-Fi

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  • As opposed to? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday May 27, 2026 @03:47AM (#66162122)

    Is there actually another player in this space which can provide these services (broadband, low latency, high speed - in the physical sense of the customer moving at >900km/h)?

    • I've read somewhere that russians quietly launched their own version with a weird name

      • Rassvet? It wasn't done "quietly", having been covered amply in the news.

        After a bunch of delays, including unavailability of launch vehicles, they finally got 16 satellites off the ground in March. Only 884 to go for the far less ambitious constellation they're planning. I predict the budget will get eaten up by graft and waste before they hit a quarter of that.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      Don't let your logic get in the way of a slashvertisment for spacex ahead of its IPO. You'll make the elongelicals cry.

      • In your rush-to-snark, you misread the previous poster as part of your anti-elon congregation yourself.
        The post wasn't ironic, it was genuine, pointing out there isn't anything close as an alternative.

    • Amazon Leo isn't quite operational yet, but it's getting pretty close.

    • Cell towers. I just googled it. That's how it works today. Starlink will probably be faster overall with bandwidth but with a bit more latency.

      It's a nice puff piece but I doubt it's more than 30 or 50 million a year. That would be a lot of money to you and me but with the cost of keeping those satellites maintained it's not really going to be enough. Starlink is running up against the problem of addressable market. There's only so many potential customers who don't have access to wired internet and can

      • Literally every airline that offers in-flight connectivity, and especially any airlines that operate wide-body service over an ocean is scrambling to sign with Starlink.

        Their passengers want it. They want it, so they can implement converged software airside (i.e. show you ads while you're literally strapped into a seat with a display in front of you) as well as sell access to your eyeballs to streaming entertainment providers instead of paying to license the media you consume.

        This is literally transformati

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      For space systems, there are a few choices.

      For ground based gateways, there are a lot more choices.

      For domestic flights, most in-flight WiFi is ground based (think a really sophisticated form of cellular technology). This is because you only need a few ground stations in various locations in the US for coverage. It's also much cheaper than space-based systems, which is why most domestic flights have made in-flight WiFi basically free.

      It's also why international flights the in-flight WiFi is often horrendous

      • Why present yourself as an expert or someone knowledgeable in this space when you have so little applicable domain knowledge? Air-to-Ground ("ATG") used to be the predominant player for commercial air flights, but it hasn't been the case for years. GEO satellite based solutions have been the dominant form of connectivity in the market for several years. We're certainly starting to see inroads to that with LEO (and to a much lesser extent MEO) based solutions, but Starlink still doesn't yet have that many C

      • Nobody is looking to "compete" between LEO networks and ground-based LTE. The two can co-exist, and do, on airside hardware that has been flying for years. They just need to add the starlink terminals in the EE bay and replace the existing satellite antenna with a "multi-orbit" model that can talk to GEO and LEO satellites.

        FYI this is exactly what airline operators are doing. They already have the LTE hardware in the planes, why rip it out unnecessarily?

    • Woohoo! Wi-Di on a plane!
      Wonder how much the fares will go up for that feature?
      Wonder how often the connection will drop?

      The big question is: do we really need this? I don't know about you guys, but I'd be fine without Wi-Fi or cell data for a 5 hour plane ride.

      • Then feel free to not use it?

        Here's the thing you don't seem to understand: the in-flight connectivity is already there. It's WiFi access points already running in the seat box that powers the seat-back displays. It's VLAN routers already running in the head-end to send your traffic to whatever networks the airline has a deal with.

        Adding a LEO network is literally changing out an antenna on top of the fuselage, sign some paperwork, add the Starlink terminal in the electronics bay, and performing a softwar

    • Not yet.

      Also, it's not surprising that they are doing this on their Airbus frames, as Airbus is currently working on what they call their HBC+ program (high-bandwidth connectivity), and working directly with Panasonic for the hardware and software-defined networking / routing / etc, as Panasonic makes the vast majority of in-flight entertainment and connectivity hardware that is installed in both Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

      United already announced very much the same for their fleet, backed by Panasonic crea

    • For int'l flights: Amazon Leo is launching next year. Delta is waiting.

  • For o'leary to chime in how awful fuel economy will be

    • 100 000 000 eur in fuel cost he said

    • Well I don't think you fly a budget airline for amenities, it would be add on purchases and it seems to me that people who use them are very price conscious to pay for Starlink. And IIRC Ryan Air does not have any long haul flights so people will probably rather save the money and just listen to music or something for 3 hours than pay for internet.

      • Which would've been just fine of an explanation if he hadn't farted out of his mouth the fuel efficiency conundrum!

        Btw there's nothing cheap about their "airline" (air cattle line? air bus line?) - someone did a piece on purchasing every option that would be included on a NORMAL AIRLINE and concluded it's more expensive. When factoring in travel to stanstead instead of elisabeth/picadilly to heathrow it gets worse in time and money.

        • Thatâ(TM)s how ULCCs are, at least in the US. You can get somewhere cheap on one if you are willing to travel in such a way that you can forego some of the add-ons (less bags, picking seats, whatnot). If you just add everything to try to get the same experience as one of the legacy carriers, the cost is not much different.
          • The cost is different if you hold an airline credit card. Almost all (all?) award a free checked bag and carry on bag for cardmembers. Given the high cost of checked bags now the cards are often worthwhile after just 1 trip. Plus, while taking advantage of ultra no-frills fares is technically possible, most people need to travel with clothes. The only person I ever saw on ultra budget airlines with no bag at all was a guy going from his home to his second home.

  • 9/11 (Score:2)

    by SumDog ( 466607 )
    Just remember ... it was almost impossible to get cellphone signal on planes during 9/11

    • Just remember ... when the aircraft manufacturer, IFEC systems builders, and airline operators get together, they can solve technical problems pretty well.

      4G LTE service is installed in basically every narrow-body with in-flight connectivity of any kind.
      GEO satellite data has been a thing for a really long time, using an antenna mounted on the top of the fuselage. This is an extension of that - building in another antenna into the pod that is tuned for LEO service.

      • And LEO is even easier than GEO since it doesn't have any moving parts. GEO had to rotate to keep alignment. LEO are all using phased arrays.

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