United Airlines Holdings Inc. expects to begin using SpaceX’s Starlink for inflight Wi-Fi in the spring, an earlier-than-expected rollout for the first major US carrier to use Elon Musk’s satellite business.
But only members of the carrier’s loyalty program will get the service free, United also said in a statement on Sunday. This marks a departure from the airline’s original plans to offer it to all passengers for free, a move likely designed to draw in new MileagePlus participants.
The service will first be available on an Embraer SA E175, with the entire two-class regional jet fleet equipped with Starlink by the end of this year, United said.
The first mainline jet will be outfitted before the end of 2025, it said. The new timeline compares with earlier projections for testing to start early this year with the first passenger flight later in the year.
The United-Starlink deal, first announced in September, provided a marquee customer for the Musk-led SpaceX unit.
Airlines have pushed over the last several years to provide fast and reliable inflight Wi-Fi instead of the glitchy, not-always-available offering that has long plagued passengers. Expanded satellite bandwidth has helped to produce internet experiences closer to what consumers expect on the ground.
Starlink eventually will be available on all of the airline’s planes, United has said. Details on pricing for non-loyalty plan members will be disclosed closer to the first commercial flight, the airline said.
Starlink is SpaceX’s ever-growing internet-from-space initiative that consists of thousands of satellites in a relatively low orbit around Earth. Together, the satellites work in tandem to beam broadband internet coverage to the ground below.
Subscribe to Business of Space: The inside stories of investments beyond Earth, from satellite networks to moon landings. Delivered weekly.
United’s gate-to-gate service will allow access to streaming services and online shopping, connect to multiple devices at once by one user and enable downloading, editing and sending of documents in real time, the carrier said.
In the US, Hawaiian Holdings Inc. and public charter carrier JSX use Starlink. Outside of the US, Starlink is used by Qatar Airways QCSC, while Air Baltic Corp., Air New Zealand Ltd. and ZIPAIR Tokyo Inc. have announced agreements with the company.
Starlink also is in talks with British Airways owner IAG SA to outfit its fleet, Bloomberg previously reported. IAG is weighing options among multiple potential providers.