The American airline United Airlines is the first to offer Starlink WiFi on flights. It will equip its aircraft with SpaceX’s satellite technology from the second quarter of 2025.
Starlink, the internet of Elon Musk and SpaceX, will soon be offered as WiFi on United Airlines aircraft. Last year, the airline announced it had this plan and then said it would test it from spring 2025, with an eventual official rollout later in the year. It now appears that those plans have been postponed. The test will start next month, with the real rollout starting in the spring.
Passengers will soon be able to connect to the Starlink satellites above them from their airplane seats. The first will soon be for the Embraer E-175, a relatively small aircraft that is only used for regional traffic and can carry a maximum of 88 passengers. By the end of 2025, the goal is to have Starlink support on all dual-cabin regional aircraft. It will also start using larger aircraft by then. Ultimately, the entire fleet will switch to Starlink, but because that amounts to almost 1,000 aircraft, this will take time.
In any case, it is a smart move for United Airlines. It currently works with four different WiFi providers. United is not the only one wanting to implement Starlink on its planes: Hawaiian Airlines and JSX are also reportedly planning to do so for domestic US flights. It is expected that Starlink in-flight WiFi will allow for good gaming, streaming and even video conferencing, thanks to the fast download and upload speeds it offers.
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Source: www.bright.nl
