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When I flew on the first mainline United Airlines plane equipped with Starlink Wi-Fi last yearI was surprised to discover that the satellite-based in-flight internet service felt just like… the regular internet. I stream movies, access the web and conduct video calls (which are mostly illegal) in better quality than some of my daily remote meetings when I’m at home.
Since then, United says roughly 1,200 daily departures, more than a quarter of its schedule, now have Starlink Wi-Fi. It has reached its goal of equipping the entire regional fleet (two-cabin aircraft such as the Embraer E175) with more than 300 aircraft and is on track to equip 500 mainline craft (like the Boeing 737-800 I was on) by the end of 2026. If it achieves its mainline goal, three out of four flights will be new sets up to United.
Video chat at 35,000 feet with excellent quality on United’s Starlink Wi-Fi. (Warning: Technically illegal on commercial flights.)
During my test flight, I tried to saturate the data on as many devices as possible, from my laptop to an iPad and a couple of phones. Now that customers are using the service, I want to know what real-world usage looks like. The company said in a press release that 7 million passengers on 129,000 flights have flown on Starlink-equipped aircraft.
“(Data) consumption is through the roof,” said Grant Milstead, vice president of digital technology at United Airlines. “It’s at least 100 times what we’ve seen in our old aircraft, and most of it is run at the height of the stage.” Longer flights will see more data usage, not only because of the long flight times, but because these are the flights where people are streaming more movies, live sports and other content.
He said that passenger feedback shows that families don’t spend time pre-loading devices with movies, because they know they can stream anything on the plane.
“It’s not ‘airplane Wi-Fi’ anymore,” he said. “It’s Wi-Fi like your home. And now people are starting to treat it like that.”
Starlink Wi-Fi is free for members of the United MileagePlus program (which itself is free to join).
In addition to United, Starlink service is available on some flights operated by Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, airBaltic, Air France, Qatar Airways, WestJet and Emirates. In the coming year, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Level and Vueling will include satellite internet.
The dual Starlink antennas on the United 737-800 are aerodynamic bumps on the top of the plane.
Some of this uptake can be attributed to higher performance, but it is also a matter of cost and equipment: the hardware itself is smaller, lighter (especially important for aircraft) and installation is cheaper than other onboard Wi-Fi systems.
