Elon Musk confirms that Delta refused to equip its planes with Starlink because they require putting access behind a portal. SpaceX refuses to do that.
Not exactly. SpaceX requires that there be no annoying “portal” to use Starlink.
Starlink WiFi must just work effortlessly every time, as though you were at home.
Delta wanted to make it painful, difficult and expensive for their customers. Hard to see how that is a winning…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2026
Delta Air Lines is falling behind in inflight wifi. Their current ViaSat product (available on most aircraft) works fine but now that it’s free, it gets a lot more use and can struggle at times. American Airlines suffers from the same problem.
In contrast, United Airlines is installing Starlink wifi. So is Alaska. That’s the fastest wifi in the sky, it has basically no latency, and works better than what most passengers experience at home.
Now, Delta signed a deal to put Amazon Leo in its planes, but only 500 of them and only starting the installs in 2028 (assuming the product is ready at that time). They have been years ahead of United, but by then they will be years behind United is inflight experience.
No airline in the world cares about and promotes its brand – beyond the reality of its product – more than Delta Air Lines. Was slowing down rollout of quality wifi to passengers worth the tradeoff?
In five years this will all be irrelevant.
People will be able to download a Starlink app on their iPhones and connect directly to the satellites.
Bye bye airplane Wifi. Don’t let it hit your ass on the way out.
Maybe it’s just me…I get the hype about Starlink, and I am not denying its speed. However, with all the airlines signing up with Starlink, Starlink (and Musk) essentially have control over internet access for an entire industry. Yeah, that can’t end well.
Ken Wantanabe: “Let them fight.”
@Mike — Will those phones be able to connect from Argentina? Like, say you change your mind and want to call your ex, even though you’re on separate flights, one returning to Miami, the other to Dallas… (@L737, call-back!)
Elon Musk is supposed to be the smartest person on earth but had to have one of his early investors make up a story about being rejected by DL – and Gary isn’t smart enough to figure that he is being played by Musk and UA’s propaganda machine.
I will concede that DL MIGHT BE at a disadvantage at some point in the future when someone including Gary tell us:
1. the amount of disadvantage including the amount of passengers that booked away from United over the past 5 years when DL had free high speed WiFi but UA did not.
2. the even greater disadvantage that UA has now that UA has since T Mobile will not even allow UA to offer free WiFi on UA’s non-Starlink equpped aircraft.
3. Tell us the bookaway from carriers that have “slow speed WiFi” to carriers with Starlink.
In fact, UA has seen the greatest improvement in its revenue performance over the past 5 years when DL had high speed WiFI and UA did not have any.
It is nothing but marketing hype to think that people actually have booked away from UA just because UA didn’t have free high speed WIFI and even more ridiculous to think that DL will have “slow high speed WiFi” but UA will have better WiFi.
when someone can quantify the penalty that UA (and AA and WN) have paid for not having WiFI as good as DL or B6 for the past 5 years, then I will concede that DL (and AA) will be at a disadvantage in the future.
@Tim Dunn — Elon is not smart; he has assets; he leveraged his assets well. Wealth does not mean intelligence. Also, intelligence can have wildly different contexts. For instance, Elon is not emotionally intelligent at all. At best, he’s a nerdy rich kid. At worst, he ended funding to aid programs around the world, leading to countless deaths, all while perpetuating hate and propaganda via social media. I wish he’d focus his efforts and wealth on progress, like Starkink, like SpaceX, like Tesla, but he can’t help himself.
Wild to see you bow to Elon. Perhaps, Delta isn’t your one-true-love; it’s wealth. Seven deadly sins, buddy. Pride, envy, and greed may get ya!
I’m not bowing to Elon.
It is those that worship at the feet of him and Starlink that I challenge.
DL is smart enough to buck the trend.
Just as DL said no to the 787 for over a decade and took more widebodies since covid from Airbus than all other US airlines combined.
so, which do you not have? Intelligence or money? otherwise, you just described yourself in tryiing to knock Musk
oh, and I sure don’t expect you to have the number but I am just looking for the revenue disadvantage that UA had when DL had free high speed WiFI for 5 years before UA got started and how much the quantified book away is from “slow high speed” Wifi to Starlink.
you are right that this is nothing more than a Coke vs. Pepsi discussion and Coke has better marketing.
the reality is that airline customers don’t even see the label and yet a handful of insecure United fans have gone full blast in trying to convince the world that their Musk-built Starlink is superior to everything else even though UA doesn’t even have it on 20% of its mainline fleet right now.
Elon Musk is revered by many of a certain political bent for, in their words, “horrifying the right people.”
@1990 — Bah! Oof, too early in the day for the feels…
Connecting all on our own without the need for the airline to provide anything in the future does sound nice.
Yes, but do the frequency bands used by Starlink and other services propagate well through an aluminum airliner hull? I suspect the case is probably “no.”
To pile on, in order to provide lightning protection, airplanes are essentially a Faraday cage, except for the windows. Even the carbon fiber components are covered with a copper mesh. Maybe passengers at a window seat will have working satellite connectivity from their phone, but that’s about it.
I just don’t care. Only a small, very small, percentage of people have a genuine need for fast wifi. And, they are the pax I don’t want to be around (have status, thinks it makes them special, etc.).
@Denver Refugee @John H — Very fair points. Darn, physics!
@ Tim: You said, “In fact, UA has seen the greatest improvement in its revenue performance over the past 5 years when DL had high speed WiFI and UA did not have any.”
I don’t know if people pick their itinerary (airline) based on available wifi. Maybe they do when competitors offer a similar schedule. Think Portland, OR to Tampa, FL (both require a single connection) or SFO to ATL (both DL and UA offer non-stops). But I doubt someone picks high speed wifi with a connection, and 4 hrs more travel time, over slow wifi on a non-stop.
With that in mind, there’s two problems with your quoted assertion:
1) Even with UA’s improved revenue performance, it’s possible that MORE people would have chosen UA if the wifi was better than anyone else’s. Just because UA improved SOME, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have improved MORE with the best wifi. Better numbers isn’t evidence that another change has no effect. If I don’t study for a test and still pass doesn’t mean my grade would stay the same if I DID study.
2) UA does offer high-speed wifi, and has for much of the last five years, using the same provider as DL on much of the fleet today – with viasat. Thales (the slowest) appears to be getting replaced first with starlink, so more and more of their fleet has the same as DL (viasat) or better (starlink) each day.
Sarah,
of course ANYTHING Is possible to explain UA’s revenue performance.
The chances on a directly competitive DL to UA route should be the easiest to isolate factors.
There are dozens of routes on which DL and UA overlap and have for years.
How about you pick out those routes and then tell us – and then Gary and Ben – that WiFi made a difference.
It doesn’t.
AA is turning its revenue performance around and JUST turned on WiFI and has more of it than UA.
and, no, UA does not offer FREE Viasat WiFi via T Mobile any more.
wanna tell us how much losing T Mobile will cost UA? or is it inconsequential because other factors are more important?
and, again, the difference between DL in 18 months and UA in 18 months is a matter of speed. Not whether it will be free or available on all aircraft.
Tell us how much the difference in speed will matter.
IT.
SIMPLY.
WON’T
Remember when Tim dismissed this report only a few days ago as the reason why DL elected not to go with Starlink, saying “An early investor in the SpaceX ecosystem should tell you all you need to know….”
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
There’s a lot to be said for that. Most of my flights are three hours or less, so I often view it as an opportunity to unplug from the world for a bit (“Sorry I missed that email, the wifi on the plane wasn’t working…”).
Elon is not smart? If you think that you really need to ask yourself how you allowed someone to convince you that is true.
Tim, once again you don’t address the issues raised and go off on other tangents. I’m surprised you didn’t bring up baggage handling rates.
My two points:
1) Because a company’s revenue goes up in a given period, without a specific initiative in place during that time, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have gone up MORE if the second initiative had also been taken. Airline execs have plenty of data you and I don’t (unless you are a paid, DL company insider – which you act like). Their data includes surveys, loyalty retention, market share on routes with given services, etc. Since many airlines (worldwide – not just UA) are choosing to spend seriously big money to install Starlink as soon as possible, I’d bet the data supports that it’s worth it to get Starlink installed, and it will improve customer retention and drive customer loyalty.
2) You love to scream to the masses how DL has “high speed wifi” but UA doesn’t – even though UA uses Viasat on much of the fleet – the SAME service provider as DL. But, go ahead. Damage your credibility and repeat that UA doesn’t have it.
Free wifi – never brought that up. But Gary said (a few articles back) that DL’s current free wifi simply clogs up the bandwidth and makes it worse, and he prefers to pay to keep it faster until Starlink (or any other service) is available that can handle having everyone on board use it simultaneously. I agree. Any business traveler on an expense account doesn’t really care, and I do think that there are others that will pay $8 today to keep the existing wifi fast until a better system is in place.
@1990: “At worst, he ended funding to aid programs around the world…”
At worst, he ended funding to aid programs primarily supporting people in Washington DC and Northern Virginia.
Fixed it for ya!
I’m kinda tired of hearing about United adding Starlink. I’m a 1K and I’ve been on a total of 3 flights with Starlink. 2 of the times it’s been on Embraer planes operated by Skywest. They don’t even have it on their newest A321 Neos.
It’s so few and far between, I literally don’t understand what they’re doing and why this is taking so long.
But when I’ve had it, it’s incredible.
you said the same thing before, Sarah and still can’t answer the question as to the revenue disadvantage that UA had when it offered no high speed solution.
and, no, Viasat on DL and UA is not even close to the same thing. Airlines buy bandwidth and UA doesn’t have it on Viasat while DL does. AA doesn’t even have the bandwidth that DL has.
Either UA had a disadvantage – and you can articulate it and UA will have an even bigger disadvantage now that T Mobile has pulled free coverage or you and Gary and everyone else is talking out of your backside w/ no facts to back up anything you have to say.
When you can show us the data regarding bookaway for non-WIFI equipped aircraft as well as the difference in revenue between DL and Starlink equipped aircraft, then we can discuss facts.
Until then, this whole discussion is nothing more than some boarding area bloggers that drag suckers like you into a discussion at the behest of Elon Musk that can’t stand that someone – specifically DL – told him “no”
Musk clearly hasn’t been told “no” enough times in his life but if someone is going to prove him wrong, it is Jeff Bezos and Amazon which is unquestionably a more successful consumer company than anything Elon has built.
F- Elon Musk. The grifting silver spooned liar cheater and thief.
Tim, I can’t show the data. I don’t work at United with access to customer bookings. You can’t show the data either. You can’t show that Delta’s currently superior wifi is increasing their bookings, customer retention, and loyalty over any airline (United, American, etc) that has a slower product.
But you contradict yourself again. You assert that United’s turning off T-Mobile’s free wifi will hurt United. So you believe a difference in wifi product creates customer choice and drives a passenger to pick one airline over another. But you also argue that when United has all it’s fleet on free Starlink before Delta even begins to install LEO won’t hurt Delta. And that won’t make a passenger pick one airline over another.
Okay.
UNITED rising
More Delta vapor ware
the double speak out of Tim’s mouth is next level.
On a normal day, Tim won’t shut up about Delta’s superior high speed wifi and the contribution to yields.
Now that it’s become obvious that UA will pass Delta and sustain that advantage for a few years, he now takes the stance that high speed wifi is not a differentiator and that customers don’t pay a premium for fast wifi.
I don’t think I’ve EVER seen Tim praise United’s recent financial performance as he has today.
But Tim, this is also one of the most broken and idiotic arguments you’ve ever made: “United is doing GREAT on revenue — ergo NO ONE chooses flights based on better wifi”
I don’t even have the time to explain why that’s one of the weakest arguments I’ve ever seen or why the logic behind it is at a kindergarten level of understanding. Frankly, Tim wouldn’t understand the explanation anyway.
Does everyone pick a preferred carrier based on wifi alone? Of course not. Do many high value customers pick based on wifi capabilities? Yes. Why? Because some people have to work on planes and United’s current wifi offering is better than Delta’s 717 wifi, but unusable for the most part otherwise for any real work.
As you state, Tim, United has been rapidly catching up to Delta and Delta is pretty obviously faltering as Ed Bastian’s incompetence becomes more and more evident as his top operational and network leaders leave him. We agree there — United has EASILY been beating Delta in financial result improvement while Delta spends money on loss-making hub aspirations like LAX, AUS, and SEA.
Grow up, Tim. You demand data yet provide ZERO of your own. You truly create new levels of stupidity every day that would seem to be unable to be matched — but you somehow do it and best yourself.
max can’t quantify the loss to United for not having high speed WiFi for 5 years when DL did.
Max can’t quantify the loss to UA for having T Mobile cut off WiFi on 90% of UA’s fleet – 1000 aircraft.
But TIm is the one that can’t think in mini brain’s little mind.
The rest of us can see the truth – and are all grown up to boot.
and UA delivered 2/3 of the profits that DL did in 2025 and that held true even on UA’s much larger international system – which means UA performed WORSE per seat mile than DL on international.
Don’t expect Gary or mini brain to figure out that reality but facts they are
It’s kind of wild how quickly this thread went off the rails. What could’ve been a simple discussion about airline Wi‑Fi turned into a bunch of personal jabs, political takes, and people getting triggered just by the mention of Elon Musk.
Regardless of where anyone stands on Starlink, Delta, United, Musk, or anything else—some of the back-and-forth here feels pretty childish. A lot of energy spent arguing in circles, trying to “win” points that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
At the end of the day, this is airline Wi‑Fi. It’s not exactly a defining issue of our time. Yet it somehow turns into heated debates, name-calling, and endless hypotheticals that no one here can actually prove.
Honestly, threads like this are a reminder of something bigger that’s a bit off in our culture right now—we’ve gotten so used to reacting, arguing, and digging in over just about anything. We spend a lot of time engaging in debates that don’t really improve anything or change anyone’s mind.
Maybe the better takeaway is this: not everything needs to turn into a battle. Sometimes it’s okay to step back, unplug a bit from all the noise, and focus on real life instead of getting pulled into the “matrix” of constant online arguments.
Just a thought.
kudos to gary for taking yesterday’s comments on this topic and adapting in to a new post which dunn can not ignore – it’s like chum in the water – we’re gonna need a bigger boat
dunn’s logic twisting is like a moebius loop inside a tessaract
we don’t possess the technology to decompose and map his argument
“Elon Musk is supposed to be the smartest person on earth”
Aww Timmy give us credit. We all know who the real smartest person is.
D Fray,
you are perfectly right.
Let’s keep in mind that UA is 4th out of 5 US airlines in number of seats with installed high speed WiFi – behind DL, AA and B6 but ahead of AS.
the real issue here, as with so many things is that there are a handful of UA fans that pollute aviation solution media that reflect the most-arrogant Scotty Kirby and who can’t admit that UA is at least #2 in just about everything including #4 in high speed WiFi – so they tell us incessantly how great the PROMISE OF fleet wide Starlink and how bad everyone else is even though UA corporate says they won’t have fleetwide Starlink for 19 more months.
Not one of these supposed UA fans can tell us how much UA lost to DL in not having high speed WiFI (likely very little if anything) and will lose over the next 19 months since TMobile pulled the plug on free non-Starlink WIFi – and yet we are supposed to think that DL will suffer by not having the fastest WIFi for a matter of months between when DL starts converting half of its mainline fleet to Amazon Leo – and DL uses the rest of the capacity that it will free up on Viasat for even faster service – which Viasat is improving now and will over the next 19 months.
It is all a play by the same people who are hopelessly insecure about UA and so have to do all they can to tout how great they are and eliminate the competition – which is an accurate description of Scott Kirby himself.
So, yeah, take it all w/ a grain of sand but do understand what really drives this incessant need by the UA fan nuts to tout their superiority which only exists in their own minds but certainly not in real life.
i’m now convinced tim dunn is an ai bot paid for by delta
and I’m convinced you have no capacity to critically think for yourself.
@Tim Dunn
Well, I fly both DL and UA cross country frequently, I guess I just never put that much thought or passion into either WIFI offering. So far, my experience with both is very similar, often slow, unreliable, and spotty. I do have personal experience (non-aviation) with Starlink and if it performs the same in the air as it did in a remote location I was in on land, it will be like having a wired connection while flying. These days, I answer a few emails, approve some invoices and then try to either sleep or watch a movie the rest of the time. Until I can join Zoom or Teams meetings in flight, it isn’t something I will get upset or passionate about
Cheers, take a breath and relax. Not really worth getting riled up about IMHO
Fray,
I am not the one telling anyone that the world will change because their company (UA) will all of a sudden decide to add high speed free WiFi.
and the irony is that when airlines allow Zoom etc, fewer people will travel – in part because it will deteriorate the experience so badly that no airline is willing to cross that bridge right now.
I am relaxed and breathe deeply esp on the subject of in-flight WiFI. Your admonition should be directed to UA’s fan club
the vast majority of the world sees it just like you – not as some rabid, make or break hill to die on
@Tim Dunn
Well, we certainly see eye to eye on streaming meetings during air travel, I get annoyed enough by loud, rude, thoughtless people daily, can’t imagine what a plane flight experience would look like if they allow phone calls and streaming meetings…. Not a good prospect.
Cheers