Tag Archives for wifi.
Delta just picked Amazon’s not-yet-operational Leo service to replace its current inflight Wi-Fi on 500 aircraft starting in 2028, giving Amazon a marquee airline customer and a badly needed foothold against Starlink. But for passengers, the more important point is that Delta is still moving slowly: United’s Starlink rollout is already underway and is expected to be much further along before Delta’s new system even starts showing up onboard.
American Airlines may finally be ready to bring back seatback TVs. That would reverse years of stripping screens from much of its fleet, and it comes just as the airline faces pressure to upgrade a Wi-Fi product that once stood out but has since been passed by rivals.
Southwest Airlines has dominated my home airport in Austin, but I’ve long avoided flying them—not for their bag fees or the boarding process, but because their unreliable wifi crushed productivity. Now, Southwest is finally fixing their biggest problem by rapidly rolling out Starlink wifi, promising internet speeds in the air that rival your home network.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle has confirmed what many flyers have waited years to hear: Wi-Fi is finally coming. After long resisting the cost of onboard connectivity, the ultra-low-cost carrier appears ready to join the rest of the industry online.
A Delta passenger endured a full-volume midnight Zoom call on a delayed flight—proof that America’s ban on in-flight calling punishes the wrong problem.
JetBlue is expected to announce a delay to equip some of its planes with Amazon wifi, as the launch airline for the product that’s supposed to be even faster than Starlink.
I’m really looking forward to these planes having functional wifi. It won’t be as good as the Starlink that United will be installing, and offering to passengers for free, but it will solve a pain point that’s kept me mostly off of them. However I’m going to have them even more off of my ‘do not fly’ list until the process is completed because the chance of no internet at all is even worse than slow internet.
Starlink has the fastest internet in the sky. It blows away Viasat and similar offerings that you’ll find on airlines like American and Delta. Bandwidth aside, their satellites are in lower orbit and the signal just has a shorter distance to travel. In my experience on board, it’s meant basically no latency. I can work in the air just like I do with a fiber connection on the ground.
United Airlines is adding free Starlink wifi to its planes over the coming years, with the first install expected in service next year. Based on experience with Hawaiian Airlines and JSX, it should be faster – and with far less latency – than competitors’ wifi.
Having seen Starlink perform first on JSX and more recently on Hawaiian I can say that it really is the best inflight wifi product by a lot. Beyond faster speeds, it just has very very low latency. The technical aspects of it are outside my area but signals just don’t have as far to travel with the satellites in low earth orbit. Installations can be done in a single overnight period.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
