(Bloomberg) -- United Airlines Holdings Inc. announced a deal for SpaceX’s Starlink to power its inflight Wi-Fi, becoming the first major US carrier to use the satellite system and giving the Elon Musk-run company a marquee customer.
The airline will begin testing the service early next year and roll it out to passenger flights later in 2025, the companies said Friday in a statement. Starlink will eventually be available for free across the carrier’s entire fleet of more than 1,000 planes on seatback screens and personal electronic devices.
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, an offering that vacation travelers as well as road-warrior business people see as essential.
“This could be a watershed moment for Starlink,” said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space. “Starlink has seen slower uptake among aviation customers compared to consumer and maritime, but United marks a notable shift. As a leading airline, others are going to take notice.”
The announcement sent shares of competing Wi-Fi providers tumbling. Viasat Inc. plunged 14% as of 12 p.m. in New York, the biggest intraday decline in a month, while Gogo Inc. was down 3.1%. United shares rose 2.1%.
The carrier’s move to Starlink began during a review of options to replace Intelsat’s Gogo on its regional aircraft, with that agreement set to end next year, Linda Jojo, United’s chief customer officer, said in an interview.
“When we overlaid our global route network — across the Pacific, across the Atlantic and everywhere in between — Starlink already had a superior coverage to what we have today,” she said. “At that point we said we have to figure out how to get this on all of our planes.”
Federal regulators have to certify the use of Starlink on certain aircraft and United’s installation process, Jojo said. The airline has talked with its other broadband service providers — Panasonic, Viasat Inc. and Thales SA — about shifting to Starlink but hasn’t yet worked out how to wind down their service, she said.
While there was debate at United about not charging for the service, “free Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming an expectation no matter where you go,” Jojo said.
Low Latency
Starlink is SpaceX’s ever-growing internet-from-space initiative that consists of more than 6,300 satellites in a relatively low orbit around Earth. Together, the satellites work in tandem to beam broadband internet coverage to the ground below. Unlike other satellite internet systems in much higher orbits, Starlink’s closer proximity to Earth cuts down on latency, as there’s less distance for signals to travel from the ground to the satellites.
In the US, only Hawaiian Holdings Inc. and public charter carrier JSX currently use Starlink.
“Aviation was the last realm of the satellite connectivity market for which Starlink has not emerged as the industry leader,” Louie DiPalma, a William Blair analyst, said in a note. “However, Starlink is positioned to have the highest aviation market share over the next decade as this landmark deal will likely lead to other wins.”
Viasat likely will remain the market leader five years from now, given the industry’s slow-moving nature, he said.
The rollout of Starlink on United aircraft likely will take three years while Starlink works to receive regulatory approvals, DiPalma said, making the revenue benefit for Starlink “almost immaterial” for the next two years.
The Starlink gate-to-gate service on United will allow access to personal 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 companies said.
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet,” United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said in the statement.
Outside of the US, Starlink is used by Qatar Airways QCSC and Air Baltic Corp., while Air New Zealand Ltd. and ZIPAIR Tokyo Inc. have announced agreements with the company.
(Updates with analyst comment in fourth paragraph)
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