United Airlines announced on Sunday an accelerated timeline for the rollout of free high-speed Starlink inflight Wi-Fi, with the first United regional Embraer E-175 aircraft set to have the internet service installed and up and running by the Spring.
The Chicago-based carrier says it now plans to focus on equipping its regional two-cabin aircraft fleet with Starlink before moving onto mainline aircraft. If all goes to plan, the entire regional fleet will be outfitted with Starlink by the end of 2025.
United also says that it plans to get its first mainline aircraft equipped with Starlink by the end of the year, although the carrier did not provide any further details on whether it would work to equip single-aisle or widebody aircraft first.
Unfortunately, that’s where further details about United’s Starlink rollout plans come to an end. The airline says that “ultimately,” it will have Starlink installed across its entire fleet, although United is refusing to set even a tentative schedule for this rollout.
United announced it had struck a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet business in September 2024 as part of an ambitious plan to roll out free, high-speed inflight Wi-Fi across more than 1,000 mainline United and regional United Express aircraft in the coming years.
At the time, United said it planned to start testing in early 2025, with the fleet-wide installation process set to start later this year.
Sunday’s announcement does, at least, clarify which aircraft is set to get Starlink installed first, with United prioritizing its regional fleet in the first wave of the rollout.
Using a so-called ‘constellation’ of low-earth orbit satellites, Starlink provides low-latency, broadband-quality Wi-Fi practically anywhere in the world. Live streaming and video gaming at 38,000 feet are easily achievable, and it won’t cost United passengers a dime, so long as they sign-up for the airline’s MileagePlus loyalty program.
Commenting on the Starlink partnership, the largest of its kind with a commercial airline, United’s CEO of the MileagePlus program, Richard Nunn, said on Sunday: “It’s not only going to revolutionize the experience of flying United, but it’s also going to unlock tons of new partnerships and benefits for our members that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.”
The only other US carrier to currently have Starlink available on some of its planes is Hawaiian Airlines. Elsewhere, Starlink has won support from Qatar Airways, Air France, Air New Zealand, and Air Baltic.
Other airlines may, however, be biding time as a rival satellite internet service in the works by Amazon gets set to launch. Amazon’s Project Kuiper was expected to launch its first satellites last year, but the program has been beset by delays, and the system isn’t expected to go live until later in 2025.
Amazon hopes to launch as many as 3,000 satellites into low earth orbit using Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin rockets, as well as Space X launchers in a bid to compete with Starlink.
The owner of British Airways, the Madrid-based airline group IAG, has confirmed that it is in talks with both Starlink and Amazon over plans to equip its planes with broadband-quality inflight Wi-Fi.
