American Finally Commits To Starlink, But Only On Its Airbus Narrowbodies
Starlink is a real game-changer in the skies, offering low-latency, high-speed internet that allows for real productivity and streaming in-flight like never before.
Airlines that add it have seen their Net Promoter Scores double. For now, airlines that have it have a competitive advantage, but pretty soon, airlines without it will find themselves left behind as passengers book away from them.
Starlink requires airlines to offer the service for free, though they can monetize it through advertising and can require users to be airline loyalty members.
Airlines without Starlink may not want to pay for the costs while also losing out on paid WiFi revenue. They may also have expensive contracts to break with current satellite WiFi providers. However, the risk of losing business passengers will grow exponentially as airlines with Starlink deploy the service fleetwide.
While Starlink has required that airlines offer the service fleetwide, Southwest and now American have negotiated that requirement away with only partial fleet installation commitments.
American announced today that it will begin installing Starlink on its Airbus fleet, which consists of more than 500 narrowbody aircraft.
Unfortunately, that means most of its fleet, including the Boeing 737 narrowbody, and 777 and 787 widebodies, as well as regional Bombardier and Embraer jets, will be left behind.
That will be wildly uncompetitive with United, which will have its entire fleet equipped with Starlink by next year.
But it will be better than Delta, which decided to go with Amazon Leo and will only start installing that in 2028 with a subset of its fleet. That decision was driven by the desire to have a Delta Sync portal login, which was a non-starter for Starlink, which requires a portal-free login.
Airlines with Starlink or adding Starlink fleetwide include Aer Lingus, AirBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Alaska, Austrian, British Airways, Brussels, Emirates, Eurowings, FlyDubai, Hawaiian, ITA, Iberia, JSX, Level, Lufthansa, Qatar, SAS, Singapore, Southwest, Swiss, United, Virgin Atlantic, Vueling, WestJet, and ZipAir.
Have you flown on a flight with Starlink yet?
