United Airlines has partnered with Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide cutting-edge inflight internet connectivity on hundreds of its flights, a first-of-its-kind to passengers. The first test will be rolled out beginning in the early of 2025, with the first passenger flight expected later the same year.
Starlink is the first and world’s leading satellite internet service provider, already offering high-speed and low-latency connectivity, breaking downtime barriers across the world.
United Airlines, being one of the leading aviation industries in innovation, with over 100 million customers annually across North America, the Atlantic, and the Pacific routes, might have to expand its number of flights and destinations due to the most reliable internet service that most companies are yet to offer.
It’ll also hold the badge as being the first airline operating in North America to have leveraged Starlink’s internet service to make live streaming, gaming, and live support with the United app available to its customers onboard.
Customers will not only have access on their personal devices but also on their seatback screens. The United plans to increase the number of seatback screens in the near future, as the availability is currently stacked at nearly 100,000.
United’s industrial and tactical innovative path is already a ticking-bomb to the leading aviation service providers in the United States and the entire continent. The top leading airlines—American, Delta, and Southwest—will have to shape in with Starlink’s wave to retain hundreds of millions of their customers.
Starlink has masked users across all continents, including over 100 countries, providing steady connectivity in rural areas, oceans, and areas inhabitable or out of reach through the cable-based internet service providers.
It has also managed to keep up with demand and supply and 24-hour uptime, even during wildfires, blackouts, and weather-related storms. Starlink is currently having over 6,000 active satellites in the low Earth orbit, accounting for more than two-thirds of the total active satellites in the orbit.
