United Airlines ditches fleet of Jio operators for Starlink Wi-Fi

TAMPA, Fla. — United Airlines is replacing multiple geostationary operators with Starlink in SpaceX's largest aviation Wi-Fi deal, shaking up the last satellite broadband market where the low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation has yet to gain significant traction.

The US carrier announced on September 13 plans to start equipping its international fleet of more than 1,000 planes with Starlink connectivity next year after testing as early as 2025.

Nicole Carriere, a spokeswoman for United, declined to comment on the timing and details of the rollout by aircraft type but said the company will transition from current Wi-Fi partners Viasat, Panasonic, Thales and Intelsat “in a multi-year process.”

United, which has more routes across the Atlantic and Pacific than any other airline, plans to offer passengers high-speed, low-latency Starlink Wi-Fi for free.

“Anything you can do on the ground, you'll soon be able to do on a United plane at 35,000 feet, anywhere in the world,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement.

According to United, supported Starlink services will include live streaming, gaming and the ability to connect multiple devices together under one user.

Evolving competition

The announcement surprised analysts, including Louis DePalma of William Blair, who said Viasat's inflight connectivity service is considered the gold standard in the industry.

“We expected Starlink to win the Panasonic Avionics (wide body) and Intelsat (regional) equipped aircraft, but not the 536 ViaSat-equipped planes (of which 336 are indirectly served by Thales Aerospace),” he wrote.

According to DiPalma, Viasat currently dominates commercial inflight connections with 3,750 commercial airline services and another 1,460 in the backlog.

Basically all new planes for United, American Airlines, Southwest, and JetBlue come pre-installed with Viasat Wi-Fi, DePalma added, and the geostationary operator is still poised to be the market share leader five years later because it takes time. Restored and certified flat.

“ViaSat's aviation revenue will likely continue to grow,” he said.

“However, Starlink is positioned for the highest aviation market share over the next decade as this landmark deal is likely to lead to other wins.”

DiPalma said SpaceNews via email that a portion of Viasat's 1,460 aircraft backlog could be reduced after the Starlink deal.

“In our estimation, sometime in 2025, there will probably be a point where ViaSat will stop being pre-installed, and Starlink will be added to the new delivery plane,” he said.

Viasat said it does not expect any material changes to its financial outlook based on United's Starlink announcement.

“Based on our understanding we believe our current contracted aircraft and contracted backlog will remain in service for the remaining years of our contract with United Airlines,” Viasat spokesman Scott Gorrill said by email, referring to other questions about the contract with United.

“In-flight connectivity is a big, interesting growth market,” Gorrill added.

“Because of this, it has always been competitive and because of the growing demand for connectivity, there is room for multiple players.”

Assuming each United flight currently connected to Viasat generates $120,000 per year for the satellite operator, DiPalma said that's about $64 million in annual sales for the company, or about 1% of total revenue.

He said it would likely take three years to roll out Starlink service on all United flights.

Starlink's United partnership follows Wi-Fi agreements with smaller airlines and regional jet service providers including Hawaiian Airlines (being sold to Hawaiian Airlines), AirBaltic, Qatar Airways, ZPair, JSX, FlexJet and Aero.

Smaller US-based regional jet service providers JSX, Flexjet, and Aero said Starlink services have already been rolled out on their planes.

However, Hawaiian Airlines, the first major airline to announce a deal with Starlink, and Latvia's AirBaltic have moved forward with plans to offer services from this year to 2024.

Details of plans by Qatar Airways and Japan's ZPair to establish Starlink connections are also scant.

Competition between OneWeb and Starlink may soon come to a head after Alaska Airlines announced plans Dec. 3 to buy Hawaiian Airlines.