Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

Title: Alaska Air will offer Starlink in-flight internet starting next year

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:00:23 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/transportation/alask...

In-flight internet is crappy, but more and more airlines think that Starlink
is the solution. The latest company to sign with the SpaceX affiliate is
Alaska Air Group, which announced that it will start offering Starlink Wi-Fi
next year and expand the service to its entire fleet by 2027. "With Starlink
already live on [Alaska Air Group subsidiary] Hawaiian Airlines, we're proud
that we'll offer... gate-to-gate connectivity on nearly every aircraft across
both airlines," CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.

The company noted in a separate announcement that it will offer the perk for
free to members of its new loyalty program called Atmos Rewards. T-Mobile, a
partner with Alaska, will also offer a "seamless, ad-free Wi-Fi log-on" to
the in-flight Starlink service, with more details to be announced later this
year. Alaska Air touted the benefits of "ultra-fast speeds... up to 7x faster
than the geostationary satellite-based Wi-Fi systems that most airlines use
today."

Other airlines may jump on board soon, too. British Airways is also on the
verge of announcing a Starlink deal, Bloomberg reported, and SpaceX has also
reportedly been in conversation with Dubai's Emirates. Both of those are
flagship carriers in their respective nations, so winning the business would
be a large coup for Starlink against legacy operators like Viasat and
Echostar.

Switching to Starlink isn't necessarily cheap, though. It reportedly costs
around $300,000 to equip a 737 and around half a million to install the
system on a 787 Dreamliner. On top of that, airlines pay around $120 monthly
per seat, plus another $120 for live TV, according to Bloomberg's sources.
(None of the airlines in negotiations have confirmed any details.)

Despite those costs, carriers see reliable in-flight internet as a potential
game-changer, as it would allow customers to work, communicate and stream
videos or live TV. If the latter can be done reliably, it might even allow
airlines to get rid of heavy and expensive on-demand entertainment systems.

The main downside for potential customers is SpaceX's owner, Elon Musk. Some
may view his fractured relationship with US president Donald Trump as a
negative, while end-users may be turned off by his political affiliations ΓÇö
something that has seemingly affected sales of his Tesla EVs of late.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/transportation/alask...
flight-internet-starting-next-year-120023852.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528