seUnited Airlines has been approved to begin operating flights with onboard Starlink satellite internet service. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the airline a certificate to operate the service on its fleet of Embraer 175 aircraft, with United expecting to install the SpaceX service on all 300 of the regional jets by the end of the year.
Starlink will be a free service for UnitedPlus members, which is essentially all passengers as the loyalty program is free to join. United and Starlink announced last year that the airline would outfit its entire fleet of more than 1,000 aircraft with Starlink in the next few years.
SpaceX has been on something of a tear recently, signing deals with numerous partners to offer Starlink beyond rural households, including partnering with T-Mobile and cruise ship operator Royal Caribbean. Beyond United, it has also signed deals to offer in-flight WiFi with Hawaiian and private jet operator JSX. The service is not expected to work well in densely populated areas as high-speed fiber is already available, and a singular Starlink satellite would likely not have enough bandwidth to serve many users simultaneously. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said Starlink would likely never be suitable in urban environments where high-speed internet access is already plentiful.
Starlink is expected to reach more than $11 billion in revenue in 2025, buoyed by government and commercial contracts. It helps essentially subsidize the cost of SpaceX rocket launches, as the company can send up new Starlink satellites with each payload.
Airlines are eager to offer the service as existing offerings from the likes of Gogo have been notoriously slow and unreliable, resulting in frequent complaints on social media from customers who pay $10-20 for a WiFi pass only to find the service does not work. Starlink can offer broadband-like speeds thanks to its constellation of satellites in low-earth orbit (LEO), though latency is high due to the inherent nature of sending requests to space and back.
It is somewhat surprising that airlines are willing to eat the cost of providing Starlink service considering the business model of “unbundling” airline tickets and charging extra for each perk. It would be unsurprising to see airlines eventually throttle the service and upcharge for faster speeds.
Being associated with Elon Musk, Starlink comes with some baggage. Where the service has been able to supply crucial internet access in locations such as Ukraine, countries in Asia and Europe have expressed some reservations about relying on internet service controlled by a close confidant of President Trump.
Europe is developing its own Eutelsat alternative, while Taiwan has similarly been exploring other options out of concern regarding Musk’s ties to China for Tesla sales. In Canada, the province of Ontario recently canceled a $100 million Starlink contract in retaliation over U.S. tariffs.
Musk may be able to secure lucrative government contracts domestically—and the Treasury Secretary has pushed to use Starlink in the government’s rural internet access program—but his newfound influence is a double-edged sword. Musk’s empire is exposed to geopolitical conflict being so close to President Trump.
