Airplane Wi-Fi Is Now … Good?
Dear and erratic, Wi-fi in flight has been more a punchline than a pipeline in the last decade. But 2025 marked a sea change for the sky: the deployment of rapid and free connectivity on most of the main airlines in the world.
Satellite technology made it possible to take steps on speed and bandwidth. The Starlink Network of Satellite SpaceX with low terrestrial orbit, for example, can provide a connection capable of downloading more than 200 megabits per second – twice as fast as most internet plans at home. As a result, a multitude of global airlines embody agreements with the company.
“We are creating a little living room in the sky,” explains Grant Milstead, vice-president of digital technology for United Airlines, who traveled his first road equipped with Starlink, from Chicago to Detroit, in May.
The boost of the bandwidth changes the face of business trips, giving leaflets the unprecedented ability to relax, zoom and collaborate with colleagues of 35,000 feet. They can download long powerpoints, edit Google Docs in real time and join Livestream lectures as perfectly as on the field. (Voice and video calls are technically possible with satellite technology, but prohibited by FAA and “strongly discouraged” by airlines around the world from the point of view of the label.)
It is a change that is sometimes felt, as if it would never come. For most of the 21st Century, airlines relied on soil cellular towers that offered slow coverage, or not, on rural areas, deserts and oceans – a problem for carriers such as Air New Zealand and Hawaiian airlines. Launched in 2008, Aircell, who would later become known as Gogo Inflight, offered an expensive but unequal air-solid service that served as a Stody industry standard.
Then, in 2013, JetBlue joined forces with Viasat for pioneer the use of satellites for Wi-Fi in flight. Although faster and more reliable than Gogo, satellite connectivity was slow to take off – an expensive company requiring the antenna at the top of the aircraft and placing routers across the plane.
The main carriers such as Delta and Cathay Pacific signed with the supplier several years later, but the advent of Starlink reduced the first advantage of Viasat. Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Air France have adopted or are in talks to potentially pilot Starlink technology, just like Canada and the charter operator based in the United States JSX.
Air New Zealand, who uses Viasat for its transpacific flights, plans to equip its national fleet with a Starlink service later this year. This decision will be a “change of game” for business travelers who could generally lead between hubs such as Auckland and Wellington, according to Nikhil Ravishankar, digital director of the airline.
