A Hawaiian Airlines A321 equipped with Starlink WiFi.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines will roll out free Wi-Fi on its commercial flights this week via SpaceX’s Starlink, the companies told CNBC, the first major U.S. airline to offer the satellite-based service.
“SpaceX has literally cracked the code from a technology standpoint, bringing broadband, very high-quality connectivity to a global fleet,” Peter Ingram, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, told CNBC. We have made it possible to provide it.”
Hawaiian Airlines’ free Wi-Fi plan comes as the airline ramps up its offering of high-speed connectivity. JetBlue Airways offers free Wi-Fi onboard its flights, and last year Delta Air Lines, after years of planning, began offering free in-flight internet to members of its loyalty program.
Hawaiian has an extensive air service network across the Pacific Ocean, with flights from Hawaii to destinations including the continental United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
“When you’re on a commercial airline flight, it feels like an absolutely impossible experience, and you can connect to the internet and experience it in a way that’s as good or better than what you can experience on a plane. It’s your own home,” Chad Gibbs, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink business operations, told CNBC.
“We have a completely different paradigm now, which is that we have incredible capacity and bandwidth that we can bring to the plane,” Gibbs added.
Hawaiian signed a deal with SpaceX in April 2022 to explore using the Starlink network, which consists of more than 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and boasts more than 2.3 million customers worldwide. The airline has not previously offered in-flight Wi-Fi.
Starlink terminals installed on Hawaiian Airlines aircraft.
Hawaiian Airlines
The companies did not disclose the value of the contract or how much it would cost to install aviation-specific Starlink terminals on commercial aircraft.
However, Ingram emphasized that “costs have come down from earlier Wi-Fi systems.” He noted that Hawaiian Airlines is “aggressively” installing Starlink terminals, with six installed on its Airbus A321 aircraft to date.
Hawaiian Airlines plans to add Starlink to a total of 18 A321s and 24 A330s later this year.
“We think this is going to set a whole new standard for connectivity in airplanes,” Ingram said.
The companies originally planned to begin installing Starlink terminals last year, but Ingram said it would need to launch more next-generation Starlink satellites and receive certification from the Federal Aviation Administration before installation could begin. Stated.
SpaceX has been steadily acquiring the necessary licenses for its various aircraft. Certified for small jets, semi-private charter company JSX will begin using the service in late 2022.
“Starlink has been used on more than 30,000 flights to date in the United States and around the world,” Gibbs said.
In addition to Hawaiian Airlines, SpaceX announced Starlink inflight Wi-Fi agreements with Latvia’s AirBaltic, Japan’s ZipAir, and Qatar Airways.
The addition of Starlink service comes on the heels of Hawaii Airlines closing a deal late last year to be acquired by Alaska Airlines for $1.9 billion.
—CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
