Hawaiian Airlines is set to revolutionize the in-flight experience by rolling out complimentary Wi-Fi on board its commercial flights this week, becoming the first major U.S. airline to offer the service powered by SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.
“SpaceX has really cracked the code – literally, in terms of the technology – to be able to deliver a wide bandwidth of very high-quality connectivity to an airplane with a global reach,” said Peter Ingram, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines.
This move by Hawaiian Airlines comes as airlines across the industry are enhancing their offerings for high-speed connectivity. JetBlue Airways already offers complimentary Wi-Fi on board, while Delta Air Lines launched free onboard internet for members of its loyalty program last year, following years of planning.
Hawaiian Airlines boasts an extensive network of flights over the Pacific Ocean, serving destinations including the mainland U.S., Japan, Australia, and New Zealand from Hawaii. According to Chad Gibbs, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink business operations, the experience of connecting to the internet on Hawaiian Airlines flights will be similar to, if not better than, what passengers can experience at home.
“We now have a totally different paradigm, which is that we have incredible amounts of capacity and bandwidth that we can bring to the plane,” Gibbs added.
The partnership between Hawaiian Airlines and SpaceX was established in April 2022, with the airline looking to utilize SpaceX’s Starlink network, which comprises more than 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and serves over 2.3 million customers worldwide. Prior to this collaboration, Hawaiian Airlines did not offer inflight Wi-Fi. The financial details of the agreement and the cost of installing aviation-specific Starlink terminals on commercial aircraft were not disclosed.
Ingram emphasized that the costs of implementing this technology have decreased compared to early Wi-Fi systems. Hawaiian Airlines is actively installing Starlink terminals, with six already completed on its Airbus A321 planes. The airline plans to add Starlink to 18 of its A321 jets and 24 of its A330 aircraft later this year.
“We think it is really going to set an entirely new standard for connectivity on airplanes,” said Ingram.
Although the original plan was to begin installing the Starlink terminals last year, SpaceX needed to launch more next-generation Starlink satellites and obtain certification from the Federal Aviation Administration before installation could commence.
SpaceX has been actively pursuing licenses for a wide range of aircraft. It has already received certification for smaller jets, with semi-private charter JSX starting to use the service in late 2022.
“To date, Starlink has been used on over 30,000 flights, on flights across the U.S. and around the world,” Gibbs noted.
In addition to Hawaiian Airlines, SpaceX has announced Starlink inflight Wi-Fi deals with Latvia’s airBaltic, Japan’s Zipair, and Qatar Airways.
The introduction of Starlink service to Hawaiian Airlines comes shortly after the airline’s agreement late last year to be acquired by Alaska Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal.
(Source: Big Island News | Best of Hawaii | CNBC)
