United Airlines has quietly turned off its new high-speed inflight internet service on its regional jets just a month after the first plane with the high-tech equipment returned to commercial service.
The internet service is provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink company, a division of SpaceX, but don’t worry, this hasn’t got anything to do with Musk’s politics or his spectacular falling out with President Trump.
What’s happened in a nutshell?
- United has been forced to temporarily disable high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi service on around two dozen regional jets that have currently been retrofitted with the system.
- The affected planes are Embraer E175 regional jets which operated United Express branded flights.
- Passengers first noticed a lack of Wi-Fi on affected flights last week, but the airline didn’t confirm the situation until the travel website The Points Guy ran a story.
- United and Starlink are currently working on a fix, but no definitive timeline has yet been shared.
Why Did United disable Starlink on its regional Jets?
Shortly after the planes returned to commercial service, pilots started to report annoying static in their headphones, potentially affecting communication with air traffic control in congested areas of airspace.
The static is believed to be caused by radio interference between the newly installed Starlink antennas and the VHF antennas, which are used for pilot radio communication.
Questions will be asked as to why this wasn’t picked up by United, Starlink, or federal aviation regulators during the certification process. United is the first global carrier to install Starlink on smaller regional planes, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) signed off on a supplemental-type certificate back in March.
What’s United Airlines saying?
United Airlines seems pretty confident that it can sort out a relatively easy fix for the issue, saying in a statement.
“Starlink is now installed on about two dozen United regional aircraft. United and Starlink teams are working together to address a small number of reports of static interference during the operation of the Wi-Fi system, which is fairly common with any new airline Wi-Fi provider. We expect the service to be back up and running on these aircraft soon.”
Does this have anything to do with Elon Musk and President Trump?
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has come out as a supporter of the Trump administration, although the deal with Starlink was announced in September 2024, before the 2024 US presidential election.
Despite the spectacular and very public falling out between Elon Musk and President Trump, the teething issues with United’s Starlink rollout aren’t connected in any way.
What does this mean for United’s passengers?
- If you’re flying on one of 24 United Express regional jets, expect no Wi-Fi on your flight.
- United had boasted a very ambitious installation rollout so this is also likely to be significantly affected.
- The plan was to complete the Starlink rollout on 320 regional airplanes by the end of the year before moving onto its mainline short-haul fleet.
- There’s no timeline for when widebody jets will be retrofitted with Starlink.
What are United’s plans for Starlink?
United Airlines plans to install Starlink across its entire fleet of aircraft, providing free, super-fast inflight Wi-Fi to all passengers wherever Starlink is certified.
Unlike rival Wi-Fi services, the installation time for Starlink is much shorter, meaning that the rollout could be completed much faster than we have been traditionally used to.
Clickbaity. Politics are totally irrelevant to the matter.
Installs are continuing and the fix is currently being evaluated. Not a safety-critical matter but something they absolutely want to work out.
Does this affect the onboard personal device entertainment if connecting to the WiFi signal where you aren’t trying to access the outside Internet?