Southwest Airlines will launch free in-flight Wi-Fi for all passengers signed up to its Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program, beginning October 24, thanks to a sponsorship deal with T-Mobile, the Dallas-based carrier announced on Thursday.
The deal makes Southwest the largest domestic carrier in the United States to offer free Wi-Fi across all internet-enabled aircraft. In total, free Wi-Fi should be available on more than 800 Southwest aircraft by the end of the year.
“We are focused on making sure our Customers have a great experience from the time they book a flight to the time they reach their destination,” commented Tony Roach, Southwest’s Executive Vice President and Chief Customer & Brand Officer.
“This is part of our ongoing commitment to elevate the cabin experience, with free WiFi being just one of the many enhancements Customers will see in the months ahead,” Roach continued.
T-Mobile also sponsors free in-flight Wi-Fi on Delta flights – a process that started on domestic flights in 2023 but which was only rolled out to international flights in April, beginning with all transatlantic flights to Europe, Israel, and West Africa.
Free Wi-Fi remains unavailable on Delta’s Boeing 717 jets, and the installation process isn’t expected to get underway until next year. Many regional jets also remain without free in-flight Wi-Fi, with the retrofit program expected to stretch into 2026.
Delta’s international flights to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa also won’t get free Wi-Fi until next year.
American Airlines has also offered free in-flight service to T-Mobile contract holders through its ‘In-Flight Connection On Us’ program, but this was limited to mobile devices and excluded anyone without a T-Mobile phone contract.
In April, American Airlines said it would be ditching T-Mobile for a collaboration with AT&T to roll out free in-flight Wi-Fi to all passengers. Unfortunately, the new service isn’t expected to launch until January 2026.
Southwest’s decision to launch free in-flight Wi-Fi fleetwide comes just months after the airline carried out a short-lived trial to see if its internet service could keep up with the demand placed on it by many more passengers accessing Wi-Fi when it’s free to use.
These problems aren’t a concern for United, which is rolling out free high-speed, low-latency Starlink internet service. Unfortunately, it could still be some time before all United customers get to take advantage of the Starlink service, despite an accelerated timeline.
United intends to focus on its regional fleet first, with all of these aircraft expected to be retrofitted with Starlink by the end of the year. The carrier also hopes to have its first mainline aircraft kitted out with Starlink by the end of 2025, although United is yet to commit to a timeline for when it expects the retrofit program to be complete.
Also on Thursday, JetBlue announced that it would become the launch customer of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet service, which is a direct competitor to Starlink, using a constellation of low-earth orbiting satellites to provide lightning-fast Wi-Fi.
The service is not, however, expected to launch until 2027.
