Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, has dealt a blow to passengers hoping the carrier might roll out free in-flight Wi-Fi on non-Starlink-equipped airplanes after a brief glitch last week allowed open access across United’s fleet.
The Chicago-based carrier is currently in the process of rolling out fast and free Starlink internet across its massive fleet, offering passengers one-click access to low-latency, broadband-quality internet access.
The rollout has already been completed on United’s regional aircraft, while working to equip Starlink on the airline’s mainline narrowbody fleet continues at pace. The rollout will finish with United’s widebody aircraft, with the entire fleet hopefully running Starlink by the end of 2027.
The introduction of Starlink is obviously a game-changer for passengers who are lucky to fly on one of the planes running the system, but it does create a temporary two-tier system.
Passengers on a Starlink-enabled plane not only get to enjoy streaming-quality internet, but they get to do so for free. Everyone else has to make do with in-flight Wi-Fi, which is not only much slower but also comes at a cost.
There is, though, a simple reason why United doesn’t plan to roll out free internet access on non-Starlink-equipped planes… and it comes down to discouraging passengers from using in-flight Wi-Fi.
“The reason is, because you make it unusable when you make it free,” Kirby said during an earnings call. “The issue is bandwidth, particularly flying across the Atlantic or across the Pacific.”
Hammering home the point, Kirby added: “So when you make it free on the airplane, there’s so much (competition for) bandwidth it doesn’t work for anyone.”
It’s for this exact reason that it’s suspected that T-Mobile recently dropped its free in-flight Wi-Fi package for passengers traveling on United Airlines flights.
Essentially, the promotion has become so popular that too many people are trying to access free in-flight Wi-Fi on aircraft with older internet systems, sucking up the available bandwidth and making the Wi-Fi signal patchy for everyone on board.
United certainly isn’t alone in temporarily running a two-tier Wi-Fi service while its Starlink rollout continues. In fact, nearly every airline that has announced deals with Starlink has no plans to offer free Wi-Fi on non-Starlink-enabled airplanes.
Interestingly, though, some U.S.-based airlines are trying to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi to all passengers, even though they are using older in-flight internet systems that put pressure on a much smaller number of geosynchronous satellites.
Airlines that are currently offering free Wi-Fi to all, without the benefit of Starlink, include American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines will also soon roll out Starlink on its Boeing 737s, while Delta has inked a deal with Starlink rival Amazon Leo. American Airlines has yet to pick a high-speed Wi-Fi successor to its current internet suppliers.
