Starlink Internet is coming to these airlines early next year

Starlink He spreads his wings. It will add British Airways and four other airlines to the International Airlines Group’s fleet Satellite internet service to hundreds of their aircraft starting in early 2026.

the On-board Wi-Fi from Starlink It will be implemented on more than 500 Boeing and Airbus SE aircraft of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Level and Vueling, and will be available on transatlantic and global routes as well as short-haul flights in Europe.

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Starlink is already available on United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Air Baltic, Air France, Qatar Airways and WestJet. SAS, Air New Zealand and JSX have also said they will implement the service.

In-flight Internet connectivity is changing rapidly. Starlink continues to expand to include different carriers, but will face competition from Amazon Project Kuiperwhich plans to deploy thousands of low-orbit satellites. Amazon has already partnered with JetBlue to equip some of its planes with Kuiper technology.

Aside from the Musk-Bezos options, there are many ways to get in-flight Wi-Fi on major US airlines. As we detail here.

IAG said its fleet for all five airlines consists of 601 aircraft, and that each airline will determine its own plans for deploying Starlink. IAG’s airlines, based in Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland, carry 122 million customers to 260 destinations across 91 countries every year, the company said.

Regarding cost, an IAG representative told CNET that the company has not yet shared details on how the service will be priced for passengers.

IAG CEO Luis Gallego said The company is trying to keep up with the internet demands of its passengers.

“Staying connected in the sky is becoming increasingly important to our airline customers. The introduction of Starlink’s high-speed Wi-Fi will transform onboard connectivity, improving connection speed and reliability for customers,” Gallego said.

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CNET’s Jeff Carlson Starlink tested in flight He was impressed. He said the quality of video calls was “better than some of the recent calls we’ve had in our offices,” and initiating a call was as simple as you’d find in a coffee shop or hotel. Carlson says he was consistently getting download speeds of 250 Mbps, compared to the 10 Mbps he was getting when accessing United’s standard Wi-Fi on a flight the day before.

Wi-Fi has also been shown to speed up Starlink internet on board It’s actually faster Than you would get at home. If this seems counter-intuitive, consider Starlink’s fleet of… 7,000 satellites in low Earth orbit It’s much closer to your in-flight connection than the 22,000 miles that separate your connection at home Geostationary satellites.