Over the weekend, the world's largest airline, United Airlines, announced an expedited rollout of Starlink on its aircraft. The first flight with Starlink will fly in spring, and all of its two-cabin regional fleet will be outfitted with the technology by the end of the year. The first mainline plane with Starlink is expected to fly by the end of the year.
The first plane to get Starlink will be the United Embraer E-175 in the spring. The end goal will be to have all of its airplanes fitted with Starlink receivers, but that goal isn't currently expected to be done by this year. For anyone not familiar with Starlink, it's a satellite constellation in orbit around the Earth that beams internet connectivity to Earth, it's run by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
To use Starlink aboard United Airlines, you must be a member of its free MileagePlus loyalty scheme. This service also gives you access to various in-flight entertainment services such as streaming. If you want to make an account on MileagePlus, United Airlines said you can learn more here.
“We have a lot planned for our MileagePlus members this year and adding Starlink to as many planes as we can – as quickly as we can – is at the center of it all,” said Richard Nunn, CEO of United MileagePlus. “It's not only going to revolutionize the experience of flying United, but it's also going to unlock tons of new partnerships and benefits for our members that otherwise wouldn't be possible.”
The inclusion of broadband-quality internet on planes, for free, will be a major appeal to customers when deciding who to fly with. While slow internet doesn't matter too much for short hops, flying for many hours can get tedious, especially with an internet connection that might only give you very restricted internet access, such as sending text-only messages on WhatsApp. To get more connectivity than this, it typically involves paying extra.
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