American Airlines is getting Starlink Wi-Fi

American Airlines is planning to install SpaceX’s Starlink Wi-Fi in hundreds of its airplanes, the airline announced today . American says the deployment will start in the first quarter of 2027, and will span more than 500 aircraft, including its new A321XLR and A321neo planes from Airbus. Starlink will join Viastat and SES (previously known as Intelstat) as among the airline’s Wi-Fi providers. American is the latest air carrier to turn to Elon Musk’s Starlink for its Wi-Fi needs. Others include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa Group, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines recently struck a deal with Amazon Leo for Wi-Fi connectivity. Airlines are scrambling to make deals with satellite internet providers in the hopes of improving the traditionally dismal connectivity offerings on flights. Wi-Fi that relies on low-earth orbit satellites, like Starlink, tend to offer lower latency thanks to the shorter distance the signal has to travel as compared to satellites in geostationary orbit. Viasat uses geostationary satellites, while SES uses multi-orbit, low-earth orbit, and geostationary satellites. A recent report from Ookla found that SES-powered flights reported median download speeds of 61.61 Mbps, while Starlink-powered ones were averaging 152.37 Mbps. …