Southwest expects to be the first major U.S. airline to have its entire fleet equipped with Starlink.
The Dallas-based airline partnered earlier this year with Starlink to offer satellite-based wireless internet service on its aircraft.
The first Starlink-equipped aircraft entered service this summer. Tony Roach, Southwest’s chief customer and brand officer, told AirlineGeeks on Thursday that 47 aircraft are now connected.
“The response we’ve gotten from customers flying on Starlink aircraft has been overwhelmingly positive, so our mission is, let’s get it out to everybody quickly,” Roach said. “The consistency is something we really want to focus on, so if you’re flying to El Paso, if you’re flying to Honolulu, we want you to be able to count on having this type of Wi-Fi on every aircraft. Retrofitting it quickly was in our mission.”
The carrier said earlier this year it was aiming to have the technology installed on over 300 aircraft by the end of 2026. Southwest expects to have its entire fleet equipped with Starlink by fall 2027.
Wi-Fi is free for Rapid Rewards members via T-Mobile.