United Airlines will offer Starlink WiFi on all of its flights this year

United Airlines will begin rolling out Starlink-based in-flight internet access for its passengers this Spring. By the end of the year, all passenger aircraft of United Airlines’ regional fleet should be equipped with these WiFi terminals.

In February, the Chicago-based airline company will conduct its first test flight with an aircraft equipped with a Starlink terminal. Shortly after, in Springtime, the first passenger plane capable of offering WiFi internet access via Starlink, an Embraer E-175 regional jet, will take off.

United Airlines hopes to have installed Starlink terminals on its entire regional fleet by the end of the year. The first mainline planes, including Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s, will also get Starlink terminals before the end of the year.

The airline company doesn’t share any details about the Starlink internet connection. We don’t know what the download and upload speeds are going to be. United Airlines promises however that the in-flight internet connection is going to be comparable to a regular WiFi connection on the ground. That means it will be stable and fast enough to stream videos or to play online video games.

The Starlink WiFi service will be free for members of the company’s MileagePlus program. It remains unclear what non-members are going to have to pay.

“We have a lot planned for our MileagePlus members this year, and adding Starlink service on as many planes as we can – as quickly as we can – is at the center of it all,” Richard Nunn, CEO of United Airlines’ Mileage Plus program, said on Sunday according to TechCrunch.

“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,” he added.

Starlink is a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s American aerospace company SpaceX. The first Starlink satellites were launched in 2019. As of writing, more than 7,000 satellites are surfacing in Earth’s orbit.

Starlink currently has over 4.6 million customers around the world.