Delta Skipped Starlink While Its Rivals Went All In

Delta Air Lines has nearly finished rolling out free Wi-Fi, with about 1,300 aircraft equipped, according to The Points Guy. Delta began offering it free to loyalty members in early 2023, and most major U.S. airlines have since followed its lead.

What Delta has not done is equip its planes with Starlink, generally described as the fastest in-flight connection. United, Alaska and Southwest are all moving to it. United has Starlink on 43% of its jets according to a tracker it published, Alaska is about 40% complete, and Southwest expects its whole fleet to be outfitted ahead of both.

Delta’s own path runs through a newer Viasat satellite, with upgrades expected to be complete on North and South America flights by Thanksgiving and work on regional jets and Boeing 717s being wrapped up. It also signed on to Amazon’s Starlink-like Leo service, becoming the largest airline to do so, though that will not reach Delta planes until 2028 and remains unproven.

Delta chief marketing and product officer Ranjan Goswami says the airline is not worried, pointing to global coverage on routes such as Airbus A350 flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. He compared finishing the rollout to repainting the Golden Gate Bridge: once it is done, you start over. For passengers, connection speed may now depend more on which aircraft and airline you land on than on whether Wi-Fi is free.

Sources: The Points Guy