Your Next British Airways Wi-Fi Login Will Come With Ads

The parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL is turning its passengers into an advertising audience. IAG has launched IAG Media, a standalone UK company that will sell advertising across all five airlines, Skift reported exclusively on November 12. The pitch to advertisers is scale and attention: IAG carries about 122 million passengers a year to 285 destinations in more than 90 countries, and many of them spend hours with little else to look at.

Connectivity is what makes it possible. In November 2025, IAG announced a deal to fit Starlink Wi-Fi to more than 500 aircraft across its airlines, with the first planes going live in early 2026, and Skift reports about half the fleet should be equipped by the end of this year. IAG Media plans to serve personalized ads on the Starlink login portals and on inflight entertainment screens, then extend to airline websites, apps, PDF boarding passes and audience targeting beyond IAG’s own channels.

Executives Nacho Tovar and Josh Peckham told Skift the unit has two arms: a products and platform division, and an agency division with an in-house studio that mixes human designers with generative AI. Ads can be tuned by cabin, down to no advertising at all, which suggests premium passengers may see little or none of it. IAG gave no revenue forecast or profit target, and it is not first to the idea: United launched its Kinective Media business in 2024, and Lufthansa Group also sells media.

For travelers, the practical upshot is that faster inflight Wi-Fi is increasingly being paid for by marketers as much as by passengers. Expect sponsored messages on the page you see before getting online, and offers tailored to your trip in the airline’s app and confirmation emails. Fast Starlink installations are expensive, with Skift estimating $300,000 to $500,000 per aircraft, and advertising is one way airlines plan to recover that cost.

Sources: Skift, International Airlines Group