United Airlines to roll out Starlink for passengers this Spring — download speeds up to 220 Mbps

A row of several United Airlines planes at sunset
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

United Airlines, the largest airline in the world, has announced plans to upgrade its entire fleet to Starlink-powered in-flight Wi-Fi beginning this spring. The company is also speeding up its existing plans to offer Starlink access for free to all of its "MileagePlus" members.

United will begin testing Starlink connectivity in flights in February and hopes to offer it in commercial flights as soon as this spring. The first wave of the fleet to see Starlink will be certain regional flights on the Embraer E-175 aircraft, a smaller 88-passenger plane often used for transit between small, local airports. By the end of 2025, United plans to have its entire regional fleet Starlink operational and launch its first mainline Starlink flight.

United Airlines plans to add Starlink to its entire fleet of 992 aircraft, though the timeline for upgrading all planes is not public. The news that United is ramping up its rollout comes after United signed the flight industry's largest-ever agreement with Starlink in September 2024, when the announced timeline was several years long.

Starlink, the satellite internet service run by SpaceX, is already Hawaiian Airlines' inflight Wi-Fi provider. All Hawaiian flights offer free Starlink Wi-Fi, and anecdotal reports suggest that online sharing download speeds hover around 100 Mbps while flying over the Pacific Ocean.

This performance knocks other inflight Wi-Fi providers out of the water in terms of its coverage over the mid-Pacific and its speeds. Some customers also report higher-than-average packet loss and other network slowdowns using Starlink in flight, but this comes with the territory of satellite Wi-Fi and should improve as Starlink upgrades its satellite web.

Starlink Wi-Fi in United flights will be free to all MileagePlus members, which is itself a free rewards membership through United. This matches the standard set by Hawaiian and will beat out competitors' paid inflight Wi-Fi plans.

Starlink's customer service and other services are powered by xAI, another Elon Musk-owned venture focused on artificial intelligence. xAI recently announced the completion of a $6 billion funding round dedicated to raising money for the next wave of xAI supercomputer clusters, adding to Musk's stable. xAI trains its AI with data from Tesla and SpaceX, though assumedly, United fliers accessing Starlink will not have their browsing data used by the venture.

Dallin Grimm
Contributing Writer

Dallin Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Dallin has a handle on all the latest tech news. 

  • punkncat
    B, b, b, but having your cell phone on causes issues with the flight equipment.....
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    punkncat said:
    B, b, b, but having your cell phone on causes issues with the flight equipment.....
    Device use, in airplane mode, to access the interwebs has been allowed for years. Just putting that out there.
    Reply
  • punkncat
    COLGeek said:
    Device use, in airplane mode, to access the interwebs has been allowed for years. Just putting that out there.

    I am sure you are of an age that you remember when the airlines used to like to fear-monger people out of using them anyway, in spite of the subterfuge. Comment was meant tongue in cheek.
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    punkncat said:
    I am sure you are of an age that you remember when the airlines used to like to fear-monger people out of using them anyway, in spite of the subterfuge. Comment was meant tongue in cheek.
    I sure do remember. Not everyone who reads this thread will know that.

    I truly hope to never see the day that people can place calls from their cellphones while flying. Would be nearly as annoying as a kid kicking your seat for hours.
    Reply
  • subspruce
    220Mbps for an entire plane sounds appalling.
    Reply