Alaska Airways to supply free Starlink Wi-Fi on board its planes

Alaska Airways is leaping on the quick, free inflight Wi-Fi bandwagon.

The Seattle-based service on Wednesday introduced it’s going to outfit all of its planes with Starlink connectivity — and the service might be free to members of Atmos Rewards, the brand new joint loyalty program Alaska simply unveiled in live performance with sister airline Hawaiian Airways.

Alaska’s Wi-Fi improve comes after dad or mum firm Alaska Air Group final yr acquired Hawaiian, which has already put in Starlink on lots of its planes. (In truth, Hawaiian was the primary U.S. service to equip planes with Starlink connectivity.)

Now, Alaska-branded jets will get the Starlink service, too.

Alaska plans to start putting in the Starlink satellites on its planes this December, and it hopes to have its total fleet outfitted by early 2027.

That features the brand-new Hawaiian Airways Boeing 787s, which do not but have Starlink connectivity and at the moment are set to get repainted with Alaska branding early subsequent yr.

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Alaska’s Starlink Wi-Fi announcement comes at a time when airways are more and more upgrading their inflight web choices and making them free to prospects — or no less than to flyers who’ve a loyalty quantity to their title.

Delta Air Strains, United Airways and JetBlue (together with Hawaiian) have all both accomplished or begun the shift to free on-board searching. American Airways plans to make its Wi-Fi free early subsequent yr for AAdvantage loyalty members.

And Southwest Airways has been testing whether or not its on-board bandwidth is adequate to modify to a free setup for Speedy Rewards members.

Alaska plans so as to add the Starlink service to its Boeing 737 and 737 MAX planes (it has greater than 230 in its fleet) together with its regional jets flown by Horizon Air and SkyWest.

As for Hawaiian, the service has already outfitted its Airbus A330 and A321neo plane with Starlink. Nonetheless, TPG has confirmed the airline’s Boeing 717s — a fixture of its community of brief inter-island flights — won’t get the brand new high-speed Wi-Fi service.

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