SpaceX Starlink has 2,500 airplanes under contract after United megadeal, director says
PARIS — SpaceX nearly doubled its backlog of Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi orders with last week’s United Airlines deal, a company director said Tuesday.
PARIS — SpaceX nearly doubled its backlog of Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi orders with last week’s United Airlines deal, a company director said Tuesday.
“Very excited that we have about 2,500 aircraft under contract now, bringing what was effectively a startup to now what we think is a growing experience that’s going to resonate with all the passengers and the airlines worldwide,” Nick Galano, SpaceX director of Starlink aviation sales and partnerships, said during a panel at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris.
The satellite internet arm of Elon Musk’s space company is pushing into the in-flight connectivity, or IFC, market. Last week, United said it will outfit its more than 1,000 planes with Starlink and won’t charge customers for the Wi-Fi.
The United megadeal was Starlink’s largest IFC agreement yet. It will also push out United’s existing quartet of WiFi providers — Viasat, Panasonic, Thales and Gogo — as Starlink is installed on the airline’s planes in the next several years.
SpaceX has previously announced in-flight deals and has started service with Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Japan’s Zipair, Latvia’s airBaltic and semi-private charter airline JSX.
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