Hawaiian Airlines is set to introduce complimentary Wi-Fi for its passengers on commercial flights this week. According to Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram, the airline’s decision to offer this service was influenced by SpaceX’s ability to provide high-quality connectivity with a global reach. This development makes Hawaiian Airlines the first major US airline to provide satellite-based internet service to its passengers.
Ingram explained that the airline waited for technology to catch up with its high standards for guest experiences before making this decision. Several other airlines, including Delta Airlines and Frontier Airlines, have also reportedly shown interest in SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. Starlink is already available on select Qatar Airways flights and boasts download speeds of 40-220+ MBPS, upload speeds of 8-25+ MBPS, and latency of less than 99 ms, as per SpaceX.
Zach Griff, a travel reporter and blogger from The Points Guy, shared his positive review of Starlink while flying on a JSX flight. He noted that the Wi-Fi speeds provided by Starlink were the fastest he had ever experienced in the air, as he connected to five Apple products during the flight.