United Airlines has announced that it has installed Starlink on its first regional jet, with plans to roll out the service to its entire fleet over the next few years.
With an average installation time of about eight hours per aircraft (excluding any de-installation of existing equipment, testing or aircraft modification), United expects to outfit more than 40 regional jets per month, starting from May through the end of 2025.
For the moment, they will upgrade all two-cabin class regional aircraft, and will move on to outfitting its entire mainline fleet of 1,000+ jets.
Credit: United AirlinesN127SY, a SkyWest Airlines-operated Embraer ERJ-175, was the first to receive Starlink treatment, with download speeds averaging 230 Mbps. Customers can now stream and browse as much faster speeds, and the carrier is offering this for free for those with MileagePlus accounts.
“Our ability to roll-out this innovative service with unprecedented speed and scale is a direct result of the advanced equipment, technology and team of experts at United,” said United’s VP of Digital Technology, Grant Milstead. “Starlink has been a terrific partner – our combined spirit of innovation and collaboration will enable us to hit our goal of more than 300 regional aircraft installations before the end of this year.”
From a technical aspect, United expects each aircraft undergoing the upgrade to be offline for just four days (compared to 10 days for other tradition inflight providers) to facilitate de-installation of older equipment, Starlink installation, testing and closing up of all parts and panels required for the installation.
Given that all the hardware is only 85 pounds, compared to other providers’ units that can weigh up to 300 pounds, they benefit from easier transportation and reduced fuel consumption. The margins might be small, but they save pretty much the equivalent of flying one less person on board.
United is now the fifth commercial carrier to offer Starlink followed between Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways, JSX and airBaltic.
Featured image: Next Trip Network/Flickr | CC BY 2.0 Generic
