SpaceX Starlink has contract for 2,500 aircraft

PARIS — SpaceX nearly doubled its backlog of Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi orders last week. United Airlines A director of the company said on Tuesday that this deal is very important.

“We’re very excited that we now have contracts for almost 2,500 aircraft, effectively turning a startup into a now-growing experience that’s going to resonate with all passengers and airlines around the world,” 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 entering the in-flight connectivity, or IFC, market. Last week, United said it would equip more than 1,000 of its planes with Starlink and would not charge customers for Wi-Fi.

The United megadeal was Starlink's largest IFC agreement to date. It will also exclude United's quartet of existing WiFi providers – ViasatPanasonic, Thales, and Gogo – Because Starlink will be installed on airline planes in the next few years.

SpaceX has already announced in-flight deals and begun service with it. Hawaiian AirlinesQatar Airways, Japan's Zipair, Latvia's airBaltic and semi-private charter airline JSX.

SpaceX has steadily expanded its Starlink network and product offerings since its launch in 2020. The company initially targeted consumers but has expanded into other markets, including enterprise services such as aviation and maritime.

According to the company, there are currently about 6,400 Starlink satellites in orbit, connecting more than 3 million customers in 100 countries.

Galano praised the “enormity of capacity we can provide” through Starlink, saying that the current satellite constellation is “probably 100 times greater than the capacity provided by all the legacy systems combined” as “there is over 300 terabits per second of capacity today.”

SpaceX also continues to add capacity, launching rockets carrying new Starlink satellites every three days on average this year, according to the company.

Galano also stressed that SpaceX is trying to reduce the time it takes to install new antennas on aircraft. This process, known as retrofitting, is a hassle for airlines because upgrading or replacing satellite communications systems requires taking a plane out of active service for several days.

“We’re trying to simplify these installations – we use the word innovation – so they can be done in under a day, which we’ve proven on the Hawaiian and JSX fleets,” Galano said.

By comparison, Delta Air Lines According to Glenn Latta, the airline's managing director of in-flight entertainment and connectivity, its satellite IFC retrofits take “about three days on average.” But Latta said Delta's process, which requires retrofitting 1,200 planes, is more intensive than the installation of Starlink on Hawaiian's fleet, which is on 66 planes in mid-2024, according to a securities filing.

“Retrofit for us means removing the system that's there … and then you can install this,” Latta told CNBC after the conference panel.[Hawaiian] We've never had a SATCOM system, so that's a gap that has to be taken into account.”

Delta, which relies on Viasat for in-flight service, said it will make WiFi free for its members in early 2023 — a decision that Latta says has proven to be very beneficial for the airline. Both Delta and United are in a battle for high-end customers.

“We have added 3 million additional SkyMiles members to our loyalty program by offering free Internet access,” Latta said.

— CNBC's Leslie Josephs contributed to this article.