MW How Elon Musk's Starlink is fueling growth by tackling terrible airplane wifi

By William Gavin

The satellite-internet business has reached deals with at least 30 carriers to provide in-flight wifi

Starlink's in-flight wifi has been a hit with airlines. That could prove troublesome for rival providers.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is best known for flashy rocket launches and bold plans to colonize Mars. But it is Starlink, its satellite-internet business, that is raking in the bulk of the company's cash. The success is driven in part by a very earthly concern: making airplane wifi more reliable.

Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, has been growing its customer base to include more cruise operators and residential homes - and, increasingly, airlines. Passengers have long complained about spotty internet service in the air, and Starlink is positioning its business as one with far superior technology.

Although the aviation business won't account for a large share of the roughly $18.7 billion in revenue experts estimate Starlink will bring in this year, some analysts say it's the fastest-growing segment of Starlink's mobility business. It also helps bring costs down by letting airplanes pay for coverage that Starlink already needed to secure, according to a recent report from Quilty Space, a boutique research firm that covers the satellite-communications sector, among others.

And rivals are starting to feel the pressure. ViaSat $(VSAT)$ said this month that the backlog of planes it planned to equip with in-flight connectivity systems shrank by 360 aircraft, a shift that William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma said was a result of partners moving over to Starlink.

DiPalma also recently downgraded Gogo's stock $(GOGO)$ due to pressure from Starlink.

"The Starlink service quality has been stellar, which has resulted in more intense competition on the business aviation side," DiPalma said in a Dec. 9 note.

He also raised the possibility that a longstanding Gogo customer, the private jet company NetJets, could eventually "defect" to Starlink. Just a day later, NetJets said it would install Starlink systems on 600 aircraft in 2026, although it will maintain its existing work with Gogo.

'Big breakthrough'

Starlink began servicing the airline industry in 2022, inking deals to provide in-flight wifi with carriers such as Hawaiian Airlines and airBaltic.

But its "big breakthrough" came a few years later, when United Airlines $(UAL)$ agreed to add Starlink to more than 1,000 planes by the end of 2027, according to Chris Quilty, co-CEO of Quilty Space.

United has flown more than 7 million passengers on Starlink-equipped planes over the last 10 months, or about 700,000 passengers per month. More than 300 aircraft in its two-cabin regional fleet have installed Starlink antennas, and United plans to add the equipment to another 500 planes this year.

Starlink equipped more than 1,400 commercial aircraft and 800 business jets in 2025, allowing the company to serve more than 21 million passengers who traveled with partnered airlines, according to SpaceX. That was an increase from 2024, when Starlink installed service on 450 commercial and business aircraft.

Also read: Don't make the same mistake I did when I tried to save $200 on my last flight

At least 30 carriers have agreements to use Starlink, the most recent of which is with Lufthansa (DLAKY), which aims to begin equipping its roughly 850 aircraft later this year.

"Connectivity on board plays an important role today, and with Starlink, we are not only investing in the best product on the market, but also in the satisfaction of our passengers," Dieter Vranckx, chief commercial officer of Lufthansa Group, said in a statement last month.

There are a few reasons Starlink is getting so much interest. For one, installing its low-earth orbit $(LEO)$ antennas costs around $150,000, compared with between $250,000 and $500,000 for more traditional geostationary $(GEO)$ satellite antennas, according to Quilty.

Now read: Why SpaceX is putting a 'self-growing' city on the moon over Elon Musk's Mars dreams

Starlink also provides faster wifi than its rivals, according to a June 2025 report from Ookla Research. The firm found that Starlink provided faster downloads and uploads, along with the least latency, which refers to the delay between an action, like starting a movie, and the system's response time.

"Anybody who has flown on a Starlink-equipped aircraft will say it was night and day between anything they experienced in the past," Quilty said.

Free in-flight wifi goes from luxury to necessity

Free in-flight connectivity hasn't always been a big deal, but it's become increasingly important to airlines as they seek ways to stand out and cater to consumers who want to stay plugged in.

JetBlue Airways $(JBLU)$ in 2013 became the first major U.S. carrier to offer complimentary wifi to customers through a partnership with ViaSat, which currently works with more than 60 airlines. That includes American Airlines $(AAL)$ and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (AFLYY), which recently said it would work with ViaSat to provide free in-flight connectivity for passengers.

Read: United's perks and loyalty strategy pays off, as its stock surges after earnings

There are still holdouts. Ryanair $(RYAAY)$ and easyJet (UK:EZJ), two of Europe's budget airlines, have both said they have explored talks to adopt Starlink or other providers' systems, but that the economics don't make sense for their business models.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said last month that Starlink could cost the airline as much as $250 million annually due to the cost of the service and to increased fuel consumption caused by the weight of the antennas. SpaceX executives have disputed the magnitude of the fuel costs.

Read: Fighting with Elon Musk has been great for business, Ryanair CEO says

But O'Leary and easyJet CEO Kenton Jarvis have said they will likely choose an in-flight wifi partner eventually. While Jarvis declined to provide a timeline on a recent post-earnings call with media, O'Leary told Reuters that Ryanair could make a decision once the fuel drag issue is eliminated.

"Then we'll be able to offer free wifi to our clients on all Ryanair flights ... we think that will happen in the next three to five years," he said.

Although Starlink is quickly winning over customers, its reach isn't as great as that of some established rivals, at least for now.

Starlink had been installed on less than 5% of the 35,500 global commercial fleet as of June 2025, according to the International Air Transport Association. Meanwhile, the more than 1,000 business jets that use Starlink account for around 4% of the 24,442 business aircraft in use around the world, according to Airbus Corporate Jets (FR:AIR).

Additionally, while Starlink is extending its reach, it still has to compete with established rivals that have spent years cultivating relationships with aircraft owners and operators.

As of September 2025, Gogo provides air-to-ground in-flight connectivity to 6,529 aircraft, a 7% decline compared with a year earlier. It also provides broadband GEO service to 1,343 aircraft, a 14% year-over-year increase.

ViaSat provided similar services to 6,420 commercial and business planes as of its latest fiscal quarter, which ended in December, and has a backlog of 1,100 aircraft. Other systems are in the works as well, such as Amazon's (AMZN) Project Leo, which will eventually provide service to JetBlue under a deal announced last September.

Gogo plans to compete with Starlink by doubling down on providing reliable and flexible solutions, rather than speed, an executive told AeroXplorer recently. The company offers connectivity using both LEO and GEO satellites, as well as a 5G air-to-ground network for customers traveling in North America.

ViaSat also uses GEO satellites, which cover much more of the Earth's surface than LEO satellites - at the cost of generally slower speeds and higher latency. In November, the company launched the ViaSat-3 F2 satellite, which it said would double the bandwidth capacity of its entire fleet after it begins providing service in May, helping it to meet growing demand.

ViaSat is also working with Telesat $(TSAT)$ to integrate its LEO capacity into its network to help bolster its connectivity offerings. In November, the company said the integration is scheduled to become available for commercial service in late 2027.

"Airlines don't like monopolies," Don Buchman, who leads ViaSat's aviation business, told MarketWatch. He said that ViaSat has always anticipated the threat of new rivals with comparable or better technology and that the company is prepared to compete with Starlink.

-William Gavin

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 12:18 ET (17:18 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.