American Airlines expands Starlink wi-fi rollout to entire fleet

American Airlines is expanding its Starlink installation program to its whole fleet, increasing the planned aircraft count from over 500 Airbus narrowbodies to more than 1,030. The airline first outlined the smaller plan in May 2026, then confirmed the broader scope on 8 October. Installations are to start in early 2027.

A growing list of carriers in the United States and elsewhere have signed up for Starlink, which SpaceX operates. Delta Air Lines is not among them. It chose Amazon's Leo service for in-flight connectivity instead, and JetBlue, Amazon's first airline for the product, is also a Leo customer.

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk criticized the choice and aimed remarks at Delta chief Ed Bastian on social media. In a post on X on 29 September, Musk said Bastian "will lose his job over this," responding to unverified reports that Bastian told employees Delta did not want to work with him. Delta has not publicly responded.

United Airlines has turned the dispute to commercial use, putting Starlink at the center of a status-matching campaign aimed at travellers from rival carriers. United says 46% of its daily flights offer Starlink, with more installations under way.

KLM said on 8 October that it plans to bring Starlink internet to all of its intercontinental flights starting mid-2027. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said on the company's 4 August earnings call that its aviation business remains less than 10% penetrated. Financial terms of individual airline agreements with Starlink have generally not been disclosed.