It has been lower than three months since Southwest Airways made its on-board Wi-Fi free to clients. Now, the airline is planning a significant improve to its web tech.
The Dallas-based provider on Wednesday introduced plans so as to add Starlink satellite tv for pc service to tons of of its planes. By the top of this 12 months, greater than 300 Southwest jets are anticipated to supply the high-speed service, which is able to stay complimentary for flyers with a Rapid Rewards loyalty account.
A high-speed improve
Starlink is maybe the quickest on-board web within the market in the present day. Powered by a constellation of greater than 9,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, the setup gives a handy guide a rough shopping expertise harking back to browsing the web on the bottom — a far cry from the irritating earlier days of inflight Wi-Fi.
“In the event you return ten years, the thought that you would have one of these Wi-Fi expertise it is fairly spectacular,” Tony Roach, Southwest’s chief buyer and model officer, mentioned in an interview with TPG.
Throughout the trade, a lot of Southwest’s prime rivals upgraded their Wi-Fi tech earlier than providing the service free of charge. However Southwest opted to make connectivity complimentary final fall with the service it already had, after testing it and figuring out upgrades made earlier this decade may help a wider swath of shoppers logging on from 35,000 ft.
The provider has not skilled vital Wi-Fi slowdowns since making the service free, Roach mentioned.
“That is much less about it not being good,” he mentioned of the shift to Starlink. “That is extra about simply type of unlocking no matter folks wish to do on board the plane: 4K streaming, and all of the stuff you wish to add, obtain — at speeds you are used to on the bottom.”
Southwest plans to start putting in Starlink on plane this summer time, specializing in plane utilizing older Wi-Fi tech from Anuvu. The corporate advised TPG it has not but determined whether or not so as to add the satellite tv for pc service to jets which have extra recently-upgraded service by means of California-based Viasat, at the moment the supplier for inflight web on Delta Air Traces, American Airways and JetBlue, amongst others.
One other main US airline adopts Starlink
Southwest would be the fourth U.S. provider to undertake Starlink for its Wi-Fi service.
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United Airways is within the midst of outfitting its planes with the tech, which as of final month was available on nearly all of its dual-cabin regional jets.
Hawaiian Airways already gives the service on its Airbus planes — and its sister provider Alaska Airways (merged under Alaska Air Group in 2024) just lately started installing the satellites on its plane.
Value noting, Southwest’s huge on-board web announcement comes simply weeks after the provider made a few of the biggest changes in its history, together with a long-planned shift to assigned seating and further legroom choices. In the meantime, the airline seems to be mulling different adjustments like lounges and more premium seats — although nothing of the kind has been introduced to this point.
“That is one other transfer to indicate clients that this isn’t the ‘Southwest of outdated’ anymore,” Roach mentioned of the Starlink reveal. “I do suppose there’s some shock worth that we’re hoping clients see. We’re elevating the bar.”
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