American Shifts 500 Planes to Starlink

American Airlines will install Starlink inflight internet service on more than 500 aircraft, part of its continued upgrades to the passenger experience. Installations will begin in Q1 2027, focused on the single-aisle fleet.

American is committed to elevating every aspect of our customers’ travel journeys, which in the air means keeping them connected and comfortable with the assurance they won’t have to download documents ahead of a flight or worry about lag time.

– Heather Garboden, American Airlines’ Chief Customer Officer

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The companies tout multi-gigabit speeds to the aircraft, with the new aero terminal from Starlink promising 1Gbps performance. A typical single-aisle aircraft flies with two antennae installed.

American currently operates roughly 500 Airbus A320-family planes; these will be the target of the service shift. Those planes all fly with satellite internet today, split between the SES 2Ku product and Viasat‘s Ka-band solution. The deal also covers new deliveries from Airbus on the A321neo and A321XLR; those were previously flagged for Viasat installation.

It does not, at least for now, impact the Boeing single-aisle fleet nor the long-haul operations. The former fly with Viasat today while the latter fly mostly with Panasonic Avionics Ku-band solution on board, though they are planned to see Viasat’s kit installed, as announced last year. It also does not cover the regional jet fleet. Those planes now fly with the SES multi-orbit offering, recently migrating away from the air-to-ground solution.

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This is the second major announcement in recent weeks for Starlink covering only a partial fleet commitment. Singapore Airlines made a similar move at the beginning of May, targeting its long-haul fleet. SpaceX showing increased flexibility is no doubt a good thing for airlines as they work to optimize their IFC deployments. And to play vendors off each other.

The deal also lets Viasat keep a significant commitment (though some Airbus deinstalls or retirements are coming) from American. This seems to align with the position Viasat’s Don Buchman has pushed in recent months regarding his company’s much delayed but now mostly completed ViaSat-3 constellation deployment.

Airlines “can decide for themselves,” Buchman explained at AIX in Hamburg last month, “because their equipment, their software, everything on board supports it. ViaSat-3 launches, we turn it on, enable it, and let them judge for themselves.” The F2 satellite should activate over the Americas in the coming weeks. F3 is expected to enter service later this summer serving the Asia-Pacific region.