Delta Expands Free Wi-Fi, Updates on Hughes Fusion Plans

Delta’s transatlantic network is ready for free Wi-Fi, just in time for the peak summer season. The carrier confirmed that flights to Europe, Israel and West Africa will participate in the free-for-SkyMiles-members-sponsored-by-T-Mobile option from early April (i.e. now-ish).

Service to South America is expected to be free from later this Spring.

Those routes are operated by a mix of A330, A330neo, A350, 767-300ER, and 767-400ER aircraft, meaning the airline is making strong progress in fitting the fleet with the newer hardware from Viasat to support the program.

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It also means Viasat is confident in its capacity available to support the service. This almost certainly includes leased capacity from third parties, including SES, to meet the demand.

As part of the update Delta also shared a few additional details about the upcoming deployment of the Hughes Networks hardware on the fleet, including the Fusion deployment expected to start later this year.

For the 717 fleet, which will be the first to see that system installed, Delta expects the program to kick off in Q4 2025, completing in early 2026. This aligns with, among other things, expected availability of the ESA from Hughes to deliver the LEO connectivity; the ThinKom half of the antenna solution is ready to fly now. It also means there’s a pretty good chance some of the 717s will be dark in early 2026, as the current network they have installed will stop working.

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For the “select A350 and A321neo aircraft” also planned to see the Hughes system installed the timing is further clarified as a “late 2026” project. That timing lends further credibility to my theory that it will cover the A350-1000s rather than the –900s based on their expected delivery schedule, but the company did not go so far as to confirm that detail in its update.