The past six months have seen some political challenges for SpaceX and its Chief Engineer. Those challenges have spilled over into the commercial side of companies Musk leads, raising questions about whether individuals or companies should continue to do business with the company.
For SAS, which recently committed to the Starlink inflight internet offering for its full fleet, the political challenges are noted, but not compelling. Speaking at the APEX TECH event in Los Angeles this week Vice President of Product & Loyalty Aron Backström reiterated the company’s confidence in the product, and commitment to accelerating the rollout if possible.
It is tricky, but we evaluated the product and the customer experience, not the people behind it, not the politics behind it. For us and our commercial interests, that’s the what we can do, Starlink offers a substantially better experience. I think the choice was pretty simple for us in the
– Aron Backström, SAS VP Product & Loyalty
end.
Indeed, while SAS currently has a program in play to complete the deployment by the end of 2027, Backström shared that he believes a few key changes could see that timeline accelerated.
Approximately half the SAS fleet is dark today, with no inflight connectivity on offer. Those are the planes – mainly E195s and A320 family – the company aims to equip first. From there the A330 fleet is targeted, as it flies with “an older [Panasonic Avionics] solution there that doesn’t really work.”
Installations are expected to be completed as an overnight program on these planes, matching the pace that Qatar Airways and Hawaiian Airlines have delivered on. For planes that require a demod (i.e. removing the existing Viasat kit as part of the work) the carrier expects the work to take a bit longer, but still be a quick turn program.
SAS also expects to perform the modifications almost exclusively during the winter season when its fleet utilization drops significantly. If it can get the installations started in October 2025 rather than January 2026 – an effort Backström says is underway – the carrier might be able to significantly shift the overall timeline of the program.
Why Starlink?
Backström also offered some details about SAS’s selection process for the IFC upgrade and some of the factors that tipped the scales in favor of Starlink.
The hardware is a key consideration, and SAS is a big fan of the ESA solution SpaceX offers. Backström called attention to the lack of moving parts “which means less downtime, and lower maintenance costs” for the airline.
He also noted that SAS is not signing on to an unknown offering. “It is a proven” solution, Backström shared. “They have hundreds of installations on aircraft…and they get really great customer feedback.”
Finally, Backström is optimistic in the industry’s expected growth. He recognizes that additional constellations are going to enter service from different providers over the years ahead. “But for [SAS] today, as a medium-sized airline, we have a choice of something that we know works, versus a bet that something might work in the future. That risk is just too big.”
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what is up with the Product over Politics nonsense?? Before when Elon was a Democrat he wa ok!!!! but supporting President Trump and trying to save $$$$$ by finding fraud and abuse he is the eveil one… Nuts and to say this fake stuff here and promote the brainwasing of america is NOT journalism… shame on u and your reporting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was literally a question asked in a public forum, and an answer given to that question. If you believe that’s “fake stuff” then we’re probably not going to have useful further conversations.
As for “finding fraud and abuse,” there’s significant evidence that the past six months of worth by the federal government consisted of many illegal actions, and moves that will increase costs, not reduce them. To say nothing of the fact that the government’s role is to provide services to society, not turn a profit.