Back in August, Alaska Airlines announced plans to introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, which probably didn’t come as much of a surprise. There’s now an exciting update, as the airline has moved forward the timeline for this debuting, and the first several planes with the service are already flying.
Alaska’s free Starlink Wi-Fi for Atmos Rewards members
Alaska Airlines is working with SpaceX to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, including on all Boeing 787s, Boeing 737s, and Embraer E175s. The Seattle Times reports that this service is now live — the first four Embraer E175s are now flying, and you can expect for that fleet of regional aircraft to be retrofitted pretty quickly.
Then in early 2026, we can expect Starlink to debut on Boeing 737s, followed by Boeing 787s later in 2026. The plan is for the project to be complete by early 2027.
Best of all, Alaska is offering this for free to all members of its Atmos Rewards loyalty program (the new branding for Alaska’s loyalty program, which is free to sign-up for), in partnership with T-Mobile. Members are able to connect on multiple devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Starlink is known for its high-speed, low-latency broadband internet, and the service is offered gate to gate. Starlink Wi-Fi allows for live streaming, productivity similar to on the ground (with high upload and download speeds), gaming, e-commerce, and more.
Starlink is becoming increasingly popular with airlines. So far we’ve seen carriers like airBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Emirates, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia, Korean Air, Qatar Airways, SAS, United, Virgin Atlantic, and WestJet, all announce plans to install the service.
What’s also great about Starlink is that the installation process is pretty quick, once aircraft are certified to have it installed.
This is a positive and sensible development!
I don’t think many people will be surprised by Alaska introducing Starlink Wi-Fi. Keep in mind that Hawaiian Airlines was the first commercial airline to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi, and Hawaiian is of course now part of Alaska Air Group.
Hawaiian already offers Starlink Wi-Fi on its Airbus A330s and Airbus A321neos. So by early 2027, we’ll see Alaska Air Group offer Starlink Wi-Fi fleetwide, except on Boeing 717s, which are exclusively used on inter-island flights. I have to imagine that’s because those planes will likely be replaced sooner rather than later, given that they’re an average of around 24 years old.
For context, up until now Alaska has offered Intelsat 2Ku on its mainline fleet, so the Starlink Wi-Fi should be a very nice upgrade, in terms of both speeds and value.
United is the only other major US carrier that has committed to Starlink, so Alaska and United will have a nice advantage. Meanwhile Delta offers free Wi-Fi, and American plans to offer free Wi-Fi as of early 2026, and those two airlines primarily use Viasat.
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines has started its rollout of free Starlink Wi-Fi, with the first regional Embraer E175s now having the service. We can expect Boeing 737s to get Starlink as of early 2026, and Boeing 787s to get the new connectivity as of later in 2026, with rollout complete by early 2027.
This is being offered in partnership with T-Mobile, and is free for Atmos Rewards members. This is a fantastic development, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given Hawaiian already offering Starlink on a widespread basis.
What do you make of Alaska introducing free Starlink Wi-Fi?
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