JetBlue has long been a trendsetter when it comes to inflight Wi-Fi. While free Wi-Fi is just now becoming increasingly common among airlines, JetBlue has been offering it for over a decade, in partnership with Viasat.
We’re now seeing many airlines introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, given its amazing speeds. JetBlue has just announced plans to upgrade its inflight Wi-Fi, but the carrier is going with a new type of service…
In this post:
JetBlue first airline to partner with Amazon on Wi-Fi
JetBlue has become the first airline to sign on to Amazon’s Project Kuiper, an advanced low earth orbit satellite broadband network, to bring even faster and more reliable connectivity to its onboard Wi-Fi service. JetBlue plans to introduce Project Kuiper on a portion of its fleet starting in 2027.
It will initially be installed on aircraft flying with JetBlue’s original Wi-Fi technology, which would be the older Airbus A321s. Interestingly, there’s no indication that this will be installed fleetwide.
Project Kuiper will deliver high speed, low latency internet to customers and communities around the world, with a system built around a constellation of thousands of satellites. Amazon has deployed more than 100 satellites to date, and is continuing to increase its production, processing, and launch rates, ahead of an initial service rollout.
Here’s how JetBlue President Marty St. George describes this:
“Our agreement with Project Kuiper marks an exciting leap forward for us as the hands-down leader in onboard connectivity. Whether it’s binge-watching a favorite show, staying connected with loved ones, or wrapping up a work project, we’re always looking for ways to make our customers’ time in the air as connected and productive as they want it to be.”
While JetBlue has now officially announced this, kudos to JonNYC for flagging this in advance, as usual.
This is great, but patience will be needed
In theory, Amazon’s Project Kuiper is supposed to offer even better speeds than SpaceX’s Starlink. That’s of course great, so I’m happy to see more competition in this space. The big question here is the timing.
Best case scenario, installation will start at some point in 2027, so that’s a couple of years down the road. But as you’d expect, that timeline remains highly subject to change. Airbus is partnering with Amazon on a retrofit program, though actually getting type certification will take some time.
First Amazon needs to get a certain number of satellites operational, and then there will be an extensive testing phase before this service can be rolled out on aircraft on a widespread basis.
I’m happy to see the competition here, and that JetBlue is signing on to this service. But yeah, it’s not the instant gratification you’d get with Starlink, for example.
Bottom line
JetBlue has announced plans to upgrade its inflight Wi-Fi, in partnership with Amazon’s new Project Kuiper. JetBlue is the first airline to announce plans to use this service, which should be very fast. The challenge is that it’ll be a couple of years before the first plane is even fitted with this, and even then, the rollout likely won’t be that fast.
What do you make of JetBlue’s Wi-Fi plans?
With these a321ceos being at a decade old, could we see a cabin retrofit? It’s amazing how “old” and “antiquated” those IFE devices are or look.
Could this be overly optimistic ? Who's to say beleaguered B6 will still be around when it's time for installation ? Wonder exactly how many aircraft would be involved in the retrofit since it sounds like it wouldn't be fleet wide ? Could Amazon be paying B6 some much needed $$$ just for the exposure/marketing ?
Jeff Bezos must be hoping that the revenue generated will be sufficient to pay off his current ‘dead weight’ around his neck and allow him to invest in a younger model …. :-)
I'm sure he has a pre-nup set in stone already !
...lol
I hope it is successful.
Amazon needs an airline or two to validate its product and B6 is getting some very attractive terms to be the guinea pig in the onslaught of Starlink's growth
Are faster speeds than Starlink needed? Starlink has, what, 100 Mbps+ download on a plane? You can easily stream HD video. What exactly would you need a faster service for?
I think the issue comes to total bandwidth. Each of the satellites have a maximum data throughput that they can handle and I would imagine the worry would be that as more people use Starlink, it may reach a point where speeds degrade.
If the higher speed of this service is driven by higher maximum data throughput, it would "future-proof" the service.
I find it interesting that amazon uses spacex to launch their satellites. Seems like spacex doesnt care to protect the value of starlink. Or maybe spacex values the revenue now to invest in decreasing launch costs for future growth.
Interestingly Space X is also launching Viasat's new APAC satellite after Arianne backed out due to technical issues.