EasyJet will introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi between the first half of 2027 and early 2028, a big upgrade for an airline that currently offers no connectivity at all.
EasyJet has not clarified whether the service will be free or not. I’d expect a charge of maybe €3-5.
@ InceptionCat -- Whoops, thank you, I missed that. Updated the post to reflect that.
EasyJet will have more PREMIUM Wi-Fi than Delta! I can't believe how fast the Delta premium ship is sinking.
Delta has received a lot of flack for not installing Starlink, but I must say, after the recent Starshield controversy and Musk’s general capriciousness, one does have to wonder if Delta may have been on to something by not signing up to do business with this guy. I have to imagine that as soon as there is a remotely competitive alternative to Starlink (whenever that is), people will be ditching Starlink in droves.
Look, I absolutely hate Elon and think as a person he's deeply immoral, but you're probably giving too much credit to the headlines on this one.
Ultimately, despite the controversies that have plagued his handling of Starshield and previous doom that was foreshadowed for X and Tesla because of his behavior, they've all fared alright. Now, some of that is financial engineering in my opinion (certainly with X being bundled in with his other companies, and recently Tesla has bumped up from the SpaceX merger talk), but his companies have not suffered from him like I would have thought.
Ultimately, if the product continues to perform and the economics remain affordable, I see no reason why companies would suddenly start dropping him. Especially in the US, I think executives are more jaded to public/media behavior than ever before, in no small part desensitized by Trump. They all changed their tune and willingness to engage with Trump this time around, and I think similarly, while they may not like what Elon says, unless the product gets more expensive or the service performance declines, they're not going to suddenly overhaul their whole fleet with a different system after adopting Starlink. Will Leo find new customers? Certainly. Will there be a measurable departure from Starlink purely due to Musk? I highly doubt it.
This seems like the right move for them. It should be free on so-called 'premium airlines' but that is not EasyJet's business model and customers shouldn't expect free wifi (I wouldn't if I were flying EasyJet - which I have and was solid for the price I paid).
Similarly, I don't know that Ryanair explicitly needs wifi. It may become a differentiator between them and EasyJet for a period, which may push them to adopt. At the same time, the average Ryanair customer probably doesn't care about wifi and many would not purchase it, especially on short flights. I imagine they want to see costs fall further for wifi services before they adopt - perhaps they're even waiting for Leo to launch so they can have some competitive pressure to win their business (while not wanting to throw their support behind a product before it is proven).
It would be great if they could offer a 2-2 business class. It might even shame the traditional European ‘full service’ carriers into stopping taking the Michael with their business class offering.
It should also be mentioned that easyJet is in the process of being bought by PE firm, Apollo who have explicitly said they want to premiumise parts of the easyJet offering.