American Airlines is trying to improve at the moment, given nearly a decade of neglect by the company’s management team. While things are moving in the right direction, the issue is that it’s hard to catch up when competitors are also improving, and you’re so far behind. That’s especially true in the airline industry, where many initiatives take years to roll out.
Along those lines, American has just made a very positive announcement, which seems like the obvious choice. I wrote about how this was rumored last week (initially leaked by JonNYC, of course), and it’s now official!
American will expand Starlink Wi-Fi to all mainline aircraft
Over the summer, American announced plans to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi starting in 2027. The catch is that American initially only announced plans to introduce the service on all Airbus A320-family aircraft. This includes more than 500 planes, comprised of A319s, A320s, A321s, A321neos, and A321XLRs.
Fortunately American has now come to its senses, and has announced that it plans to introduce Starlink on all mainline aircraft. So this means the entire fleet of Boeing 737s, 777s, and 787s, are also getting Starlink. In total, more than 1,000 mainline planes will be getting the service.
Installation is still expected to start as of early 2027, though we don’t know with what timeline this will wrap up. Unfortunately there still aren’t plans to introduce Starlink on regional jets, unlike what we’re seeing at United, where the airline plans to have Starlink on all mainline and regional jets by the end of 2027.
It goes without saying this is a major boost to the passenger experience, because the quality difference with Starlink is huge.
Here’s how American’s Chief Customer Officer, Heather Garboden, describes this development:
“Our customers have told us that dependable connectivity can make a meaningful difference in how they spend their time in the air. Whether they are livestreaming a favorite show, gaming, collaborating in real time on an important work deal, scrolling social media or online shopping, Starlink will give our customers countless options to make the most of their time while traveling. Just as importantly, it provides the foundation for future innovations that will further enhance the customer experience.”
This is finally an easy win for American against Delta
As I said above, part of American’s issue is that no matter how many positive announcements it makes, it’s really only catching up with Delta and United, and for many changes we’re talking about a horizon of many years.
So while it’s great to improve tech, lounges, cabins, etc., that only gets you so far when competitors are doing the same, and are several steps ahead. United certainly isn’t letting American gain any ground.
However, American announcing a comprehensive Starlink plan (and hopefully rolling it out aggressively) is probably be the single best thing that the airline can do to increasingly compete with Delta, at least from a passenger experience standpoint. Delta has made the silly decision to not introduce Starlink, as it instead plans to partner with Amazon Leo.
The issue is that Amazon Leo is only launching as of 2028 (best case scenario), and Delta has also only committed to installing it on part of its fleet. Delta CEO Ed Bastian has been getting some bad press over his alleged comments about Elon Musk.
Delta has really self-owned by not committing to Starlink. I’m happy to see American taking the easy win here, putting Delta in third place among the “big three” when it comes to connectivity.
Bottom line
American Airlines has announced plans to install Starlink Wi-Fi on all aircraft, rather than just on roughly 500 Airbus A320-family aircraft. So we’ll now also see Starlink on all Boeing planes, including narrow body and wide body aircraft.
As American tries to become more competitive, introducing legitimately high speed Wi-Fi from Starlink across the fleet is the obvious move. Unlike many other changes at American, this will actually lead to a competitive advantage, given how Delta is falling behind with Wi-Fi.
What do you make of American introducing Starlink throughout the mainline fleet?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.