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 might be nearing an announcement that seems like it should be pretty obvious…
American may expand Starlink Wi-Fi to all aircraft
Over the summer, American announced plans to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi starting in 2027. The catch is that American officially only 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.
I found it very strange how the airline only committed to introducing Starlink on those planes. The passenger experience upgrade with Starlink is huge, and American should be installing it on all planes. That’s especially true when you consider that United is introducing Starlink throughout its fleet, and plans to wrap up the project by the end of 2027.
My guess is that American had some contracts with other providers that might’ve been hard or expensive to get out of, and maybe that’s why the Starlink announcement was initially limited to those planes.
Well, JonNYC is reporting that American is expected to also introduce Starlink on the rest of its mainline fleet, including Boeing 737s, Boeing 777s, and Boeing 787s. Now, let me emphasize that American hasn’t officially confirmed this, and even JonNYC notes that this is unconfirmed. That being said, he has great sources, and my assumption would be that this is accurate. So if I were a betting man, I’d say that this is highly likely to be confirmed soon.
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 an aggressive Starlink rollout would probably be the single best thing that the airline could 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.
It sure seems to me like American putting effort into installing Starlink fleetwide at a lightning fast pace could be the single biggest “quick” thing the airline could do to level up, and gain a major competitive advantage over Delta. Delta has really self-owned by not committing to Starlink. I hope American takes the easy win here…
Bottom line
American Airlines is reportedly nearing an announcement to install Starlink Wi-Fi on all aircraft, rather than just on roughly 500 Airbus A320-family 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 could actually lead to a competitive advantage, given how Delta is falling behind with Wi-Fi.
What do you make of the prospect of American introducing Starlink fleetwide?
Yah airlines needs to get starlink installed. It’s a step up function in terms of productivity on the plane. I’m all for competition… I hope this forces blue origin to step it up quickly.
I really struggle to understand your disdain for Delta’s decision to not opt for Starlink. Do you really think, consumers will switch their airlines simply because the wifi onboard is slow or not as fast as competitors? Even when the quality of service is on par, people will be like, nah I am going to book United/AA because they have faster wifi?
I am certain Delta’s reason to not work with Starlink are selfish, but...
I really struggle to understand your disdain for Delta’s decision to not opt for Starlink. Do you really think, consumers will switch their airlines simply because the wifi onboard is slow or not as fast as competitors? Even when the quality of service is on par, people will be like, nah I am going to book United/AA because they have faster wifi?
I am certain Delta’s reason to not work with Starlink are selfish, but I am happy that (for whatever reason) at least 1 airline isn’t going to give business to a narcissist, xenophobic, racist, egomaniac piece of shit dirtbag.
@ Ole -- I totally agree with everything you say about Musk, of course, and I hate how he currently has a monopoly on high speed Wi-Fi. We're on the same page.
Am I suggesting that people will switch exclusively because one airline has faster Wi-Fi? Well, no, probably not. The point is that customers choose an airline based on the combination of a wide variety of factors. Like, people don't fly United just because...
@ Ole -- I totally agree with everything you say about Musk, of course, and I hate how he currently has a monopoly on high speed Wi-Fi. We're on the same page.
Am I suggesting that people will switch exclusively because one airline has faster Wi-Fi? Well, no, probably not. The point is that customers choose an airline based on the combination of a wide variety of factors. Like, people don't fly United just because they have Starlink, or just because they have Polaris Lounges, or just because they have cold brew, or just because they have a great app. But the idea is that the more competitive advantages you have, the more likely you are to win customers who are seeking a combination of price, value, and experience.
That's the whole argument in favor of airlines becoming more "premium," and not just getting passengers who are seeking the lowest fare.
It’s just funny everybody clowning Delta for not choosing starlink, but then also want competition on airfare, hotel fares, everything but wants all the airlines to just join musks monopoly
@Ben, I agree with the overall product being competitive and provide best possible experience/service. I also agree with you about having as many competitive advantages as one can get, but my point is I don't think faster wifi is one of those deciding factor. I think, it is one of those features that customers will appreciate when they use it, but will not drive their decision making next time they are looking at flying.
You can hate the guy… but you can’t denied what he has accomplished. Many successful CEOs are assholes, just Elon is the most outspoken. Does that divide his public opinion yes, I’d say it also doesn’t help him in anyway, but if you govern your life decisions based on emotions then you’ll fail in life.
Look, people will absolutely choose planes with starlink vs not. Will it f up delta? Probably not. So if you...
You can hate the guy… but you can’t denied what he has accomplished. Many successful CEOs are assholes, just Elon is the most outspoken. Does that divide his public opinion yes, I’d say it also doesn’t help him in anyway, but if you govern your life decisions based on emotions then you’ll fail in life.
Look, people will absolutely choose planes with starlink vs not. Will it f up delta? Probably not. So if you prefer delta, fly delta, nothing wrong with that. But understand why other folks will switch. It’s just objectively a better online experience. Period.
Agreed, if anything it makes me want to fly delta more.
Happy to see it happen if true. Would be a pain to try to find bookings on Airbus flights just to get access to Starlink. Hope it'll be a fast install.