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…
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?
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.