We’re currently seeing a bit of an inflight Wi-Fi revolution, with an increasing number of airlines signing up for Starlink, bringing fast and free connectivity to the skies. I might not be a huge fan of Elon Musk (to put it politely), but I can respect that Starlink is currently the best such offering, and having truly high speed inflight connectivity is a game changer.
Along those lines, one airline recently made a surprising announcement, and we now have some more insights into why…
In this post:
Why Delta chose Amazon Leo over Starlink for inflight Wi-Fi
Several weeks ago, Delta announced plans to introduce Amazon Leo for its inflight connectivity. This was a bit surprising to many people. I’m sure Amazon Leo will be great when it’s available, but:
- Best case scenario, it’ll be launched in 2028
- Delta has only announced plans to install this on 500 aircraft, making up roughly half of the fleet
What’s so wild here is that United is increasingly trying to compete with Delta, and United is currently rolling out Starlink Wi-Fi, with installation expected to be completed by the end of 2027. That means that United will have the fastest possible inflight connection on all planes before Delta even has a single plane configured with next generation connectivity, best case scenario.
Logically, you might be thinking “well, what were Delta executives thinking?” After all, we knew Delta had discussions with SpaceX over Starlink, but they fell through. View from the Wing flags this explanation about why the deal went the way that it did:
Billionaire Ron Baron — an early investor in Tesla & SpaceX — just said on CNBC that the Starlink deal with Delta Air Lines fell through because Delta insisted Starlink access would sit behind Delta’s branded portal/offering.
At the end of March, Delta announced a deal with Amazon’s Leo network. SpaceX currently has about 10,000 satellites in orbit, with more launches per year than anyone else. Leo has about 300 as of now.
I get the fanaticism around brand-building. I really do. But is this one step too far?
The idea is that Starlink has certain rules around how its service can be used (including that access needs to be free), and the requirement is that the portal have Starlink branding.
Meanwhile Delta has its “Delta Sync” concept, whereby it wants everything related to entertainment and connectivity to exclusively have the Delta Sync branding, and to be behind that portal.
I think this was a major mistake on Delta’s part
You’d have to bury your head in the sand to not acknowledge the major competitive disadvantage this will put Delta at. Let me be clear — right now, Delta still beats United with Wi-Fi, all things considered. Delta has some sort of high speed Wi-Fi on more planes than United does.
However, there’s no denying the very unpleasant reality Delta will face, as things will look very different 18 or so months from now. United will have Starlink on every single plane, while Delta won’t even have started installing Amazon Leo on any planes. Keep in mind that Delta’s plans also rely on there being no delays with Amazon Leo, which is a major risk, as the timeline is far from certain.
We’re not talking about United having an advantage over Delta for a few months, or something. Instead, we’re talking about an advantage that will last years. For that matter, Delta hasn’t even announced plans to install Amazon Leo on roughly half of its fleet.
Also, I’m sure some people will be by shortly to point out how Delta already has “high speed Wi-Fi,” but I think anyone who has used free Viasat Wi-Fi vs. free Starlink Wi-Fi can attest to the night-and-day difference. Consumer expectations of connectivity are evolving rapidly.
In just under two years, Delta passengers will feel like United passengers felt two years ago, where they were being offered a product that was simply uncompetitive. I really think Delta executives are struggling to see the forest from the trees here, and are more focused on branding than passenger experience. In fairness, branding has always been what the company has been best at.
Lastly, I’ll just say that when United announced plans to improve its inflight Wi-Fi offering, a certain prolific commenter wrote “Delta leads, United follows.” Why do I have a feeling the narrative of “United leads, Delta follows,” won’t be accepted this time around? 😉
Bottom line
Delta recently announced plans to introduce Amazon Leo for inflight connectivity on roughly half of its fleet, with installation starting in 2028, best case scenario. Amazon Leo is a Starlink competitor, and United plans to finish installing Starlink on all aircraft by the end of 2027.
One can’t overstate the passenger experience advantage this will give United, and it’ll be one that lasts for years. Many of us were puzzled by Delta’s decision, and now we know why things went the way they did. Delta reportedly was unwilling to make any compromises on its Delta Sync system for logging into the Wi-Fi portal, while Starlink has strict rules for this.
What do you make of Delta’s logic for skipping Starlink?
I'm not sure I agree. Consumer expectations of wifi is more that it exists, I'm pretty sure the average person does not understand Starlink connectivity/speeds vs Viasat connectivity/speeds. Viasat is still capable of streaming video with pretty good performance, as internet speeds have diminishing returns past a certain point.
If anything people have already been conditioned with years of poor wifi offerings inflight, so I don't think that people will find Delta's wifi a major...
I'm not sure I agree. Consumer expectations of wifi is more that it exists, I'm pretty sure the average person does not understand Starlink connectivity/speeds vs Viasat connectivity/speeds. Viasat is still capable of streaming video with pretty good performance, as internet speeds have diminishing returns past a certain point.
If anything people have already been conditioned with years of poor wifi offerings inflight, so I don't think that people will find Delta's wifi a major reason to not fly them.
No one is going, I will fly United because they have Starlink and Delta only has Viasat, price/schedule are still significantly larger factors.
let's also remember that the whole "but I can get free WiFi on UA' just got kicked to the curb when TMobile cut the cord.
The notion that UA has grown as it has w/o free high speed WiFi but DL will take a back seat to Starlink is the most bizarre logic possible - straight from the same UA dept. of hogwash that was convinced they would push AA out of ORD and grow...
let's also remember that the whole "but I can get free WiFi on UA' just got kicked to the curb when TMobile cut the cord.
The notion that UA has grown as it has w/o free high speed WiFi but DL will take a back seat to Starlink is the most bizarre logic possible - straight from the same UA dept. of hogwash that was convinced they would push AA out of ORD and grow the number of flights at EWR - and both have proven not to be true at all.
how some people believe the BS that comes out of Chicago is beyond belief.
I swear aviation social media gets dumber by the day repeating the same thing based on rumor.
An initial investor in Elon Musk's ventures thinks he knows why DL makes the decision it does.
Did it occur that the man has a bias and might be just a little upset that DL didn't embrace the Musk cult?
I'll put my money on Amazon every day and twice on Saturday and Sunday to deliver a...
I swear aviation social media gets dumber by the day repeating the same thing based on rumor.
An initial investor in Elon Musk's ventures thinks he knows why DL makes the decision it does.
Did it occur that the man has a bias and might be just a little upset that DL didn't embrace the Musk cult?
I'll put my money on Amazon every day and twice on Saturday and Sunday to deliver a product that they promise.
I have precisely zero products from Musk's family of companies but multiple from Amazon.
Having the entire airline industry beholden to one single vendor can’t be great long term. Especially with an unpredictable billionaire guiding thing.
I was thinking the same thing. With Musk as insane as he is, what's to stop him from extorting the airlines to whom he's providing Starlink? He's like the drug dealer (about whom he likely knows much) who gets the user addicted on cheap or free product, then starts hiking the price once the user thinks they can't live without it.
"Why do I have a feeling the narrative of 'United leads, Delta follows,' won’t be accepted this time around?"
I love you for this. Snark really does become you.
thank God I read this post in the first fifteen minutes so I will not have to death scroll the ten plus posts from you know who. I will never understand why Ben does not moderate content. Limit one response per story.
Why arent you a fan of Elon Ben?
More accurately, why would anyone want to be a fan of him?
Drug addiction may be one reason.
Corruption could be another.
Unpredictability could be another.
Dishonesty could be another.
Cutting assistance for millions of AIDS patience in Africa who are now dying could be another.
Hoovering private and confidential US citizen data could be another.
Taking a chainsaw to US government employees with no understanding of the ramifications could be another.
The list is really endless.
But let's wait for Ben's reasons. :)
Even if you take all of the political stuff out, Elon is a highly dislikable human.
From a work perspective he constantly promises progress that falls through (full self driving capability has been coming to Tesla's next year, every year since 2017: robo taxis have been 3 years away every year since 2020)
From a personal perspective he's an awkward loser. It's incredible that he can do this while being the richest man...
Even if you take all of the political stuff out, Elon is a highly dislikable human.
From a work perspective he constantly promises progress that falls through (full self driving capability has been coming to Tesla's next year, every year since 2017: robo taxis have been 3 years away every year since 2020)
From a personal perspective he's an awkward loser. It's incredible that he can do this while being the richest man on earth. He makes being as rich as he is looking awful. He spends his time high on ketamine arguing on twitter. He pretends to be a skilled video game player, getting others to level up his diablo 2 character. Then when streaming it, it becomes painfully obvious that his high rank doesn't match his knowledge or skill.
"Let me be clear — right now, Delta still beats United with Wi-Fi, all things considered."
I am sorry, but i vehemently disagree. Just did a r/t between ORD-SLC on DL last week and the wifi didn't work on either leg of my flight. Thank God they had seatback screens with IFE (hello, AA?). Yes, I understand this is not a statistically significant sample but still: I almost always have workable wifi on my UA...
"Let me be clear — right now, Delta still beats United with Wi-Fi, all things considered."
I am sorry, but i vehemently disagree. Just did a r/t between ORD-SLC on DL last week and the wifi didn't work on either leg of my flight. Thank God they had seatback screens with IFE (hello, AA?). Yes, I understand this is not a statistically significant sample but still: I almost always have workable wifi on my UA flights and the one time I fly Delta, they're 0 for 2. Not good.
By the way, DL was a mediocre experience in economy as well. Better than AA, inferior to UA or JetBlue. Sorry Tim.
Viasat has just launched its Americas satellite (replacing the delayed malfunctioning one from a few years ago) and pax should be able to expect 50-100 mbps which will be fantastic but latency will still be a problem, especially for VPNs etc.
It's ‘Coke vs. Pepsi’… Sure, some have their preferences, but at the end of the day, it’s all just caffeinated, carbonated sugar water. If the WiFi is included and it’s reliable, who really cares about which service provider it is (Elon's Starlink, whatever Bezos is doing, Viasat, Panasonic, etc.) Delta and jetBlue lead the way on this; United and American are finally catching up.
Did you ever fly Turkmenistan Airlines? I remember you wrote at one point you wanted to. Seeing very good fares between Milan and Bangkok in business.
Before this section gets filled with Tim Dunn commentary, I think an important point you make is the changing consumer expectations around WiFi speeds. 7 years ago i was ecstatic that emirates had passable OnAir wifi that where i can check my email and get some work down. Now, I dread having to work on that wifi and will actively seek out other routings if know i need to get work done in the air....
Before this section gets filled with Tim Dunn commentary, I think an important point you make is the changing consumer expectations around WiFi speeds. 7 years ago i was ecstatic that emirates had passable OnAir wifi that where i can check my email and get some work down. Now, I dread having to work on that wifi and will actively seek out other routings if know i need to get work done in the air. I can very realistically see a world where corporations encourage or even require people to choose starlink carriers over others just because it means they can be productive.