United, last among the U.S. major carriers in WiFi accessibility and reliability is taking a big step to change that, and will also make its new service free across its fleet.
The airline announced last Friday that it’s signed a deal to put SpaceX’s Starlink satellite WiFi service on its more than a thousand planes. Testing will start early next year, with the first passenger service later in the year. The rollout to the entire fleet will take a couple of years.
Making the WiFi free will put United on the side of Delta and JetBlue, which already offer free service, leaving Southwest and American as the carriers still charging for the service, although Southwest’s is capped at $8 a flight, while American can go as high as nearly $30.
At present, United’s WiFi service is provided by a mix of four different carriers across its various fleets.
