Hawaiian Airlines, newly bought by Alaska Airlines, has a new feature for its long-haul passengers: free high-speed WiFi from Starlink’s constellation of orbiting satellites, keeping it ahead of its brandmate, which charges for WiFi and only offers slower speeds.
The Starlink installation has just been finished on the airline’s two dozen A330 planes, following installation in February on its A321s. Hawaiian is the first major U.S. airline with Starlink, although United is planning to follow over the next couple of years. In Europe, Air France is following some smaller airlines with an announcement last week that it will be installing free Starlink across its fleet.
Next step: installing Starlink on its 787-9s. Never step: the airline has no plans to install Starlink on its inter-island flights using Boeing 717s.
