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United operated its first widebody transatlantic flight with Starlink Wi-Fi on board last night, when flight UA14 departed Newark for London on a Boeing 777-200. It was the first of United’s widebody aircraft fitted with the satellite system to cross the Atlantic carrying paying passengers.
The details
The 777-200 in question is one of nearly 60 United widebodies due to get Starlink this year, with the rest of the widebody fleet expected to be fitted by next summer.
United says that it has already equipped over 400 of its aircraft with Starlink and that it expects to reach close to 1,000 Starlink-equipped planes by the end of the year.
Long-haul routes likely to see United’s Starlink-equipped aircraft in the near future include flights from the airline’s hubs in Newark, Washington D.C., Houston, and San Francisco to so e of the more popular destinations including London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo.
Starlink Wi-Fi is free for MileagePlus members, and United says passengers will get a notification ahead of their flight if the aircraft is Starlink-equipped.
According to United’s own figures, over 18.6 million million passengers have already flown on its Starlink-equipped aircraft across over 311,000 flights since the rollout began last spring and that, unsurprisingly, Wi-Fi satisfaction scores on these flights has nearly doubled.
Quick thoughts
The first United Airlines Starlink-equipped widebody crossing the Atlantic is a significant milestone for the airline as not only does it emphasize that the Starlink rollout continues at pace, but it also reminds travelers just how far ahead of the competition the airline is.
American Airlines isn’t starting its Starlink rollout until next year, Delta isn’t getting any kind of super-fast Wi-FI until 2028 at the earliest, British Airways has equipped a total of 5 aircraft with Starlink and appears to have paused its roll out, and Lufthansa isn’t beginning it’s Starlink rollout until later this year.
More importantly, United is quickly moving from an airline on which the onboard wifi was routinely awful and unusable to an airline where the opposite is true, and that’s good for both flyers and United’s reputation.
That being said, the timeline for the rollout is worth keeping an eye on. “Nearly 60 widebodies this year” can sound like a lot until you remember United’s widebody fleet runs into the hundreds, and “the entire widebody fleet by next summer” is an ambitious target to set. Let’s hope United can meet it.
Bottom line
United flew its first Starlink-equipped widebody across the Atlantic last night on the Newark-London route, with close to 60 of its widebodies expected to get the new system this year and the rest of the fleet expected to follow by next summer.
