Hawaiian Airlines became the first major US carrier to debut Starlink in February on its Airbus A321 Neo Aircraft. It has now completed Starlink installation on all Airbus-operated flights between the islands and continental US, Asia and Oceania.
As Easy as Connecting to Wi-Fi at Home
Passengers journeying aboard one of the Hawaiian Airlines 24 Airbus A330s can enjoy high-speed, minimal-delay Wi-Fi free of charge. Similar to how they would at home, travellers can connect to the Wi-Fi as soon as they enter the aircraft.
Since its launch on Hawaiian Airlines, Starlink has delivered an excellent performance, offering internet service without interruptions. Internet speeds onboard the planes can support work, video streaming and even gaming.
Evan Nomura, director of inflight entertainment and connectivity and onboard products at Hawaiian Airlines said:
Becoming the first major airline to offer travellers Starlink at no cost is a remarkable achievement for our team, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response from guests who have been enjoying our industry-leading connectivity onboard.
Hawaiian Airlines plans to also install Starlink on its Boeing 787-9 fleet, however does not currently have plans to install the satellite internet service on its Boeing 717 aircraft, which is generally used for short journeys between the islands.
More about Starlink
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation owned by American aerospace company SpaceX. As well as Hawaiian Airlines, it has also signed deals with United Airlines, Qatar Airways, airBaltic, Zipair, and JSX.
It started launching satellites in 2019 and, to date, has launched over 5,000 into Earth’s lower orbit, with around 4776 currently operational. It plans to launch a total of 42,000 satellites however has not yet specified a timescale for this.
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