Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said the days of unstable or, worse, no Wi-Fi on planes are over.
Reliable and fast Wi-Fi will become “ubiquitous” at full-service carriers, he said on “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
However, not all Wi-Fi will work. As airlines compete to lure passengers with high-speed, and ideally free, Internet in the skies, SpaceX’s Starlink service is emerging as the latest “IT” product to be installed onboard.
Air New Zealand announced in December 2023 that it would introduce Starlink service to two domestic aircraft in the second half of 2024. The service, which provides high-speed internet via about 6,000 satellites, will allow passengers to stream video and send instant messages on multiple devices. said the company.
However, passengers will have to wait a little longer for these services to launch on Air New Zealand. Foran told CNBC on Friday that Starlink tests planned for the company’s aircraft have been postponed to 2025.
“Early next year, you’ll see it on one of our turbo propellers that Starlink is coming online. You’ll also see it on one of our jets,” he said. spoke. “We have tested it in several ways, but the next step is to actually get it on a plane and operational, and from there we can evaluate the deployment.”
massive starlink
On September 13, United Airlines announced it had signed the industry’s largest contract to date for Starlink services. The company announced that testing will begin in 2025 and eventually be rolled out across its entire fleet (more than 1,000 aircraft) over the next few years.
Starlink gives passengers access to fast, reliable internet service around the world, including in remote and previously unreachable areas such as the mid-ocean and polar regions.
Starlink unites on what passengers can do onboard
Both airlines said Starlink’s service would be offered “free” to customers or included in the airfare rather than purchased during the flight, creating new headaches for customers who want high-speed connectivity in the skies. He said it would disappear.
Foran said he met with representatives of Starlink and its owner, SpaceX, two hours before his interview with CNBC.
“We have made great progress on this,” he said. “We’re well on our way down this path…I think it’s going to be a great product.”
Starlink is rapidly becoming the internet provider of choice in the skies, with connectivity agreements from large commercial airlines such as Hawaiian Airlines to smaller carriers such as JSX.
In late September, Air France announced plans to roll out Starlink internet service across all airlines starting in the summer of 2025.
In a press release, the French airline described the move as “a major step in its move towards the luxury market.”
