United plans to have the retrofits done on each plane within two days after the talks are over and the hardware is secured.
United Airlines said late last week that it had signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use SpaceX’s Starlink internet service on all of its planes and give all customers free Wi-Fi for the first time. Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo of United told us more about why the company chose Starlink, how it will be put into use, and what it means for passengers and workers.
Jojo told me that the company is switching providers now because they believe their customers deserve a better Wi-Fi experience than they currently have. “If I could have done this change earlier, I would have,” she said. “We’re proud of a lot of things.”
United is currently using a mix of four different providers: Gogo, Thales, Panasonic, and Viasat. Each of these has their own pros and cons. It’s possible that one flight will let you watch video while your connecting flight will only let you browse the web. The airline has tried to make all of these systems work together with a single sign-in, but Jojo said it’s not always possible to keep people from seeing how complicated things are.
People also think that Wi-Fi on flights should be free, which is partly because of United’s rivals like Delta Air Lines. Unfortunately, Jojo said, United’s current network of providers didn’t have enough space to give everyone on the plane free Wi-Fi.
According to her, if they went with the free option, it would have been worse than the paid option because the $8 fee for a MileagePlus member was just enough to make people say, “I’m going to be really intentional about connecting.” “The way things are set up and built now is not going to be good enough,”
United thought about low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites as a way to find a better answer. So, they can offer lower latency, more capacity, and faster speeds because they are closer to the planes than those in a geosynchronous orbit. And Starlink is pretty much the only company that offers satellite-based internet service that works all over the world and has enough bandwidth.
Joey said, “If we were going to do it, we were going to do it with Starlink.” “At first, we looked at it for our regional fleet to see if we wanted to give it a try.” We quickly told them, “There’s nothing to try here.” It looks like it will work. We could see what other people, like JSX, were doing. The coverage was clear because we could see the satellites.
United began talking with Starlink earlier this year about putting its gear on its planes. The process of getting certified should go faster since other companies are going through the same thing right now, like Hawaiian (which is now merging with Alaska companies).
United has an interesting plan: they want to finish the retrofits in two days. They might even be able to split the work into two parts: the process will begin while the plane is at base one night, stop while the plane is in flight during the day, and then be finished on the second night. That’s when this kind of work would normally be done during a longer, more thorough maintenance check—and sometimes that may still be the best time to put in the Starlink gear.
It turns out that the satellite station is a lot smaller and easier to set up than the ones United uses now. “This is yet another reason why Starlink is so great.” It was really well thought out. This is a very simple item. Joey said, “It’s a lot easier than what we have on the plane now.” “Satellites in geosynchronous orbits have parts inside them that move.” As the plane flies, the receivers keep an eye on the satellites. That’s not needed by Starlink. Inside the Starlink units, there are no longer any moving parts. That’s a lot of modules.
Since there are more than 1,000 planes, this rollout will take some time. When we talked, Jojo made it clear that she would like things to go as quickly as possible. Still, Starlink Wi-Fi won’t be used on its first passenger flight until sometime in 2025.
United is going through this process at the same time that it is updating its rooms. The seatback screens that were taken away about ten years ago are now back. Once those systems are linked to the faster and more stable Wi-Fi, the goal is to make them smarter and stronger as well.
“We had been thinking about how to make the Wi-Fi better the whole time,” Jojo said about the cabin update. “If anything, the Wi-Fi part is behind the seatback part, but we’re going to catch up and go.”
In this case, you might be able to start watching a movie on your first flight and then continue it on your next flight. It could just mean being able to log into your Netflix account and watch a movie, but United could also look into adding more engaging features to the screens in the seats, like games that you can play on more than one screen and use your phone.
Also Read: 100 Starlink Satellites With an Unknown Problem Will Be Taken Out of Orbit by Spacex
United is already using its own networks to help its crew talk to each other and their teams on the ground. Once Starlink is up and running, they’ll be able to switch from texting to voice and video messages. This will let them talk to each other and send videos of things that need to be fixed after landing, for example. Modern planes have a lot of sensors, so the team may also be able to send more of that information to the ground in real time, for things like preventative repair.
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