Air New Zealand: Starlink will end the era of unreliable Wi-Fi on planes

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says the days of unreliable (or worse, non-existent) Wi-Fi on planes are numbered.

Reliable, fast Wi-Fi will be “ubiquitous” among full-service operators, he told “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.

But not just any Wi-Fi will do. As airlines race to attract passengers with fast and preferably free internet in the sky, SpaceX’s Starlink service is becoming the latest “it” product on board.

Air New Zealand announced in December 2023 that it would install Starlink services on two domestic aircraft by the end of 2024. .

Air New Zealand CEO says SpaceX's Starlink Wi-Fi will be 'fantastic' for passengers

However, passengers will have to wait a while before these services are launched on Air New Zealand. Foran told CNBC on Friday that planned Starlink trials on its aircraft have been pushed back to 2025.

“Early next year, you’ll see on one of our turboprops and on one of our jets that we will be operating Starlink,” he said. “We’ve tested it in some ways, but now the next step is to actually install it on an aircraft and operate it. From there, we can evaluate deployment.”

Large scale star chain

September 13, United Airlines said it has signed the industry’s largest Starlink service agreement to date. The airline announced that testing will begin in 2025 and will eventually be rolled out to the entire fleet (more than 1,000 aircraft) in the coming years.

Starlink will give passengers access to fast, reliable internet service around the world, including remote and once inaccessible areas such as the mid-ocean and polar regions.

United understands what Starlink allows passengers to do in flight

live streaming: Watch live TV and movies without buffering or lag time
Work: Share files, upload and download documents
gamble: Play and watch live games
e-commerce: Shop, arrange delivery, pre-order

Both airlines said the Starlink service would be offered “free” to customers or included in tickets, rather than having to be purchased during the flight, eliminating the need for Another pain point for those who want a fast connection in the sky.

Foran said he met with representatives from Starlink and its owner SpaceX two hours before the CNBC interview.

“We’ve made tremendous progress on this,” he said. “We’re pretty far along that path…I think it’s going to be a really great product.”

Starlink is quickly becoming the network provider of choice in the air, signing connectivity agreements with large commercial operators such as Hawaiian Airlines and smaller commercial operators such as JSX.

At the end of September, Air France announced plans to launch Starlink network services across its entire fleet starting in the summer of 2025.

In a press release, the French airline described the move as “an important step upmarket.”