Overview
- This week Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines reported that roughly 150 combined aircraft have Starlink installed, putting their rollout ahead of schedule.
- Alaska has finished Starlink on its entire regional Embraer 175 fleet and the first 50 mainline jets, and it plans to equip 787‑9 widebodies this fall with mainline installs finishing by 2027.
- A new onboard portal is rolling out in June that will require guests to sign into or join the free Atmos Rewards program to receive complimentary gate‑to‑gate Starlink access, with the experience becoming standard on all equipped flights by mid‑July.
- Carriers say Starlink delivers low latency and much higher speeds than legacy systems—up to about 500 Mbps—so passengers can stream, game, browse, and use multiple devices in flight.
- The move follows earlier Starlink adoption by other U.S. airlines and signals growing industry pressure to offer faster inflight internet while using free access as a tool to drive loyalty‑program enrollment.