Musk’s Starlink inks deal with Hawaiian Airlines for in-flight internet

Hawaiian Airlines airplanes sit idle on the runway at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Marco Garcia

April 25 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s Starlink will provide in-flight wireless internet on Hawaiian Airlines Inc’s (HA.O) trans-Pacific fleet, the airline said on Monday.

Under the deal, the companies are in the initial stages of implementation and the wireless internet is expected to be installed on select aircraft next year, Hawaiian said.

Starlink, a unit of SpaceX, has been in talks with various airlines for months to provide the in-flight internet service as it seeks to expand its reach beyond consumers and households in rural areas of the globe with little to no internet access.

Hawaiian said it will equip its Airbus A330 and A321neo aircraft, as well as an incoming fleet of Boeing 787-9s with Starlink’s satellite internet connectivity service.

Starlink signed its first deal with an air carrier, semi-private jet service JSX, last week and it involves equipping 100 airplanes with Starlink terminals. read more

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) has held talks with Starlink and had conducted exploratory tests of its technology.

SpaceX has sought regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to operate Starlink on airplanes and shipping vessels and had previously tested the internet network on a handful of Gulfstream jets, as well as military aircraft.

Hawaiian said it is not currently planning to deploy the service on its Boeing 717 aircraft that operate short flights between the Hawaiian Islands.

Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

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