British Airways announced that it will be introducing fast Wi-Fi, powered by Starlink’s satellite constellation, on its airplanes from next year. It will be free, and will work “gate-to-gate,” the company said. Here’s why this is a game-changer.
More years ago than I care to remember, I took the BA001 to New York. Sadly, this wasn’t on Concorde, though BA1 was that plane’s call sign once, too. This was the business-class only flight from London City Airport (the best-kept secret in British aviation).
It was a spectacular service, with certain curiosities. Since the runway at City is short, the Airbus A318 couldn’t be loaded with enough fuel to take it all the way to JFK or it would be too heavy to lift off.
This potential problem was imaginatively solved with a refueling stop in Ireland at Shannon Airport. During the stop, the passengers (it seated 32, so felt like you weren’t flying commercial) disembarked and cleared U.S. customs at Shannon thanks to a helpful and relaxed team of CBP officers. This meant that you avoided lengthy immigration lines when you landed at JFK.
Anyway, the point is it was one of the first BA planes to have Wi-Fi on board — as a technology writer, that’s why I was aboard. It was slow and glitchy but about 300 times better than what had gone before.
Things have got much better since then, with strong connections, decent speeds and reasonable pricing (BA Wi-Fi is consistently cheaper than on American Airlines, for instance).
But all that changes next year, when BA will start rolling out Starlink’s satellite connectivity from next year, as part of the company’s $9.2 billion (£7 billion) “transformation program,” as BA calls it.
This change will be major for those who want to stay connected, and will allow every seat, in all cabins to have Wi-Fi fast enough to stream video and stay connected on multiple devices. I’m hoping the airline will continue its current prohibition of online video and phone calls. It will be live g
BA isn’t the first airline to use Starlink and it will mimic other carriers by offering the connectivity free. It starts rolling out in the new year and will be on long-haul and short-haul flights.
