SpaceX Starlink has 2,500 planes under contract

PARIS — SpaceX Nearly Doubles Starlink Backlog In-flight Wi-Fi Order with last week United Airlines deal, a company executive said Tuesday.

“We are thrilled to now have approximately 2,500 aircraft under contract, transforming what was once just a startup into a growing experience that we think will resonate with passengers and airlines around the world,” Nick Galano, SpaceX’s director of Starlink aviation sales and partnerships, said during a panel at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris.

Satellite Internet Branch of Elon MuskSpace companies are pushing into the in-flight connectivity, or IFC, market. Last week, United said it would equip more than 1,000 of its planes with Starlink and would not charge customers for Wi-Fi.

United’s massive deal is the largest Starlink IFC deal to date. It will also push out United’s four current WiFi providers — Viasat, PanasonicThales, and Gogo — as Starlink will be installed on the airline’s planes in the next few years.

SpaceX has previously announced in-flight deals and has already started service with Hawaiian AirlinesQatar Airways, Japan’s Zipair, Latvia’s airBaltic and semi-private charter airline JSX.

SpaceX has steadily expanded its Starlink network and offerings since its launch in 2020. The company initially targeted consumers, but has expanded into other markets, including enterprise services like aviation and maritime.

According to the company, there are currently about 6,400 Starlink satellites in orbit connecting more than 3 million customers in 100 countries.

Galano praised the “sheer capacity factor that we can deliver” through Starlink, saying the current satellite constellation is “probably 100 times higher than all the legacy systems have delivered” due to “the capacity now being over 300 terabits per second.”

SpaceX continues to build on that capacity by launching rockets carrying new Starlink satellites on average every three days this year, according to the company.

Galano also emphasized that SpaceX is trying to reduce the time it takes to install new antennas on planes. Known as retrofits, the process is a pain point for airlines, which require planes to be taken out of service for days to upgrade or replace satellite communications systems.

“We’re trying to simplify those installations — we use the word ‘innovation’ — to get them done in less than a day, which we’ve demonstrated on the Hawaiian and JSX fleets,” Galano said.

By comparison, Delta Airlines Delta said its satellite IFC retrofits take “about three days on average,” according to Glenn Latta, the airline’s executive director of in-flight entertainment and connectivity. But Latta said Delta’s process, which requires retrofitting 1,200 aircraft, is also more intensive than installing Starlink on Hawaiian’s fleet, which will have 66 aircraft by mid-2024, according to a securities.

“For us, retrofitting is taking out the existing system … and then you can install it yourself,” Latta told CNBC after the conference.[Hawaiian] never had a satellite communications system, so that’s one of the differences to note.”

Delta, which relies on Viasat to provide in-flight service, said it would implement Free WiFi for members in early 2023 — a decision that Latta said has proven well worth it for the airline. Both Delta and United are in a battle for high-end customers.

“We have added 3 million SkyMiles members through our loyalty program by offering free internet access,” said Latta.

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this article.