United CEO rules out free Wi-Fi on non-Starlink flights
While Starlink is free, United’s other satellite Wi-Fi systems still carry a price tag.
By David Flynn, April 23 2026
United Airlines is pushing ahead with the rollout of fast, free Starlink satellite Wi-Fi across its domestic and international fleet.
The tech delivers a true ‘broadband above the clouds’ experience, with download speeds averaging 150Mbps – and it’s completely free as long as you’re a member of the airline’s MileagePlus rewards program (which in turn is free to join).
At the same time, the airline is still using several other inflight Wi-Fi systems, such as Panasonic and ViaSat, which are slower – delivering 5Mbps at best, and that’s if they work at all – while charging passengers up to $20 to connect, even in business class.
Is there any chance that United might flick a switch and declare all Wi-Fi to be free? Not likely.
“The reason is, because you make it unusable when you make it free,” says United CEO Scott Kirby, on the sidelines of the United Elevated event at LAX which launched second-gen Polaris and new Polaris Studio suites.
“The issue is bandwidth, particularly flying across the Atlantic or across the Pacific.”
“It’s not just our aircraft, it’s all the aircraft (of other airlines), we’re all pointing at the same geosynchronous satellite,” Kirby explains.
This results in not enough signal to go around, “so when you make it free on the airplane, there’s so much (competition for) bandwidth it doesn’t work for anyone” – leading to frustrations and customer dissatisfaction.
“It’s a bad experience if it doesn’t work for anyone. So the reason we haven’t made it free is because that’s a worse product than having it be the people that want it, pay for it.”
In the meantime, Kirby says, “we’re going to get Starlink as fast as we can.”
United is already approaching the halfway mark to having Starlink fitted to every plane in its 1,000-plus fleet by the end of 2027, with installations often exceeding one plane per day so far this year.
25 Nov 2025
Total posts 35
Absolute rubbish that as a premium (Business or First) passenger, you still have to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi. (Laughs in SQ)
This is not the early 2000s when London hotels were charging 20 quid for hiring an ethernet cable; the rivers of gold that were "charging for the internet" or "using the internet for a whole hour for free" as a luxury are gone, dried up.
US carriers never fail to amaze me that their idea of "First" or "Premium" is what I could expect from a QF or CX (18 months ago) Business or Premium Economy product...we should be SO lucky, tug my forelock and say "ooh, thank you Mr Kirby, may I please have some more, sir ?".
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on United CEO rules out free Wi-Fi on non-Starlink flights