3 minFrontier's owner picks Starlink for more than 1,000 planes: what the airline deal says about Starlink's next market
Indigo Partners, which owns Frontier, Wizz Air, Volaris, JetSMART and Cebu Pacific, will fit Starlink to more than 1,000 aircraft. The first Frontier planes are due in early 2027.
Frontier Airlines, the US low-cost carrier that has never offered Wi-Fi on board, is getting Starlink. Its owner, the investment firm Indigo Partners, announced on Tuesday, July 14, that it will install SpaceX's satellite internet across the five airlines it controls.
The key facts
- Scale: Indigo Partners expects to put Starlink terminals on more than 1,000 aircraft, according to Broadband Breakfast.
- Airlines: Frontier in the US, Wizz Air in Europe, Volaris in Mexico, JetSMART in South America and Cebu Pacific in the Philippines.
- Timing: the first Starlink-equipped Frontier planes should fly in early 2027.
- Price for passengers: not announced yet.
- New setup: Frontier says these will be the first US planes with the service delivered through a system managed directly by Starlink.
Frontier CEO Jimmy Dempsey said in a statement that Starlink "transforms the onboard experience".
Starlink's growing airline list
The deal adds to a long list. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, carriers that have announced Starlink agreements include United, American, Southwest, Alaska, Air Canada, Air France, Korean Air, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, WestJet and Lufthansa. For European travellers, Wizz Air is the relevant name in this deal: it is one of the largest low-cost airlines flying in and out of the continent.
The big exception is Delta. It uses Viasat and Hughes today and has picked Amazon's Leo network for future service from 2028. In May, Elon Musk claimed on X that Delta wanted a system that would make Starlink hard to use; Delta denied that and said its choice was partly based on an existing relationship with Amazon.
Speed is Starlink's main selling point in the air. A June 2025 report by Ookla found a median download speed of 152 Mbps on Starlink-equipped flights, the best result among the in-flight Wi-Fi providers it tested.
The Tesla connection
At first sight, aircraft Wi-Fi has little to do with electric cars. The link is the technology underneath. A plane, like a car, is a moving vehicle: the antenna has to track satellites while the vehicle changes direction and speed, and the network has to hand the connection from one satellite to the next without dropping it. Every airline, ship and truck customer helps SpaceX improve exactly the kind of in-motion connectivity that cars would need.
That matters because Musk has repeatedly suggested Starlink will one day be built into vehicles. Tesla cars currently connect through ordinary mobile networks, and no Starlink option has been announced for them. A robotaxi fleet that must stay connected far from cell towers is the most obvious use case, which makes Starlink's progress in other vehicles worth following for Tesla watchers.
Why it matters for Starlink
Aviation is one of the most valuable segments for a satellite network: each aircraft is a large, paying customer, and airlines sign multi-year deals. A single agreement covering more than 1,000 planes is worth more than many residential subscriptions, and it shows Starlink winning over budget carriers as well as premium airlines. It also puts Starlink and Amazon's Leo head to head in a market where both are now competing.
What to watch next
- Whether Frontier makes Wi-Fi free or charges for it, and at what price.
- When Wizz Air passengers in Europe will see the service, which has not been dated.
- How quickly Amazon's Leo, still in early deployment, can match Starlink in the air.
