Starlink’s Transport Ambitions Notch a Big, United-Shaped Win

Maybe better Wi-Fi will curtail the spread of sky-rage on planes.

United Airlines announced on Friday that it’s struck a deal with SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink, to beam Wi-Fi down into its planes while they’re in flight. Starlink already had a handful of airlines in its stable, but partnering with United is a big step toward cementing itself as a go-to internet provider for the transportation sector.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Historically, satellite internet companies have had a hard time turning a profit. In the early 2000s, numerous satellite internet firms went bankrupt, so figuring out how to make Starlink a commercially viable wing of SpaceX’s operation has been a big, looming question mark. SpaceX is a private company, so we can’t know for certain how much money Starlink is making versus how much cash it’s burning up on re-entry, but in May analysts at market research firm Quilty Space reported that they believe Starlink will pull in $6.6 billion in revenue this year, which would make it much larger than its next-biggest rivals.

While Starlink is available to individual consumers, it’s made great strides in nabbing defense contracts and transportation partnerships:

• Starlink’s first big airline contract came in 2022, when it struck a deal to provide in-flight Wi-Fi to Hawaiian Airlines. It also struck a deal with charter jet service JSX in 2023, and has scored a few wins internationally with Qatar Airways and Air New Zealand. 
• By revenue, United is the biggest airline Starlink has scored a partnership with to date. It could be a little while till you can actually log on mid-flight though — Hawaiian Airlines only started rolling out Starlink Wi-Fi in February.

Inside Trajectory: One of the best-performing stocks this year belongs to a very mini rival to Starlink. Shares in AST SpaceMobile have soared more than 1,370% since hitting a low in April, as reported by Bloomberg last week. AST SpaceMobile launched its first five commercial satellites last Thursday — it’s a drop in the ocean compared to Starlink, which has around 6,350 satellites already in orbit, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere.