Starlink Is Now Available on All Hawaiian Airlines Airbus Flights (cnet.com) 20
Hot on the heels of United Airlines' Starlink announcement, Hawaiian Airlines said it, too, is offering "fast and free Starlink Wi-Fi" across its entire Airbus fleet. CNET reports: Hawaiian Airlines is now the first major carrier to use Elon Musk's satellite internet service, which taps more than 7,000 satellites in low earth orbit to deliver high-speed internet worldwide. "In Starlink's low earth orbit constellation of advanced satellites, the latest of which utilize a revolutionary laser mesh network, we found an ideal solution to ensure reliable, high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi on transpacific flights," a Hawaiian Airlines representative told CNET. "Working with Starlink has allowed us to offer a fast and consistent in-flight connectivity experience that meets our high standard for guest service."
The company first debuted Starlink on its planes in February on a flight from Honolulu to Long Beach, California. It first struck a deal with Starlink in 2022 and has now completed installation across its entire Airbus fleet, which includes 24 A330 planes and 18 A321neos. Hawaiian Airlines will also deploy the service on its two Boeing 787-9 planes, but not its Boeing 717 aircraft, which are used on shorter flights between the Hawaiian Islands.
The company first debuted Starlink on its planes in February on a flight from Honolulu to Long Beach, California. It first struck a deal with Starlink in 2022 and has now completed installation across its entire Airbus fleet, which includes 24 A330 planes and 18 A321neos. Hawaiian Airlines will also deploy the service on its two Boeing 787-9 planes, but not its Boeing 717 aircraft, which are used on shorter flights between the Hawaiian Islands.
Hopefully this makes all airlines (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The airlines I use typically have about $8 or $10 fee for the whole flight, which if anything is even more stupid. Just charge everyone $3 and switch it on already.
Re: (Score:3)
The small fee probably helps discourage the worst offenders, who would be making hours long Skype calls and the like.
Re: (Score:2)
They are flight long fees. Why would you think someone is willing to pay a small fee to say use facebook, but draws the line at a skype call?
Re: (Score:3)
I actually got in-flight wifi for free once. It was not all that useful... After shitposting to Slashdot and reading some news, I ran out of stuff to amuse myself fairly quickly. I suppose I could have streamed some video or something, but do the maths... a couple of hundred people and a connection that can only manage a couple of hundred megabits per second... And it's actually worse than that, because with so many users the bottleneck will likely be the upload speed thanks to how TCP/IP works.
I usually ju
Re: (Score:2)
Some passengers might be attempting to sleep on intercontinental flights.
Premium tickets could arrange business class experience around a sound-proof pod.
Re: Hopefully this makes all airlines (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Disagree. I've never once seen a noise complaint in business class. Drunk morons on a cheap flight on the other hand...
Re: (Score:2)
Some passengers might be attempting to sleep on intercontinental flights.
Premium tickets could arrange business class experience around a sound-proof pod.
You already get that in business class. Try making a noise after the lights go out and watch the staff come down hard on your arse. The only thing they don't intervene in is the unintentional noise, e.g. a child in pain crying, even then they will usually do everything to assist calming the child down.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Cat videos I have no issue with, it's having a conversation with someone who isn't sat next to them that is the problem.
Actually the worst would probably be some arsehole with an Apple Vision Pro. Seat power keeps it going all flight, with them gesticulating for hours on end to control the thing.
Re: (Score:2)
The small fee probably helps discourage the worst offenders, who would be making hours long Skype calls and the like.
Also singles the OP out as someone who only flies domestically in the US. I regularly take trans-Atlantic, Europe-Aisa/Australia and the odd trans-Pacific flight, if you want internet on those flights it starts to cost you. I don't mind it mind you, I always take the flight as an opportunity to unplug, watch some movies, read a book or just look out the window. I don't really mind being out of contact for 10 odd hours between airports. Nothing is so urgent or important that it cant wait until the arrivals h
Re: (Score:2)
I've got a couple of 14 hour ones coming up in a few months too. The people sitting next to you can really make the difference between if a flight is hell or just a boring 14 hour slog.
One of the reasons I pay more for certain airlines is the kind of people who fly on them. Now I have a dilemma because China Air is flying the route for about half the price of ANA and JAL, which is a big chunk of change. But last time I flew to China was awful. The guy I was initially sat next to stank of BO. His entertainme
I buy internet access on all flights (Score:2)
I think most of the Internet access on planes in the US use ground based towers. And it is a total crapshoot. Some places you get really good access. Other places. Nothing. I do a lot of traveling, and if I am stuck on a plane for hours, I might as well use that time to get stuff done. But, the current state of affairs makes it quite challenging. Hopefully Starlink gets adopted by more airlines and change things for the better.
BTW, I don't mind paying $10-$15 per flight for Internet access. If it w
Re: I buy internet access on all flights (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of people would be fine with a 1GB cap per flight (or per hour or whatever) just to be able to send some text messages/emails. This could easily be provided for free.
You can't have 200 people streaming from Netflix UHD over starlink while another 50 is trying to play online games with real-time video chat during the whole flight and the last 50 are downloading torrents and steam games without any speed limit and expect everything to work well. At least not yet.
Re: (Score:2)
I think most of the Internet access on planes in the US use ground based towers. And it is a total crapshoot. Some places you get really good access. Other places. Nothing. I do a lot of traveling, and if I am stuck on a plane for hours, I might as well use that time to get stuff done. But, the current state of affairs makes it quite challenging. Hopefully Starlink gets adopted by more airlines and change things for the better.
BTW, I don't mind paying $10-$15 per flight for Internet access. If it were offered for free, people who do not need it are helping pay for it. And the service will get overwhelmed. Perhaps a tiered service might help with that.
I've always had a theory about people who could never stop talking... they find their own thoughts so scary that they don't want to risk being alone with them. I think that extends to people who can never handle being disconnected.
But I digress. The transmitters are installed on the top of aircraft (one of those little bumps on the top of the fuselage), that generally tells you that the signal is going up rather than down.
Also Hawaiian, famously flies to Hawaii so on a lot of their routes there's not
Not just on Hawaiian Airlines flights (Score:3)
Starlink is even being used on Russian drones [theregister.com] to attack Ukraine. Nice of Putin to test the product's air worthiness.
Might be a challenge (Score:2)