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SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service has enabled airlines to improve their WiFi internet speeds significantly, shows fresh data from Ookla. Starlink is the world's largest low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet service, and along with marketing the service to consumers, SaceX has also sought to disrupt the global logistics and transportation industry with the service by proving internet coverage in air and in far-flung regions. According to Ookla's data, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways had the highest median internet speeds due to their reliance on SpaceX's internet service.
SpaceX's Starlink Internet Service Enables Airlines To Experience Faster In-Flight WiFi Speeds
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet constellation is the largest low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of its kind courtesy of the firm's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has rapidly captured the LEO market as it now waits for rivals such as Amazon's Kuiper to build their constellations. Since its launch, SpaceX has aimed to provide internet connectivity to underserved regions with Starlink. The firm has also established itself in the maritime and airline internet industry.
On the latter front, SpaceX's Starlink is available on several airlines. These include JSX, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways, with United Airlines also expected to introduce the service on its aircraft soon. As for the maritime industry, Royal Caribbean has also announced a partnership with SpaceX to extend Starlink's presence in the leisure and travel industry.
Starlink, unlike most other satellite internet providers, benefits from relying on LEO satellites as they allow faster data transfer speeds between the satellite dishes and the satellites to improve connectivity speeds.
Now, data from Ookla shows that Hawaii Airlines and Qatar Airways led the chart for inflight internet speeds in Q1 2025. The two airlines delivered top internet speeds of 276 megabits per second and 236 megabits per second. The most common internet speeds in these airlines were 161 megabits per second and 120 megabits per second, while the lowest speeds were 57 megabits per second and 15 megabits per second.
Crucially, the most common or median internet speeds for Hawaii Airlines were nearly twice the speeds for Spirit Airlines, which ranked third in the internet speed rankings. Unlike Hawaii Airlines and Qatar Airways, Spirit Airlines does not rely on SpaceX's Starlink to provide inflight internet coverage. Spirit Airlines relies on Hughes for Internet coverage, which in turn relies primarily on medium Earth orbit (MEO) and GEO satellites for Internet connectivity but also retains support for LEO satellites.
Overall, Starlink leads the board of internet speeds for inflight connectivity providers. The most common Starlink internet speed was 152 megabits per second, which was once again nearly double the second-ranking internet provider Hughes, whose median speed sat at 84 megabits per second. Starlink was also the only internet service in the data set whose highest speeds of 254 megabits per second crossed the 200 megabits per second mark. Starlink was also by far the leader in latency, as its latency of 44 milliseconds was more than ten times less than the second position MTN which had a 667-millisecond latency.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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