A JetBlue Airways Airbus A321-231 departs San Diego International Airport en path to Latest York on March 4, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
JetBlue Airways plans to put in Amazon‘s Project Kuiper on a few of its airplanes to bolster in-flight Wi-Fi, the businesses announced Thursday, in a vote of confidence for the nascent web satellite service.
The technology might be added to a few quarter of the airline’s fleet, with the rollout starting in 2027 and expected to be complete in 2028, JetBlue President Marty St. George said on a call with reporters.
The team-up is a major win for Amazon, which has been working to construct a constellation of internet-beaming satellites in low-Earth orbit, called Project Kuiper. The service will compete directly with Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently dominates the market and has 8,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon has sent up 102 satellites through a series of rocket launches since April. It’s aiming to fulfill a deadline by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires it to have about 1,600, or half of its full constellation, in orbit by the top of July 2026.
The corporate hopes to start business service later this 12 months.
“Though we still have quite a bit more work to do, we’re super excited to have JetBlue as the primary airline customer for Kuiper,” Chris Weber, Kuiper’s vp of sales and marketing, told reporters.
Starlink has signed up a growing variety of airlines to make use of its services. JetBlue is Kuiper’s first airline partner, though Amazon has signed several deals recently because it tries to expand the service, including with European plane maker Airbus in April.
JetBlue has offered free in-flight web for years through a partnership with Viasat, which operates a network of geostationary, or GEO, satellites. That partnership will proceed, St. George said.
He praised Amazon’s satellite service, saying Kuiper offers high speed, low latency and high reliability compared with GEO satellite networks. JetBlue could eventually use a mixture of low-Earth orbit and GEO satellites for in-flight web, St. George added.
U.S. airlines have been working to enhance their in-flight Wi-Fi, which has long been derided for slow speeds and high prices.
Southwest Airlines on Thursday said it should offer free Wi-Fi to members of its Rapid Rewards loyalty program through a partnership with T-Mobile starting Oct. 24.
Delta Air Lines followed JetBlue in unveiling complimentary connectivity in 2023 for its SkyMiles loyalty program members. Hawaiian Airlines is using Starlink at no cost in-flight Wi-Fi, and Alaska Airlines, which acquired that carrier last 12 months, recently said it might outfit its planes with the identical service.
United Airlines can be working to equip its planes to supply its loyalty program members free Wi-Fi through Starlink. American Airlines, for its part, in April said it plans to have free in-flight web on most of its planes next 12 months for members of its AAdvantage program.
