A JetBlue Airways Airbus A321-231 leaves San Diego International Airport on the road to New York on March 4, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty images
JetBlue Airways plans to install AmazonThe Kuiper project on some of its planes to strengthen Wi-Fi in flight, companies announced in a vote of confidence for the emerging internet satellite service on Thursday.
The technology will be added to about a quarter of the airline fleet, with the deployment starting in 2027 and is expected to be completed in 2028, said Jetblue president Marty St. George, during a call with journalists.
The team is an important victory for Amazon, who worked to build a constellation of Internet satellites in low orbit, called Project Kuiper. The service will compete directly with Starlink by Elon Musk, which currently dominates the market and has 8,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon has sent 102 satellites thanks to a series of rocket launches since April. It aims to respect a deadline for the Federal Commission Commission, which requires that it has around 1,600, or half of its complete constellation, orbit by the end of July 2026.
The company hopes to start the sales department later this year.
“Even if we still have much more work to do, we are very happy to have JetBlue as the first air client for Kuiper,” said Chris Weber, vice-president of sales and marketing of Kuiper, to journalists.
Starlink has scored an increasing number of airlines to use its services. JetBlue is the first partner of the Kuiper airline, although Amazon has signed several transactions recently while trying to extend the service, notably with the manufacturer of the European Airbus aircraft in April.
JetBlue offers the Internet in free flight for years thanks to a partnership with ViaSatwhich operates a network of geostation or geo satellites. This partnership will continue, said St. George.
He praised Amazon’s satellite service, claiming that Kuiper offers high speed, low latency and high reliability compared to Geo satellite networks. JetBlue could possibly use a combination of satellites in low and geo orbit for the Internet in flight, added St. George.
American airlines have worked to improve their Wi-Fi in flight, which has long been derived for slow speeds and high prices.
Southwest Airlines Thursday, he will offer free Wi-Fi to members of his Rapid Rewards loyalty program thanks to a partnership with Mobile From October 24.
Delta airlines Followed JetBlue to unveil free connectivity in 2023 for its members of the Skymile loyalty program. Hawaiian Airlines uses Starlink for free flight flights, and Alaska AirlinesWho acquired this carrier last year, recently said that he would be equivalent to his planes with the same service.
United Airlines Also work to equip its planes to offer members of the free wi-fi loyalty program via Starlink. American airlinesFor his part, in April, said that he planned to have the Internet in free flight on most of his planes next year for members of his AAD program.
