FILE PHOTO: United Airlines planes land and prepare to take off at Newark Liberty International Airport during the week of Thanksgiving in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Vincent Alban/File Photo
(Reuters) -United Airlines said on Sunday it expects to begin testing Elon Musk's Starlink in February for in-flight internet services, and to first offer the connectivity on a commercial flight operated by Embraer E-175 aircraft this spring.
The airline plans to outfit its entire two-cabin regional fleet with the service by the end of 2025 and have its first Starlink-enabled plane on major routes in the air by the end of the year.
Starlink will eventually be available on all its flights, the airline said in a statement.
However, United said access would be free only for MileagePlus members, revising an earlier plan to offer free Wi-Fi to all passengers.
Last year, United signed a deal with Starlink to provide in-flight internet services across its entire fleet of over 1,000 aircraft over the next several years.
Starlink, a unit of SpaceX, has inked deals with multiple airlines to provide in-flight internet services as it seeks to expand its reach beyond consumers and households in rural areas around the world with little to no internet access.
The satellite-based internet services provider has previously signed deals with Hawaiian Airlines and regional carrier JSX.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru;Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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