The passenger cabin on a Delta Boeing 737-900ER is shown while landing in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Delta Air Lines has tapped Amazon Leo to provide fast internet service on hundreds of jets starting in 2028, the latest salvo in airlines’ in-flight Wi-Fi and streaming wars.
Amazon Leo, which stands for low Earth orbit, is offering satellite Wi-Fi, which Delta says will initially be available on 500 of its aircraft. Delta will start with domestic-focused, narrow-body planes from Boeing and Airbus. The airline also uses Hughes and Viasat for in-flight Wi-Fi.
“People want faster speeds, they want more bandwidth, they want to share all their video and photos from their trip. Expectations are just rising every day,” Delta Chief Marketing and Product Officer Ranjan Goswami said in an interview.
Airlines have been turning to faster in-flight Wi-Fi and making the service free for loyalty program members as they seek to win over passengers and in some cases monetize a captive audience of millions with personalized ads and potential shopping.
Goswami said there will “clearly be commerce opportunities” as Delta refreshes its in-flight technology to update movie selections and other entertainment faster and to offer bigger libraries. He said Delta has about 165,000 seat-back screens in its fleet.
Goswami said the initial batch of aircraft to offer the faster service will include Delta’s newly ordered Boeing 737 Max 10 planes as well as some older 737s and Airbus A321s, used mostly for domestic routes.
Chris Weber, Amazon Leo’s vice president, said the higher speeds come from its satellites, which are in orbit closer to Earth than some others.
“I think of the high-speed, reliable connectivity of the planes as foundation, and Delta will build some very unique experiences on top of that,” Weber said.
He said Amazon Leo is focused on building out its satellite constellations and has about 200 satellites in orbit and hundreds more manufactured for launching.
The company is aiming to build a constellation of roughly 3,200 low Earth orbit satellites that will serve businesses, governments and consumers. Amazon launched an enterprise preview of Leo for select businesses last year as it works toward a broader commercial rollout.
American Airlines is weighing bringing back seat-back screens to its narrow-body fleet and would use either SpaceX’s Starlink or Amazon Leo with Amazon Prime content, CNBC reported last week. A decision could come as early as next month.
United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have recently started using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Wi-Fi onboard.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
