American Airlines Expands Starlink to Full Mainline Fleet, Leaving Delta as Big Three Holdout

American Airlines is expanding its deal with SpaceX to outfit its entire mainline fleet with Starlink satellite internet, double the scope of what the airline announced in May.

In May, American said that it planned to equip roughly 500 Airbus aircraft with the low-Earth-orbit satellite service beginning next year. Now, under this new agreement, American will bring Starlink to more than 530 Boeing aircraft as well, covering its entire primary fleet of over 1,030 aircraft (comprising more than 900 narrowbody jets and its long-haul widebody fleet).

The aircraft will use SpaceX’s Performance Aero Terminal, an antenna system capable of delivering gate-to-gate connectivity with speeds up to 1 Gbps per terminal. Installations across the fleet are scheduled to start in 2027.

American’s move follows United Airlines’ full-fleet Starlink commitment that came earlier this year. With that decision, Delta became the only one of the Big Three U.S. airlines to not employ Starlink. Delta instead opted to use Amazon’s Leo (Low Earth Orbit) satellites for its inflight Wi-Fi starting in 2028.

The Delta decision sparked flames amongst SpaceX and Starlink supporters. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, said this week on social media that Delta CEO Ed Bastian will “lose his job” over that decision. Bastian, for his part, attempted to dismiss any trouble between the two during an interview with CNBC this week.