International Airlines Group (IAG) has forged an agreement to bring SpaceX’s Starlink Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-powered inflight connectivity to Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, LEVEL and Vueling, with the service set to start next year. The move will displace multiple IFC suppliers at these airlines.

“The new high speed Wi-Fi partnership with Starlink will be implemented on more than 500 aircraft across IAG’s airlines covering short-haul journeys in Europe as well as all the Group’s long-haul transatlantic and global routes,” IAG says in a statement.

“This means that IAG’s fleet is on track to include more aircraft with high-speed Wi-Fi than any other European airline group.”

All IAG aircraft that are not due for near-term retirement will receive the Starlink phased array system. Financial terms of the massive deal have not been disclosed.

British Airways says the gate-to-gate Wi-Fi service will be offered to “all customers” on a complimentary basis as each aircraft in its mainline and Euroflyer fleets is fitted.

“Once fully fitted, all customers, whichever cabin they’re travelling in, will have free access to the service for streaming, working and keeping in touch, with no special login required,” assures BA, noting that “all BA mainline and Euroflyer flights” will be equipped. BA’s low-cost division Euroflyer operates short-haul services from London Gatwick.

Iberia, too, says it will offer high-speed Wi-Fi service on all its flights, both long- and short-haul.

A raft of other carriers have already signed full-fleet equipage deals with SpaceX including but not limited to BA rival Virgin Atlantic, airBaltic, Air France, Alaska Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS, United Airlines, WestJet, ZIPAIR and hop-on jet operator JSX.

IAG is a major customer of the European Aviation Network’s hybrid air-to-ground/S-band satellite-supported IFC service for short-haul aircraft and as such today’s announcement is a blow to EAN partners Viasat and Deutsche Telekom.

SES (formerly Intelsat’s) 2Ku hardware, which is supported by Ku-band geostationary satellites, is found on the lion’s share of British Airways’ long-haul fleet. Aer Lingus and Iberia are customers of Panasonic Avionics, with Iberia also flying 2Ku.

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Featured image credited to British Airways