airBaltic is set to become the first airline in Europe to use the SpaceX Starlink satellite communications system onboard its Airbus A220-fleet, offering Wi-Fi even for free. But exactly when it is available to passengers depends on when regulators certify the system for the A220. airBaltic has high hopes for high-speed internet.
The airline of the Baltic states announced earlier this week that it has selected Starlink for its fleet of currently 39 A220s, which will eventually grow to fifty aircraft. CEO Martin Gauss told the author in a video interview that his airline has been looking long and hard for the right communications system. When it placed its first order in 2012 for what was back then the Bombardier CSeries, the airframer offered a Panasonic system. But airBaltic couldn’t get the business case right and continued looking and doing tenders again and again. “None of the business cases we were doing were working out for us.”
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
Richard is contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He also writes for Airliner World, Aviation News, Piloot & Vliegtuig, and Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
