WiFi Odds
Inflight WiFi as a forecast · figures checked daily · this build 25 Jul 2026
The Race · data as of 2026-07-25

The race to next-gen inflight WiFi

Every airline we score, ordered by how much of its fleet is flying Starlink or Amazon Leo today, with the finish line each one has committed to in public. 3 fleets are done. 12 are mid-retrofit, which is the only phase where per-flight odds mean anything. 3 have signed for hardware that is not in the air, and those score zero here until it is.

Reported Fleet counts: unitedstarlinktracker.com and alaskastarlinktracker.com (@martinamps), 25 JUL 2026. Finish lines and committed aircraft counts from the airlines' own announcements, dated in the last column of the table.

3
Fleets finished
next-gen on 90%+ of the fleet
12
Mid-retrofit
the messy middle, where odds matter
3
Signed, not flying
scored zero until hardware is up
46
Airline programs industry-wide
4 deployed · 17 installing · 25 signed

Every finish line

next-gen share today, and the date the airline has committed towhat the hardware actually is →

Read the two middle columns together. Next-gen today is the odds of drawing a low-earth-orbit aircraft on a flight that has not been assigned one yet. Today’s tier is what you get on the rest of the fleet, which is the part a single score hides: streaming-class is a working connection with lag, basic is email and messaging, and the two are not interchangeable on a four-hour transcon.

AirlineNext-gen todayToday’s tierFinish lineProjected · does not sortWhat we know · source
JSXXE100% Starlinknext-gen fleetwidecompleteRollout completeThe first airline anywhere to finish a Starlink rollout. Every aircraft, free onboard. · starlinkflights.com list, July 2026
airBalticBT100% Starlinknext-gen fleetwidecompleteRollout completeThe entire A220 fleet, and the first European airline to complete a Starlink fit. · starlinkflights.com list, July 2026
ZIPAIRZG100% Starlinknext-gen fleetwidecompleteRollout completeEvery 787 in the fleet, free onboard. · starlinkflights.com list, July 2026
Air FranceAF75% Starlinkmixed · rest basicno public completion dateNothing signedThree quarters of the fleet done and free for every Flying Blue member. No public completion date, but the pace has been steady enough that the remaining quarter is the shorter part of the story. · starlinkflights.com tracker, July 2026
WestJetWS72% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicmainline install all but finished; no plan announced for EncoreNothing signedThe 737 and 787 fleet is a handful of aircraft short of done, and it was the fastest install of any fleet above a hundred aircraft in this set. WestJet Encore is the asterisk: 39 Q400s, about a fifth of what a WS flight number can put you on, with no connectivity of any kind and nothing announced. · starlinkflights.com tracker + WestJet Encore fleet list, July 2026
HawaiianHA64% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicwidebody fit nearly completeNothing signedThe highest next-gen share of any US carrier, and it went from no wifi at all straight to Starlink in 2024, having never had Viasat. The 19 Boeing 717s flying about 150 interisland departures a day have never carried connectivity, and Alaska Air Group has said twice that they never will. Inherited into the Alaska group, which is why the two entries have to be read together rather than added up. · airlinestarlinktracker.com, July 2026
Qatar AirwaysQR58% Starlinkmixed · rest basicno public completion dateNothing signedFree for every passenger in every cabin with no sign-up at all, the most generous access policy in this set, on a fleet that is more than half converted. · OMAAT, July 2026
SASSK49% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicno public completion dateNothing signedAbout half the fleet, still installing. Free for EuroBonus members (free to join) since 24 March 2026. · SAS / Business Travel News Europe, July 2026
UnitedUA30% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basic500+ mainline by end-2026, ~800 aircraft in totalNothing signedAll 300-plus two-cabin regional jets were finished in February 2026, and United ran a Super Bowl ad about it. This is a mass-market amenity now, not an avgeek curiosity. Mainline is the long half and the one still moving daily. · United PR / Simple Flying, July 2026
AlaskaAS28% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-classfull completion targeted end-2027Nothing signedFree for everyone onboard. The E175 regional fleet is done and the mainline 737s are the work in front; the ex-Hawaiian A330s and A321neos are counted under Hawaiian here. · Alaska Airlines PR, July 2026
Virgin AtlanticVS28% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicno public completion dateNothing signedLaunched 1 May 2026, free for Flying Club members (free to join). Early, and a small fleet, so each install moves the share noticeably. · OMAAT / Virgin Atlantic, July 2026
EmiratesEK16% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicfull widebody fleet by mid-2027; 150 aircraft targeted by end-2026Nothing signedAn early retrofit on an all-widebody fleet, which is the slowest kind of aircraft to take out of service, so the target is aggressive for the fleet type. · Gulf News / OMAAT, July 2026
Air CanadaAC6% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicno public completion dateNothing signedJust started, Q400 regionals first. The Canadian market has no per-flight tool at all today, which is exactly the gap instrumenting an airline early is for. · seatwifi.com / Runway Girl, June 2026
British AirwaysBA2% Starlinkmixed · rest basicPAUSED for summer 2026Nothing signedThe only rollout in this set that has stopped. Five aircraft were fitted and then the programme was paused over the peak season; free for every customer in every cabin once fitted. A paused rollout is the case a fleet-share number describes worst, so read the date, not just the percentage. · OMAAT / BA mediacentre, July 2026
SouthwestWN<1% Starlinkmixed · rest streaming-class or basicramping through summer 202637300+ by end-2026, installs runningFIRM
Announced 22 JUN 2026
The largest single-fleet retrofit anyone has committed to. At any believable install rate this fleet takes years, which makes Southwest the biggest future odds market in the world, and the one where a fleet-average number will be least useful for longest. · Southwest / starlinkflights.com tracker, July 2026
AmericanAA0% none flyingstreaming-class · rest basicinstalls begin Q1 202751installs begin 2027-Q1FIRM
Announced 26 MAY 2026
Starlink on 500-plus Airbus narrowbodies, announced 26 May 2026, free for AAdvantage members. The Boeing fleet stays Viasat under the current deal, so unlike United, American’s odds may never converge on 100%, and aircraft type will matter on every AA booking indefinitely. Free Viasat/Intelsat covers about 90% of the fleet meanwhile. · Via Satellite / AA newsroom, 26 May 2026
DeltaDL0% none flyingstreaming-class · rest basicAmazon Leo from 202838begins 2028FIRM
Announced 31 MAR 2026
Signed 31 March 2026 for 500 aircraft, the biggest bet against Starlink in the market. Nothing is flying, so the next-gen number is 0 and stays 0 until hardware is in the air. Delta Sync (Viasat and Hughes) is free for SkyMiles members on 1,150-plus aircraft meanwhile, and it is genuinely streaming-class. That is why Delta’s ConnectScore is high while its next-gen odds are zero. It is not quite fleetwide: the 80 Boeing 717s had their legacy wifi switched off in May 2026 and are waiting on the Hughes retrofit, and transpacific widebodies come online in fall 2026. · Delta News Hub, 31 March 2026 · AeroXplorer / Simple Flying on the 717 gap
jetBlueB60% none flyingstreaming-classAmazon Leo from 202725begins 2027, complete 2028SOFT
Announced 4 SEP 2025
Amazon Leo’s first airline, a year ahead of Delta. Free Fly-Fi (Viasat) on every aircraft until then, in two generations: the A220s and A321neo/LRs carry ViaSat-2, while most A320 and A321ceo airframes still run the original 2013-era ViaSat-1 kit, which is exactly the sub-fleet Leo is slated to replace first. If Leo delivers on schedule this is the first fleet where the two low-earth-orbit systems can be compared in service. · CNBC, September 2025 · Viasat newsroom on the A220/A321neo fit

18 airlines · fleet counts as of 2026-07-25 · finish lines from public announcements, July 2026 · nothing here is fetched live.

Next-gen odds = share of the fleet flying Starlink or Amazon Leo today × free-for-you. Signed-but-unflown deals count zero. The second line is what the fleet actually delivers today: next-gen, streaming-class, basic, or mixed.

The four signed deals, and what they would be worth

projected, and fencedthe five rules →

A signed deal scores zero on today’s odds and always will, because nothing is flying. Readers still want to know what the signature is worth, so there is a fourth number for it. Adding it was the riskiest change on this site: a forward-looking figure sitting beside a measured one gets read as measured. The five rules below are what stop that, and a build tripwire enforces every one of them on the bytes that ship.

projected next-gen odds = committed aircraft ÷ the known-fleet denominator × 1.00 low-earth orbit × free-for-you
horizon = the announced start, and the completion date where one is published

American

51installs begin 2027-Q1FIRM

Reported Runway Girl Network, 2026-05-26: American pivots to Starlink for 500+ Airbus narrowbodies, 26 MAY 2026.

500 of 989 aircraft committed × 1.00 low-earth orbit × 1.00 free-for-you

A committed share of the fleet, not a measurement. None of them are flying it yet. Today it scores next-gen 0 and ConnectScore 51, and those are the two numbers that describe the flight you can book this month.

Delta

38begins 2028FIRM

Reported Delta news release and Amazon news release, both 2026-03-31, 31 MAR 2026.

500 of 1,330 aircraft committed × 1.00 low-earth orbit × 1.00 free-for-you

A committed share of the fleet, not a measurement. Amazon Leo has no aircraft in the air, and no passenger has measured it. Today it scores next-gen 0 and ConnectScore 49, and those are the two numbers that describe the flight you can book this month.

Southwest

37300+ by end-2026, installs runningFIRM

Reported Southwest: the 300-by-year-end target, restated when N8543Z entered service, 22 JUN 2026.

300 of 803 aircraft committed × 1.00 low-earth orbit × 1.00 free-for-you

A committed share of the fleet, not a measurement. 1 of them is flying it today. Today it scores next-gen 0 and ConnectScore 16, and those are the two numbers that describe the flight you can book this month.

jetBlue

25begins 2027, complete 2028SOFT

Reported JetBlue press release, 2025-09-04; sub-fleet detail from secondary reporting, 4 SEP 2025.

25% of 291 aircraft committed × 1.00 low-earth orbit × 1.00 free-for-you

A committed share of the fleet, not a measurement. Amazon Leo has no aircraft in the air, and no passenger has measured it. Today it scores next-gen 0 and ConnectScore 55, and those are the two numbers that describe the flight you can book this month.

It never sorts anything

Every table on this site ranks on what is flying today. The projected column says "does not sort" in its own header, and its header carries no sort key for the client script to find.

It never takes the score arc

Green, amber and red mean measured. A projection is grey outline on every surface, including the API render hints and the extension badge.

It never appears without its date

The value, the horizon phrase and the confidence word are one element. There is no bare projected integer anywhere in the model, on any page, or in any API response, by design.

It carries its confidence label

FIRM means the aircraft count and the date are both published. SOFT means one of the two is secondary reporting.

A missed date is louder than a met one

When the horizon passes with nothing installed the figure flips to SLIPPED, takes a hatched ground, and keeps showing the date that was promised. That flip is computed from the build date, so it does not wait for anyone to notice. No carrier is in that state today.

Only a published aircraft count enters the numerator. Amazon’s “hundreds more over time” on the Delta deal is not counted.

Chapter one: United, the fastest retrofit

176 install days on record, verified dailythe whole fleet →

United is not the biggest next-gen share in the table and it is the fastest moving large fleet in it: 481 aircraft since Mar 14, 2025, express first, mainline catching up. It is also the only fleet anywhere with a public per-tail archive. That is why United is where the per-flight odds come from, and why every other airline’s curve gets read against this one.

481
United aircraft equipped
verified tail by tail
27%
Of the United fleet
of 1,808 aircraft
176
Days of install history
since Mar 2025
9.3
Mainline pace / week
straight-line finish ~mid-2028 at this pace

Alaska is instrumented too, one tier down: verified tails, no per-flight feed. Alaska’s rollout → · why that is a different kind of answer →

What the race decides

three things worth knowing before you book

A paused rollout is worse than a slow one

British Airways fitted five aircraft and stopped for the summer. A fleet-share percentage cannot tell you that on its own, because the number just looks small either way. The date next to it is the part that matters, which is why every row above carries one.

Some fleets will never finish

American signed Starlink for 500+ Airbus aircraft; the Boeing fleet stays on Viasat under the current deal. So American’s odds may never converge on 100%, and the aircraft type on your itinerary will keep mattering there long after United’s stops mattering. Southwest is the other version of this: 817 aircraft is years of work at any believable rate.

A signed deal is not a connection

Delta and jetBlue picked Amazon Leo, from 2028 and 2027. Both score 0 for next-gen odds today and both have genuinely good, free, streaming-class Viasat right now. Those two facts are not in tension. They are the reason this site shows two numbers instead of one. Starlink vs Amazon Leo, compared →

Add an observation

What the record cannot see

Every row above is a fleet count and a published date — none of it says what the connection did once the door closed. If you flew any of these airlines this month, thirty seconds here is a data point nobody else has.

The captive portal usually names it.

Every submission lands unpublished and a person reads it before it appears here. No account, no cookie, no email field. The full form, with speed and latency boxes, is on the methodology page.

Reported Fleet and per-tail verification for United, Alaska and Hawaiian: unitedstarlinktracker.com and alaskastarlinktracker.com (@martinamps), 25 JUL 2026. Every other airline from public airline announcements, Jul 2026. Full credit and citation →