While there have been many headlines about United Airlines accelerating the rollout of its Starlink Wi-Fi onboard, a more practical milestone has already been reached: many flights operating between the West Coast and Hawaii now offer gate-to-gate Wi-Fi onboard, an important step toward offering seamless connectivity.
United Airlines Gate-To-Gate Wi-Fi Upgades On Viasat-Equipped Aircraft
Even as United Airlines embarks on its ambitious program of adding Starlink Wi-Fi fleetwide, your Wi-Fi experience will vary dramatically onboard based on the type of system onboard. One head-scratcher has been the continued use of older technology on flights between Hawaii and the West Coast on Boeing 737 jets that only worked while the aircraft was over land.
For practical purposes, that meant no functional Wi-Fi on flights to Hawaii on flights equipped with Viasat or Thales systems (meanwhile, Panasonic systems do offer onboard Wi-Fi over oceans).
But United has worked to upgrade its Viasat-equipped 737-900ER and 737 MAX and those aircraft now offer gate-to-gate Wi-Fi onboard, an important upgrade for service to Hawaii.
By the end of the first quarter of 2025, this expanded service will include all other Viasat-equipped aircraft including:
- 737-800
- 737-700
- 757-300
- A319
- A321
Think of this as a patch as United upgrades its entire fleet to add StarLink, but it’s an important patch nonetheless because staying connected while flying has become a given rather than a novelty or bonus. After lagging behind American Airlines and Delta Air Lines for years in terms of in-flight Wi-Fi, United is quickly catching up and if its rollout of Starlink goes smoothly, will surpass its peers and offer a leading (and complimentary) product onboard.
But in the meantime, more passengers traveling between the West Coast and Hawaii on 737 MAX and 737-900 jets can look forward to staying connecting gate-to-gate.
image: United Airlines
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