(CNBC) SpaceX nearly doubled its backlog of Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi orders with last week’s United Airlines deal, a company director said Tuesday.
“Very excited that we have about 2,500 aircraft under contract now, bringing what was effectively a startup to now what we think is a growing experience that’s going to resonate with all the passengers and the airlines worldwide,” Nick Galano, SpaceX director of Starlink aviation sales and partnerships, said during a panel at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris.
The satellite internet arm of Elon Musk’s space company is pushing into the in-flight connectivity, or IFC, market. Last week, United said it will outfit its more than 1,000 planes with Starlink and won’t charge customers for the Wi-Fi.
The United megadeal was Starlink’s largest IFC agreement yet. It will also push out United’s existing quartet of WiFi providers Viasat, Panasonic, Thales and Gogo — as Starlink is installed on the airline’s planes in the next several years.
SpaceX has previously announced in-flight deals and has started service with Hawaiian Airlines,Qatar Airways, Japan’s Zipair, Latvia’s airBaltic and semi-private charter airline JSX.
SpaceX has steadily expanded its Starlink network and product offerings since its debut in 2020. The company initially targeted consumers, but has expanded into other markets, including enterprise services such as aviation and maritime.
There are currently about 6,400 Starlink satellites in orbit that connect more than 3 million customers in 100 countries, according to the company.
Galano touted “the sheer factor of the capacity that we can provide” via Starlink, saying the current satellite constellation is “probably over 100 times what all the legacy systems have provided” due to “over 300 terabits per second worth of capacity today.”
SpaceX continues to increase that capacity as well, launching rockets carrying new Starlink satellites about every three days on average this year, according to the company.
