American Airlines is getting Starlink Wi-Fi

美国航空将引入 Starlink 机上 Wi-Fi

American Airlines is planning to install SpaceX’s Starlink Wi-Fi in hundreds of its airplanes, the airline announced today. 美国航空今日宣布，计划为其数百架飞机安装 SpaceX 的 Starlink（星链）Wi-Fi 系统。

American says the deployment will start in the first quarter of 2027, and will span more than 500 aircraft, including its new A321XLR and A321neo planes from Airbus. Starlink will join Viastat and SES (previously known as Intelstat) as among the airline’s Wi-Fi providers. 美国航空表示，部署工作将于 2027 年第一季度开始，覆盖超过 500 架飞机，其中包括其从空客引进的全新 A321XLR 和 A321neo 机型。Starlink 将与 Viastat 和 SES（前身为 Intelstat）共同成为该航空公司的 Wi-Fi 服务供应商。

American is the latest air carrier to turn to Elon Musk’s Starlink for its Wi-Fi needs. Others include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa Group, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines recently struck a deal with Amazon Leo for Wi-Fi connectivity. 美国航空是最新一家选择埃隆·马斯克旗下 Starlink 来满足其 Wi-Fi 需求的航空公司。其他已采用该服务的航空公司包括美联航、西南航空、汉莎航空集团、英国航空、卡塔尔航空、阿拉斯加航空和夏威夷航空。与此同时，达美航空近期则与亚马逊的 Project Kuiper（Leo）达成了 Wi-Fi 连接协议。

Airlines are scrambling to make deals with satellite internet providers in the hopes of improving the traditionally dismal connectivity offerings on flights. Wi-Fi that relies on low-earth orbit satellites, like Starlink, tend to offer lower latency thanks to the shorter distance the signal has to travel as compared to satellites in geostationary orbit. Viasat uses geostationary satellites, while SES uses multi-orbit, low-earth orbit, and geostationary satellites. 各大航空公司正争相与卫星互联网供应商达成协议，以期改善航班上长期以来糟糕的网络连接体验。与地球静止轨道卫星相比，像 Starlink 这样依赖低地球轨道卫星的 Wi-Fi，由于信号传输距离更短，往往能提供更低的延迟。Viasat 使用的是地球静止轨道卫星，而 SES 则结合了多轨道、低地球轨道和地球静止轨道卫星。

A recent report from Ookla found that SES-powered flights reported median download speeds of 61.61 Mbps, while Starlink-powered ones were averaging 152.37 Mbps. I got to test out Starlink on a United flight last year, and was getting download speeds of around 128 megabits-per-second (Mbps), while upload speeds were coming in a little slower at an average of 23.9 Mbps. Ookla 最近的一份报告显示，由 SES 提供支持的航班中位下载速度为 61.61 Mbps，而 Starlink 支持的航班平均下载速度则达到 152.37 Mbps。去年我在一次美联航的航班上测试了 Starlink，下载速度约为 128 Mbps，上传速度稍慢，平均为 23.9 Mbps。

“As a premium global airline, we are continuously seeking out world-class partners like Starlink to deliver what our customers need and want,” American Airlines Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden said in a statement. “The addition of Starlink solidifies American as a leading airline in keeping passengers connected in flight.” “作为一家全球高端航空公司，我们一直在寻找像 Starlink 这样的世界级合作伙伴，以满足客户的需求和期望，”美国航空首席客户官 Heather Garboden 在一份声明中表示。“Starlink 的加入巩固了美国航空在保持乘客机上互联方面的领先地位。”

SpaceX’s recent IPO filing revealed that Starlink is the financial engine of the company, generating roughly $11 billion in annual revenue and acting as its only consistently profitable division. In the filing, SpaceX says that Starlink’s global network is designed to eliminate “dead zones” and supports performance on high-latitude routes “that can be challenging for traditional providers.” SpaceX 最近的 IPO 申请文件显示，Starlink 是该公司的财务引擎，年收入约为 110 亿美元，也是其唯一持续盈利的部门。在文件中，SpaceX 表示 Starlink 的全球网络旨在消除“盲区”，并能支持传统供应商难以覆盖的高纬度航线的网络性能。

In recent years, airlines have been racing to integrate more tech features in hopes of winning over customers. JetBlue has offered free Wi-Fi on its flights since 2017, United and Delta have been looking to make it easy for customers to use Bluetooth headphones for the in-flight entertainment, and almost every company is adding content from popular streaming services to their seat-back displays or in-flight web portals. 近年来，各大航空公司竞相整合更多科技功能，以期赢得客户青睐。捷蓝航空自 2017 年起便在航班上提供免费 Wi-Fi；美联航和达美航空一直在努力让乘客更方便地使用蓝牙耳机连接机上娱乐系统；几乎每家公司都在其椅背显示屏或机上网页门户中增加了热门流媒体服务的内容。

But while select video content and Spotify can help pass the time, nothing compares to just being able to use the internet on your own device. 尽管精选的视频内容和 Spotify 可以帮助打发时间，但没有什么比能够在自己的设备上自由使用互联网更让人满意的了。