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United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby posted on Instagram yesterday, June 8, that the first United Boeing 777-200ER to receive Starlink has officially completed prototype installation at Galeão International Airport (GIG) in Rio de Janeiro. The widebody, tail number N37018, will undergo certification and validation test flights through the end of this month, but no flights appear scheduled on public sources like Flightradar24.
This aircraft is the first of 22 examples of the same type that will be converted in the first batch of long-haul jetliners for the airline. The 777-200 ER aircraft were selected to prove the new technology before United begins installation on the other widebody types in its fleet.
Staying Connected On United With Starlink
The 777-200ER jets selected for the first wave of Starlink installations were strategically selected as United continues to expand and modernize its fleet. These 22 planes feature the immensely powerful General Electric GE90 turbo fans. Meanwhile, the fleet of older 777-200 jets with Pratt and Whitney PW4000 engines is unlikely to receive the new in-flight Wi-Fi as they are expected to be sunset in the coming years, with the first example having retired in 2025.
The experience gained from the 777-200 ER fleet will be transferred to the newer, larger 777-300ER aircraft that are also powered by the GE90 engines and share many systems in common as a result. The 22 bigger ‘triple sevens’ serve on many of the most popular international routes and are likely to be the next on deck to receive Starlink, as they also form a core component of United’s Long Haul Network.
As the rollout extends, UA and Starlink will have gained a great deal of experience and even operational testing by the time its 83-strong fleet of 787 Dreamliners can be inducted for retrofits. On Instagram, Kirby posted this comment on the airline’s intent to deliver new and improved Wi-Fi as soon as it can to customers:
“Our customers love Starlink on domestic routes, but the long international routes are the ones I’m most excited about… and I know it can’t come soon enough. The United and Starlink teams are working hard to accelerate the installations as fast as possible.”
Catch what other flight trackers miss
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Catch what other flight trackers miss
Emergency squawks, holds, NOTAMs — live signals, no signup.
Open tracker
The Wi-Fi Race In The Sky
The current trajectory at United is ahead of the curve following the wider industry trend. American Airlines is expected to begin installation on 500+ Airbus single-aisle jets next year, but that won’t begin until the first quarter of 2027, and no widebody plans have been announced. Delta Air Lines has chosen to install Amazon technology on 500 of its planes after failing to make a deal with Starlink over compatibility with the Delta sync ecosystem, but that rollout won’t begin until 2028.
JetBlue is also bringing Amazon-powered in-flight Wi-Fi to its fleet starting next year as the global launch customer for the LEO network. This is a very promising system as the airline currently offers Wi-Fi for free on board, and the new low-orbit satellites in the constellation could potentially deliver a significant jump in speed. Other carriers also promise to make Wi-Fi free, but unlike JetBlue, the caveat is that you must either be a miles member or meet other criteria.
Notably, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are a step ahead of the competition with the entire fleet of Airbus A321neo narrowbody and A330 widebody jets already receiving Starlink. While this is a smaller fleet and network, the successful introduction of free service for T-Mobile customers has been a major boon for the carrier. Following the merger of the two, Alaska is also pushing for the same service on the rest of the newly combined fleet. Alaska plans to aggressively scale the program this year and aims to have Starlink on every plane in the fleet by 2027.
Ex-Continental Boeing 777-200ERs To Become United Airlines’ 1st Widebodies With Starlink
A key step forward for United’s WiFi offering.
The United Next Strategy
United has the largest fleet of commercial aircraft in the world, with 1,113 according to Planespotters.net, and the second largest fleet of widebody jets, making the Starlink program a massive undertaking. UA is scaling up to a goal of installing Starlink on two aircraft per week once the program is up to full pace, according to AeroXplorer. If the airline can achieve this pace, it would take around 63 weeks to complete the retrofit on every aircraft in the widebody fleet that is expected to receive it.
Assuming that none of the 777-200 or smaller 767 types will be retrofitted, that means that there are 127 planes to equip in total. These jets will be retired steadily as new Dreamliners are delivered from the 140-deep backlog. It is unclear if the future 787s will receive Starlink from the factory or if they will also need to be retrofitted as they are introduced to service. Regardless of how it gets on board, ultimately, United does plan to have Starlink on every single plane that it operates.
