Air France has announced a revolution in the Wi-Fi offering on board its planes. Thanks to Starlink satellites, the company will offer free very high speed internet to all passengers from 2025.
With just over 6,000 satellites in low orbit around the Earth – and 12,000 in the long term – Starlink offers an Internet connection absolutely everywhere, whether on land, at sea… or in the air. Earlier this month, the satellite Internet service from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, opened an offer for airplanes. Also, more and more airlines are subscribing to it in order to offer free Internet access to their passengers. After the American company United Airlines, it is the turn of Air France and its 200 planes to form a partnership with the company to be able to benefit from its network of satellites. This service will be accessible from any point on the globe, even in totally isolated places such as when flying over an ocean.
Wi-Fi at Air France: a service for all, but on one condition
Until now, Wi-Fi on board was only available for free to send and receive messages. Access to the Web, video streaming and music required paying an additional package that cost, depending on the formula (Pass Surf or Pass Stream), between 3 and 30 euros. In short, it was better to download content offline before boarding! But that was before!
In a press release, Air France announced that “From 2025, the company will gradually offer a very high-speed connectivity quality of service, for a ‘home-like’ experience. This new service, which is completely free in all travel cabins, will be accessible by logging into your Flying Blue account. Eventually, it will be available on all of the company’s aircraft, replacing the current offer.”
All passengers, from economy to first class, will therefore be able to benefit from free Wi-Fi, provided they open a Flying Blue account, the airline’s loyalty program which allows you to accumulate miles and XP to exchange for various benefits. Don’t panic for those who don’t have one, it will be possible to create it directly and for free on board in just a few clicks.
The service will be accessible from smartphones, tablets and laptops. Everyone will be able to connect several devices at the same time. In addition, the connection should be fast, because what the Starlink network will offer should be between ADSL and fiber, even if the airlines do not yet communicate on the precise speed that they will be able to offer on their planes. While waiting for the full deployment of the service, Air France will continue to offer its old offer on board the planes.