Copa Airlines to add Starlink Wi-Fi, becoming first in Latin America with the service
If you frequently fly from the U.S. to Central and South America, your chances of having onboard Wi-Fi just got a lot better.
Panama-based Copa Airlines announced this week that it will soon outfit its Boeing 737s with Starlink Wi-Fi.
In a social media post shared on Thursday, the Star Alliance carrier proclaimed it would be the first airline in Latin America to offer the satellite service from SpaceX, which easily ranks among the fastest inflight internet connectivity.
The move wasn't entirely unexpected.
Last year, the airline told TPG that inflight Wi-Fi would likely be coming to its planes in the not-so-distant future.
"Not long in the future, every plane is going to have Wi-Fi. I mean, it's just a matter of time," CEO Pedro Heilbron said, speaking in September from the company's headquarters, while noting he wasn't yet sold on making the considerable investment necessary to install the satellites.
"We're going to hold until we have to because we don't see a significant enough demand right now," he said at the time. "But the world is becoming so dependent on being connected that it's going to be hard to be anywhere without being 24/7 connected."
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Fast forward to now — seven months later — and the carrier has announced that Starlink Wi-Fi will start appearing on aircraft in October.
The inflight Wi-Fi landscape is changing at a rapid pace.
Airlines around the world are upgrading their technology and, increasingly, making internet service free for members of their loyalty programs.
In the U.S., United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines are in the midst of adding Starlink service to their planes. Hawaiian Airlines already has it.
Copa is perhaps best known, in North America, for filtering travelers through its Panama City "Hub of the Americas" at Tocumen International Airport (PTY), where flyers can continue on to South America (or other destinations in Latin America) without passing through customs. The carrier also offers popular stopovers in its home country.
Last fall, the airline told TPG that it was planning a major upgrade to its ConnectMiles loyalty program and considering a potential U.S. credit card transfer partner in the U.S. market.
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