Which planes have wifi

Every Major Airline’s Wifi Service, Explained and Ranked

You know that Louis C.K. joke about wifi on airplanes? He says, “It’s fast, and I’m watching YouTube clips. It’s amazing—I’m on an airplane! And then it breaks down.… And the guy next to me goes, ‘This is bullshit.’” It’s so true.

Wifi on airplanes is absurdly cool, but only if it’s even available on your aircraft and only when it works. So I did some research for you, dear reader, and collected as much up-to-date information as I could to rank every major US airline’s wifi offerings.

Before we get into rankings, though, let’s talk about the technology that makes it possible in the first place.

How Does Airplane Wifi Work?

Some of the technology behind the miracle of airplane wifi largely resembles the gear that delivers wireless internet on the ground. Airplanes use many of the same towers and satellites that deliver data to our smartphones, connecting to towers on the ground, or to satellites, or to both.

Air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity is ostensibly faster, since the towers on the ground are closer. This is what Gogo primarily uses. Gogo is the company that linked to those AirCell phones you used to see in the backs of headrests. Now, it powers wifi on a majority of the major US airlines.

If you’re buying wifi on an airplane these days, there’s a good chance you’re buying it from Gogo, though it isn’t the only provider. Some airlines, like JetBlue and Southwest, manage proprietary wifi systems using other technology. Gogo is also increasingly using a newer technology called ATG-4 that takes advantage of multiple antennas—four of them, arranged strategically along the fuselage—to grab signals and offer faster speeds.

The Gear That Makes It Possible

They may be using the same equipment that people on the ground use, but airplanes need to hold onto network signals as they zip through the air at around 550 miles per hour.

Because an airplane is moving through the stratosphere at such high speeds, the antenna must constantly maintain a connection to any given tower or satellite. It doesn’t help that the satellites themselves are orbiting the Earth at 18,000 miles per hour. At a certain point, the antenna will have to find a new tower or satellite. Some antennas do this with motors that pan and tilt to catch a signal. Here’s a fancy new two-panel Ku-band eXConnect antenna from Panasonic :

Of course, strapping an antenna onto the top of a plane isn’t great for aerodynamics. The basic workaround for now is to stash it in a little bubble on top of the fuselage called a radome. While designed to be sleek, the radome inevitably creates drag and burns extra fuel. That means that airplanes carrying wifi equipment are slightly more expensive to operate—and that’s after the airline pays to install the equipment on the plane.

Here’s what that set up looks like on a Boeing 787 operated by United Airlines, which uses Panasonic antennas on some of its planes:

Many companies are trying to come up with better solutions to the aerodynamics problem. One obvious solution is to build a better antenna with fewer moving parts that can sit right on top of the fuselage without a bulky bulge. Ideally, the antennas won’t move at all. Instead, these next-gen systems take advantage of beamforming, or spatial filtering technology, that uses multiple antennas to create a more focused and precise signal. Some of the best wifi routers for your home offer beamforming signal processing technology, too.

To cut down on drag even more—and hence save fuel—the challenge now is to make these antennas as thin as possible. For its newest and fastest service, Gogo is using an innovative 2Ku antenna, the Thinkom ThinAir Falcon Ku3030. At less than four inches thick, these antennas barely make a hump on top of the airplane. The overall design is also appropriately futuristic-looking, as you can see below.

In the near future, these antennas will be almost invisible from the outside of the plane. A company called Kymeta is developing an impossibly thin antenna for in-flight wifi that’s completely free of any moving parts. That means no motors and almost no drag. The finished product will be less than half an inch thick and so efficient, it can be powered with a regular USB cable. It kind of looks like a slim, pizza-sized hot plate:

This isn’t supposed to be on the market for a few years.

The Antennae That Will Make In Flight Wi-Fi Faster

Fast isn’t really the right word to describe the majority of airplane wifi systems. Gogo’s current ATG standard, for instance, tops out at 3.1 Mbps . The connection on a 4G LTE-equipped smartphone, by comparison, is about ten times faster on the ground. The new ATG-4 technology peaks at 9.8 Mbps. Better! But still slower than the average terrestrial broadband speed of 11.1 Mbps —which is still slow compared to the rest of the world’s internet speeds.

However, ground-to-orbit connectivity is the way of the future. Although the signal must travel thousands of miles more to connect to satellites, the satellite connections allow for much greater bandwidth.

Using dual Ku-band antennas that connect to satellites, a new Gogo service promises to bring in-flight speeds of up to 70 Mbps. Ku refers to a specific band of microwave frequencies used in satellite communications, including those on the International Space Station . The “K” in Ku-band stands for Kurz, the German word for short, and the “u” stands for “under” meaning under the original K-band satellite frequency.

There is also a Ka-band spectrum. The “a” here stands for “above” and allows for higher bandwidth. JetBlue recently started offering more advanced Ka-band broadband on its flights through a partnership with Viasat, a company that makes broadband “super-satellites” that promise blazingly fast speeds.

It’s all relative, of course. Initial tests of JetBlue’s so-called “Fly-Fi” system clocked speeds as fast as 30 Mbps , though the average hovered around 15 Mbps. That’s still fast enough to stream music, place phone calls, and watch YouTube videos.

The next generation of in-flight wifi will be even faster. This year, Gogo is rolling out a brand new system called 2Ku. This setup uses dual Ku-band antennas—one to receive a signal from satellites and the other to transmit the signal from the aircraft to the ground. Gogo promises speeds up to 70 Mbps with the 2Ku system, but it’ll probably be a few months before you get to try it.

If you want to know more about the nitty-gritty details of the various different systems, Jalopnik’s Flight Club has a great explainer .

But which airline has the best tech right now? It depends. While JetBlue’s Ka-band Fly-Fi is currently leading the pack, the technology isn’t currently installed on the entire fleet. Meanwhile, Gogo’s new 2Ku service stands to eclipse the speedy speeds of Fly-Fi with multiple antennas and availability on multiple airlines.

Which Airlines Have the Best In-Flight Wifi

Here’s a hard truth: All in-flight wifi sort of sucks. First of all, you can’t know exactly what kind of wifi your plane will offer until you know your flight number. Then, even if you fly on an airline that promises wifi on all flights, each plane has different equipment installed. And even then, there’s a chance that equipment could be broken. You can check your flight’s wifi status on the airline’s website before you book or head to the airport. Then, you just have to hope for the best.

That in mind, here are details from the 9 major US airlines that offer wifi. (This list is specific to domestic flights; if you’re flying internationally, the check-the-website rule applies even more fiercely because international fleets carry different gear than domestic fleets. If an airline has good in-flight wifi on domestic routes, though, they’re probably good for international routes as well.)

I took three things into account when making this list: the likelihood that your plane would actually have wifi; the type of equipment powering the wifi; and its relative dependability, speed, and value. Here’s how the airlines stack up.

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Complete List of Airlines That Offer WiFi Onboard 2022

Many people ask, do planes have wifi? Will I be able to be connected when I would take my next flight? yes, To make you informed about the detailed list of airlines that provide inflight WiFi, I have started this blog.

Travelling is one of the most common pastimes of people. In most cases, the most comfortable way of reaching the destination is by air. In the modern-day of constant updates on social media or work without time constraints, it is more than necessary to stay connected to the internet.

For this reason, airlines worldwide are now gradually shifting towards the introduction of in-flight Wi-Fi to passengers.

Okay, you are getting internet on the airplane. But at what cost? Many airlines are known for providing free Wi-Fi. Some Airlines provide this service with very little charge.

And then there were some which provide quality Wi-Fi but the cost is a bit higher. In many cases, you get the option to purchase your desired Wi-Fi package after you are onboard.

With providers like Gogo, you have the option to buy long-term subscriptions like monthly subscriptions for yearly subscriptions.

Knowing about the internet plans from before will give you an upper hand in choosing the desired package. This will also help you save your money.

You know more about the packages and prices of in-flight Wi-Fi provided by the airlines, be sure to check their official websites.

Just being aware of the packages and the prices might not be enough, it’s always a good idea to look at the terms and conditions and make sure that your devices are aligned with the requirements of such facilities. Happy traveling!

More Resources:

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Your Guide To Which Airplanes Have Wifi

1) Alaska Airlines

WiFi: Yes on most Boeing 737s and Embraer 175 jets Price: $16 for an all-day pass

2) Delta Air Lines

WiFi: Yes on many domestic and international flights Price: $16 for a domestic day pass; $28 for an international day pass

3) American Airlines

WiFi: Yes, on certain flights (check www.aa.com for your specific flight) Price: $16 plus tax for an all-day pass on domestic flights; $19 for the entire trip on international flights

4) JetBlue

5) United Airlines

6) Southwest Airlines

WiFi: Yes on certain flights (check www.southwest.com for your specific flight) Price: $8 per day for each device

7) Spirit Airlines

8) British Airways

WiFi: Only available on Club World London City services from London to New York Price: Included in Club World London City membership

9) Emirates Airlines

WiFi: Free on most flights (check www.emirates.com for your specific flight) Price: First 10 MB of data is free; $1 to use up to 500 MB of data

10) Lufthansa

WiFi: Available on long-haul flights Price: $10 for 1 hour, $15.50 for 4 hours, and $19 for up to 24 hours

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