I think that can be said for just about anything.

1: Starlink is incredible.

2: Real time voice/video chat is currently barred from use on US carriers. Not for technical reasons. But for public tolerance of “blah blah” in an enclosed space in a metal tube.

Delta is on the right side of this. Relatively high speed internet (usually) for work, but no video or voice chat.

Passengers who truly need 100% real time comms for business fly corporate jets, not commercial.

I suspect Delta bean counters figured this out years ago.

i think you make a good point. Starlink sounds like it’s the gold standard. But if viasat is even half as good or more and the coverage improves across our entire network then most pax likely wont notice enough for wifi being the deciding factor of who they book with.

It's physically impossible for viasat (GEO orbit, 22k mile altitude) to be even in the ballpark of Starlink performance (Low Earth orbit with terabyte laser interlinks, 1k mile altitude). Physics, speed of light and all that.

Sorry viasat apologists/stockholders, you made a bad call on this one. Let it go. Hopefully Delta does sooner rather than later.

When we picked Viasat, it was the better choice. Anybody with half a brain doesn't trust anything Elon Musk says, but it just so happened that Starlink turned out to be better. That doesn't mean it was the wrong decision at the time.

Average starlink (low earth orbit) latency is ~30 milliseconds.

Average viasat (geosynchronous orbit) latency is ~300 milliseconds.

Both values are trivial to 90% of end users unless they're trying to play an online competitive shooter during a Pacific crossing.

Unless you bought in early 2025...amirite!?! :D

This. As long as there is relatively fast Wi-Fi globally, it doesn't matter. No one is buying a ticket on an airline based on Wi-Fi latency.

Our VRU system is down again, got that going again for us.

$13 average here-6k shares. she’s a beast. Institutional investors have their data.