Southwest Airlines Moves Forward With Another Major Change

Southwest Airlines has undergone a rather extensive transformation over the past several months and years as it looks to position itself to compete against legacy carriers like Delta, United, and American.

While some of those changes have been rather unpopular, like the airline's decision to end its longstanding "bags fly free" policy, Southwest has also made some customer-friendly changes, offering premium seating for the first time, adding free Wi-Fi to its flights, and expanding its international offerings.

Now, Southwest is officially moving forward with another high-profile change for its customers.

Southwest Adding Starlink

Over the past several years, several carriers throughout the United States have moved to partner with SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, highlighted by United Airlines, which began outfitting its aircraft with Starlink back in 2025.

While airlines have been offering in-flight internet connectivity for years, Starlink offers significantly faster internet than legacy airplane Wi-Fi, delivering median download speeds often exceeding 100–300 Mbps, which is enough bandwidth to stream live sports, play online games, and make video calls while flying.

As customers increasingly desire and expect high-speed internet connectivity on flights, Southwest Airlines is partnering with Starlink to provide this to its customers.

"The bar now is customers want very fast Wi-Fi," Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest, said via The Points Guy. "Starlink has set the bar for how fast Wi-Fi should be on an aircraft, so you must meet that bar."

First Aircraft By the End of June

Southwest Airlines announced this week that its first aircraft equipped with Starlink will enter service by the end of June. By the end of the year, the airline expects to have hundreds of aircraft equipped with the ultra-high-speed internet.

"We have the capability to get to up to 300 [planes] by the end of the year but, at this point in time, it's more of the pacing on Starlink - when we can get the kits - we'll be putting them on the aircraft," Southwest chief customer and brand officer Tony Roach said, speaking Saturday at the International Air Transport Association's general meeting in Brazil, via The Points Guy.

With this announcement, Southwest joins Alaska Airlines and its brand Hawaiian Airlines, boutique air carrier JSX and United Airlines offering Starlink connectivity on its planes in the United States, while American Airlines recently announced plans to use the service on its flights in the near future.

Delta Air Lines, meanwhile, has fallen a bit behind in the high-speed internet race, choosing not to partner with Starlink. Instead, Delta decided to partner with Amazon's LEO service. However, it will not be available on flights until 2028.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Travel section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 10:22 PM.