Many major airlines are beefing up their in-flight internet offerings by tapping SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, but JetBlue is going in a different direction. Amazon and JetBlue announced Thursday a partnership under which the airline will instead use Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites to provide free in-flight connectivity starting in 2027.
The Kuiper terminals on JetBlue’s planes will be capable of download speeds of up to 1Gbps from Amazon’s low-Earth orbit satellites. That’s more bandwidth than Starlink’s current max of 250 Mbps, although Amazon is only planning to build a network of 3,226 satellites, while SpaceX has launched more than 8,000. While Amazon has previously claimed it is more focused on “unserved and underserved communities around the world,” that language has been removed from its website.
When the service goes live, JetBlue will be the first airline to use Kuiper satellites, which Amazon started launching to space in April. Amazon also announced earlier this year that it was integrating its satellite internet tech with Airbus planes.
Those contracts are big steps for Kuiper, which has been in the works for years. The project has been bogged down by production problems, although Amazon has said it will be able to hit the mid-2026 deadline imposed by the Federal Communications Commission to launch the first half of its network into orbit.
