Aer Lingus has labelled Elon Musk’s Starlink service a “gamechanger”, after equipping the first of its planes with the satellite technology.
Passengers on the Aer Lingus flight EI105 from Dublin to JFK yesterday were able to enjoy free Wi-Fi on board their seven hour long journey across the Atlantic to the United States.
Previously, free Wi-Fi was only available to Aer Lingus passengers in business class, while those in economy had to pay a fee.
Aer Lingus now plans to roll the service out more widely across its fleet this year.
Speaking to Newstalk’s Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly, Aer Lingus spokesperson Susanne Carberry said Starlink has “really been a gamechanger”.
“Starlink have over 10,000 satellites,” she explained.
“They're called low earth orbit, which means that they're 550 kilometers away from the globe.
“And what that means is that the speed is super, super fast; low latency is the term that would be used for it.
“What it means is no buffering, no waiting for downloads to happen, online streaming, exactly the type of connectivity you would expect on board will now be available to all customers traveling on the Starlink aircraft.”
An Aer Lingus plane. Picture by: Alamy.com.On Newstalk Breakfast, Jess said the service will “super fast, 4K streaming quality”.
“This is going to become the norm,” she said.
“So, you have no more excuses for missing that Zoom call or Teams call with your boss or whomever it is when you're on your travels.”
A costly service
The technology last hit the headlines in Ireland when Michael O'Leary said Ryanair had no plans to use Starlink because it would push up costs.
The decision led to a public war of words between him and Mr Musk, who he branded an "idiot".
Main image: An Aer Lingus plane. Picture by: Alamy.com.
