In-flight Wi-Fi providers
Six major Wi-Fi providers serve commercial aviation. Speed, technology and reach vary dramatically — Starlink and Viasat lead on throughput, Panasonic and Inmarsat on global coverage.
Starlink
growingSpaceX's low-Earth-orbit constellation. Lower latency and dramatically higher throughput than legacy geostationary providers. Free for passengers on most operators that have rolled it out.
Viasat
stableHigh-throughput Ka-band satellites. Dominant on US carriers (JetBlue, Delta) with reliable browsing and streaming on most flights.
Panasonic Avionics
stableLong-standing global Ku-band provider serving long-haul widebody fleets. Reliable but typically lower throughput and higher latency than Ka-band or Starlink.
Inmarsat (GX Aviation / SwiftBroadband)
stableInmarsat's GX Aviation Ka-band service powers many European carriers including the FlyNet branding used by Lufthansa Group. SwiftBroadband (L-band) backs older deployments and messaging-only tiers.
Gogo Business Aviation / Intelsat 2Ku
shrinkingGogo's commercial Wi-Fi business was acquired by Intelsat in 2020 and rebranded around 2Ku. Common on US regional and mainline narrow-body fleets.
Anuvu (formerly Global Eagle)
stableAnuvu serves several low-cost carriers and Southwest Airlines. Throughput is workable for messaging and basic browsing.