The airline has “a huge head start” offering high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi, CEO Scott Kirby said. “So a lot of new customers are going to try us.”
Dive Brief:
- United Airlines is banking on Starlink, an in-air satellite internet service provided by SpaceX, to win over brand loyal customers, CEO Scott Kirby said on a Q3 2026 earnings call Wednesday.
- “It is hard to get brand loyal customers to switch airlines,” Kirby said. However, the carrier is “seeing evidence that Starlink is a motivating factor for customers to choose which airline they fly.”
- United is in a unique position, as it offers more Starlink flights than the entire U.S. airline industry combined, according to Kirby. The airline launched a tracker so customers can check if their flight has it and follow along as it outfits the fleet with Starlink.
Dive Insight:
United sees winning over brand loyal customers as key to producing double-digit pretax margins, even amid volatile jet fuel prices.
“You have heard me say in the past that hope is not a strategy,” Kirby said. “Instead, we are focused on things we can control, and those are the big investments we have made over the past several years in products, service and technology.”
Starlink is one of those big investments, and two important things are happening as a result
“One, customers who are brand-loyal to other airlines and have flown them for years switched to a United flight solely because of Starlink,” he said. “And two, once they try us, they stick with us because they also experience great service and all the nose to tail things we have invested in for years, like new aircraft, larger seat back screens in every class of service, oversized bins, technology like ConnectionSaver, and a mobile app that is dramatically better than anything they have experienced before.”
While high speed Wi-Fi will eventually be the industry standard, United has “a huge head start,” Kirby said. “For 2027 and really 2028, we are well on our way to being the only global U.S. airline with Starlink at scale. So a lot of new customers are going to try us.”
Kirby predicts that the carrier’s big customer investments will provide United with a tailwind in the forthcoming year.
“We expect to exit 2027 with more brand loyal customers than we otherwise would have had and expect that to lead to higher [revenue per available seat mile] in 2027 and beyond,” Kirby said.
Those tailwinds are already apparent in its third quarter earnings. Both United’s loyalty revenue and premium revenue grew 17% year over year each in the third quarter. Revenue from basic economy was up 16% year over year, and total operating revenue in the third quarter rose 17% year over year to $17.9 billion.
