Air Baltic puts first A220 with Starlink into service: why wifi on European flights will never be the same again
As of 7:24 a.m. on Friday, February 21, 2025, the wifi service available on board aircraft on intra-European flights is [...]
AirBaltic
RIX
7:24 a.m. Friday, February 21, 2025, wifi service available on board aircraft on intra-European flights has entered a new era. At that time, in fact, from the Latvian airport in Riga took off bound for Munich the BT221 flight.
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AirBaltic's aircraft that operated the route, an Airbus A220-300 YL-CSL brands, is the first aircraft of a European airline with wifi service provided by the Starlink satellite network.
"This is a historic milestone for airBaltic and a game changer for flights in Europe. As the first European airline to integrate SpaceX's Starlink, we are redefining the meaning of in-flight connectivity. This is not just an improvement, but a real revolution in air travel, and we are proud to be at the forefront, offering the future of connectivity to our passengers as early as today," commented the Latvian airline's president and CEO, Martin Gauss.
Gauss also added that the installation of Starlink technology on all of its A220-300s will proceed very expeditiously, so much so that By the end of 2025 all aircraft will be equipped with it.
Brace yourselves: wifi service will be completely free on all flights, regardless of which class of service you are traveling in (Business or Economy).
The connection Will be active from the time of boarding until landing destination and will be extremely powerful and easy to access, allowing passengers to Watch streaming movies or work remotely (even with video calls) as if they were at home and stay connected without even having to log in.
This is because Starlink offers ultra-fast speeds and a low-latency connection Through the use of low-orbit satellites, more than 65 times closer than the position of traditional geostationary satellites.
AirBaltic has A fleet consisting entirely of Airbus A220-300s, which it regularly wet leases to other companies On a seasonal basis. Its most loyal 'customer' is the Lufthansa Group (which recently entered the capital of the Latvian company) and Swiss in particular, but Air Dolomiti will also use two A220s from the Latvian company in the coming months. The latest A220 arrived in the fleet just a few days ago, bringing the total number of machines to 50.
