Singapore Airlines has confirmed plans to roll out Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity across its existing long-haul Airbus fleet, in an update to investors. If everything stays on track, the upgrade should land around the same time its revamped A350 cabins debut from 2026, which will give its in-flight Wi-Fi a much-needed lift.
If you’ve been following SIA news lately, you’ll know the airline is sinking S$1.1 billion into a cabin retrofit of 41 Airbus A350-900 aircraft – including the ultra-long-range (ULR) ones that do the marathon routes like Singapore–New York. These new cabins were originally supposed to debut on the much-delayed Boeing 777-9, but after waiting seven years and watching that timeline slide into the horizon, SIA decided to bite the bullet to bring them to the A350 fleet first.
What slipped under the radar in that same presentation, though, was the part about an “all-new travel experience” accompanying the makeover. Beyond the usual soft-product tweaks that we can and should expect, including an updated IFE, new amenity kits, and nicer serviceware, the big game-changer is the LEO Wi-Fi upgrade. SIA didn’t name the provider, but if you look at what other major airlines like Qatar and Air France (read it here) are doing, Starlink feels like the most obvious candidate. Although we can’t rule out other players including Amazon and Telesat.
And honestly, this is long overdue. SIA’s current GEO-satellite setup works, but anyone who has tried sending a photo on WhatsApp at cruising altitude knows the pain. The signal has to travel to a satellite some 35,000km away before coming back down, and at that point your message might as well be travelling by postcard. LEO satellites, on the other hand sit at around 500km above our planet, which cuts latency drastically.
With LEO, streaming YouTube, playing games over the cloud, or even hopping on a Zoom call suddenly becomes more realistic – though I would debate the idea of people conducting meetings at 35,000ft on its own.
SIA hasn’t shared how quickly the rollout will happen, but LEO systems typically don’t require long downtime. Starlink, for instance, claims that installation takes just 10-14 days. So there’s a good chance that at least some of the A350 aircraft could get the in-flight Wi-Fi upgrade before the cabin retrofit next year.
Source: Singapore Airlines