Amazon's satellite business gets another win as it seeks to challenge Musk's Starlink

By William Gavin

Delta Air Lines said it would equip hundreds of aircraft with Amazon's nascent satellite-internet system

Amazon needs to launch a lot more satellites into orbit to boost the competitiveness of its Leo division.

Delta Air Lines is planning to add Amazon's planned satellite-internet services to hundreds of aircraft, snubbing Elon Musk's Starlink, which has so far seen significant momentum in this market.

Delta (DAL) said it would equip at least 500 planes with antennae from Amazon's (AMZN) Leo business to deliver "high-speed, low-latency" satellite-based internet to passengers. Installation is expected to begin in 2028. Delta said the partnership is an extension of a prior deal to use Amazon Web Services.

Seven in 10 airlines now offer in-flight wifi, which has become increasingly important to customers over the years. Amazon's service would provide much faster internet access than what Delta currently offers.

"People increasingly want to stay connected wherever they are in the world," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement, adding that his company's technology will "make the in-flight experience so much better, and it's going to change what's possible while traveling."

Amazon and Delta shares were up nearly 3% in morning trading on Tuesday.

Delta is the second major airline to adopt Amazon, following JetBlue Airways (JBLU), which plans to begin using the Amazon system next year. Both airlines are making a bet that Leo will be up and running over the next few years and be able to catch up to rival legacy players, as well as to Starlink.

At least 30 carriers, including United Airlines (UAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV), have inked deals with Starlink, SpaceX's satellite-communications division that began offering services in 2020. SpaceX has more than 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, or LEO, and Starlink is estimated to have brought in $10.6 billion in revenue last year.

Amazon, meanwhile, has just 214 satellites deployed and has invested more than $10 billion in Leo since it was unveiled in 2019. The company has said it has dozens of commercial agreements but only began offering select enterprise customers a preview last fall with a wider rollout targeted for this year.

Read: How Elon Musk's Starlink is fueling growth by tackling terrible airplane wifi

Delta CEO Ed Bastian told the Wall Street Journal that he is confident that Leo will be at least as good as, or better than, Starlink.

Amazon needs to launch a lot more satellites into orbit to strengthen its Leo division. The company said this week it has hundreds of satellites ready to be shot into space and plans to complete 11 launch mission this year. Each can carry a few dozen satellites into orbit.

At least two of those missions are scheduled for the next few weeks, one to be carried out by France's Arianespace and the other by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing (BA) and Lockheed Martin (LMT). ULA had planned to carry 29 satellites to orbit over the weekend but delayed the mission due to weather. That mission has not been rescheduled.

See: Amazon wants to be a satellite powerhouse. For now, the effort is a financial black hole.

Despite its ambitions, Amazon is lagging well behind its own timeline. The company recently asked U.S. regulators to either waive a July 30 deadline or give it another two years to put half of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation in orbit. In a filing, Amazon said it expects to have some 700 satellites operational by the current deadline.

Amazon in February received permission from regulators to deploy another 4,500 satellites to create a second-generation system and a polar constellation. All of those spacecraft need to be operational in LEO by Feb. 10, 2035.

Read on: Here's how Amazon just stepped up its robotaxi competition with Tesla and Google

-William Gavin

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03-31-26 1002ET