Starlink Nabs American Airlines, Boosting SpaceX IPO
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- American Airlines said Tuesday it will install Starlink on more than 500 narrow-body Airbus aircraft beginning early next year, the latest major carrier to pick the SpaceX unit for inflight connectivity.
- Starlink — the only SpaceX business unit that generates meaningful revenue — beat competitors including Amazon Leo and legacy provider Viasat to secure the deal.
- American's A321XLR and A320neo jets will receive the Starlink upgrade, while the airline's Boeing aircraft are excluded from the agreement.
- Starlink's existing airline roster already includes United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa Group, British Airways, and Alaska Airlines (which merged with Hawaiian Airlines), per SpaceX's IPO registration filing released last week.
- SpaceX's IPO, projected to be the largest in history, is slated for next month, with the American Airlines win adding another tailwind for the offering.
Why it matters: Starlink is SpaceX's only meaningful revenue-generating business unit, and every major airline contract strengthens the IPO narrative. Beating Amazon Leo and Viasat for a 500-jet deal shows Starlink's commercial Wi-Fi moat is widening just weeks before SpaceX goes public in what's projected to be the largest IPO in history.
Ask SkimNews
