The fight for free in-flight WiFi just turned into a price war, and Elon Musk is losing the round so far.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian sat down with Bloomberg on Monday and explained why Delta chose Amazon's still-unlaunched Leo satellite service instead of Starlink, with the headline reason being that Amazon offered more for less.
"Amazon brings a lot more than just satellite technology," Bastian told Bloomberg, citing better bandwidth and a "much lower price point" than what Delta was offered elsewhere. The package also goes past WiFi, with Bastian's comments suggesting the deal pulls in gaming and in-flight entertainment tech as part of the bundle.
Amazon Leo, the rebrand of Project Kuiper, isn't fully live for customers yet, since its satellite network is still being built out. Starlink, by contrast, is already running and powers free WiFi on a long list of airlines, which makes Delta's choice all the more striking.
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Last Wednesday on X, Musk replied to a post claiming Delta picked Amazon to control customer screens, writing that "SpaceX requires that there be no annoying 'portal' to use Starlink." He then escalated with, "Delta wanted to make it painful, difficult and expensive for their customers."
Delta pushed back hard, with a spokesperson telling Business Insider the claim is "not accurate," while SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment. Bastian's read in the Bloomberg interview was that this is just competitive marketing.
"Of course, we expect Starlink will be warning people that we're going to go with an inferior product," he said.
The real story isn't who wins one airline contract, it's that the in-flight WiFi market just got a serious second bidder, since Starlink had a head start and a long list of airline deals already booked.
For investors, the move signals that satellite WiFi pricing has further to fall as Amazon Leo comes online, which will likely squeeze Starlink's margins on the kind of deals it used to win without much of a fight.
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