Project Kuiper scores first airline win as JetBlue picks LEO over GEO

TAMPA, Fla. — Amazon’s Project Kuiper has clinched its first airline deal, partnering with JetBlue to bring low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity to about 75 aircraft from 2027 in another blow to legacy geostationary players.

The U.S. carrier said Sept. 4 that Kuiper will be installed on roughly a quarter of its more than 300, mostly Airbus-built aircraft, which currently rely on Viasat’s satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) for its Fly‑Fi inflight connectivity service.

The announcement follows an agreement Airbus signed in April with Amazon to integrate Kuiper connectivity into its aircraft catalog.

According to Amazon, its aviation‑specific Ka‑band customer terminal can deliver download speeds of up to 1  gigabit per second (Gbps) on a single device.

Speed boost

Rajeev Badyal, head of Project Kuiper, posted a video yesterday showing the network delivering 2.28 Gbps to an enterprise-grade terminal.

He said “as far as we know, this is the first commercial phased array antenna to deliver 1+ Gbps” from LEO, though unlike in-service competitors the test did not have to account for a multitude of users sharing bandwidth across a network.

“Uplink numbers generated as much excitement (if not more),” he added. “We’ll save those for another day though…”

JetBlue said more details on installation timelines, flight paths and aircraft involved will be revealed later.

“Kuiper will be rolled out to roughly a quarter of JetBlue’s fleet to start,” a JetBlue spokesperson told SpaceNews.

“We will continue to work with our existing partner, Viasat, to provide fast, free and unlimited Wi-Fi. Project Kuiper represents an opportunity to diversify our Wi-Fi product and to explore industry-leading, flexible connectivity with both LEO and GEO satellite networks in the future.”

Viasat referred questions to JetBlue.

JetBlue also pledged to offer complimentary Wi‑Fi with the Kuiper‑powered system, after introducing free Fly‑Fi connectivity with Viasat back in 2013. 

The airline serves over 100 destinations across the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and Europe.

Constellation ramp-up

Amazon counts 102 Kuiper satellites in LEO following launches with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) in April, June, July and August.

ULA’s next Atlas V mission, slated for Sept. 25, is due to add another 27 spacecraft for the company. 

Amazon says it is accelerating production and deployments as it works toward a regulatory deadline to orbit half of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation by July 2026.

Initial Kuiper services for early adopters are slated for later this year.

Amazon’s airline breakthrough comes as it joins SpaceX’s Starlink in the fast-growing LEO broadband market, piling more pressure on GEO incumbents that have long dominated inflight connectivity.

The JetBlue spokesperson said its choice was shaped by a longstanding relationship with Amazon, adding: “That longstanding history, paired with the terms of this deal, made Project Kuiper the best fit for JetBlue’s business while delivering industry-leading connectivity to our customers.”

In 2015, Amazon became JetBlue’s first exclusive streaming partner, with Amazon Video content made available free to passengers over the airline’s Fly-Fi service.

Intensifying LEO competition

Starlink said about 1,000 commercial aircraft were equipped with its service in July, doubling its footprint in just five months. 

Last month, Alaska Airlines announced plans to replace SES’s legacy Intelsat-powered service with Starlink across its fleet by 2027, after sister carrier Hawaiian Airlines became the first major U.S. airline to sign with Starlink in 2022.

In response, legacy providers are turning to hybrid strategies that combine the broad coverage and high throughput of GEO satellites with the low latency of LEO. 

Viasat has booked capacity on Canadian operator Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation, slated to begin satellite deployments next year, and has also partnered with France-based Eutelsat’s OneWeb network, though ground station delays have slowed that rollout.

ULA’s next mission after launching Kuiper satellites this month is scheduled for late October, when an Atlas V is due to carry Viasat’s ViaSat-3 F2, a terabit-class GEO satellite set to more than double the operator’s current bandwidth capacity.