Delta swipes right on Amazon’s satellite Wi‑Fi

No portal, no problem?

Elon Musk decided to turn Delta’s Wi‑Fi vendor choice into a mini public squabble on X, arguing that Starlink wants a seamless, no-login experience while Delta prefers a branded portal tied to its own digital ecosystem. Translation: this is less about “who has the best satellites” and more about who gets to own the customer relationship while you’re 35,000 feet up and trying to binge a show.

Delta picks Amazon Leo

Delta instead chose Amazon Leo, Amazon’s satellite internet network, and said the deal will bring high-speed, low-latency Wi‑Fi to 500 aircraft starting in 2028. The airline says the setup fits better with its existing Amazon Web Services relationship, which already helps power parts of its tech stack. In other words, Delta is going with the vendor that plays nicest with its existing digital plumbing.

The Starlink flex is real

That said, Starlink is still the heavyweight in this fight by a mile. It has more than 10,000 satellites and over 10 million customers, while Amazon Leo is still early in its rollout with just a few hundred satellites in orbit. That scale gap matters: airlines want reliable broadband yesterday, not a “please enjoy our beta” sticker on the back of the seat.

Why investors should care

For Delta, this is a customer-experience and platform strategy call, not just a tech procurement footnote. If Amazon Leo ramps slowly, Delta could be waiting a while for the payoff; if it works, the airline gets a more integrated, branded experience that may keep passengers inside Delta’s ecosystem longer. Big picture: the skies are becoming one more battlefield in the war over who controls your attention, your data, and yes, your free Wi‑Fi.