JetBlue Partners With Amazon’s Project Kuiper To Boost In-Flight Wi-Fi

JetBlue (JBLU) announced on Thursday that it has signed an agreement with Amazon’s (AMZN) Project Kuiper, an advanced low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband network, to bring faster and more reliable connectivity to its onboard Wi-Fi, known as Fly-Fi.

The company launched Fly-Fi in 2013 and will begin introducing Project Kuiper’s cutting-edge technology on a portion of its fleet in 2027. 

“Our agreement with Project Kuiper marks an exciting leap forward for us as the hands-down leader in onboard connectivity,” said Marty St. George, president of JetBlue.

Retail sentiment on JetBlue remained unchanged in the ‘bearish’ territory, with message volumes at ‘normal’ levels, according to data from Stocktwits. Shares of the airline were up 1% in premarket trading.

JetBlue said Project Kuiper’s system is built around a constellation of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. Amazon has deployed more than 100 satellites to date, and is continuing to increase its production, processing, and launch rates ahead of an initial service rollout, the airline added.

The company will install Project Kuiper technology on aircraft currently flying JetBlue’s original Fly-Fi technology. While aircraft outfitted with Project Kuiper will rely on the new low Earth orbit system, JetBlue is positioned to explore a multi-orbit solution in the future, the company said.

It added that this would help combine the strengths of both its low Earth orbit and GEO networks for even more robust in-flight connectivity. JetBlue expects to begin rolling out Project Kuiper’s system in 2027 with a phased rollout to follow.

Separately, JetBlue now expects third-quarter operating revenue per available seat mile to be down 1.5% to 4%, compared with a 2% to 6% drop forecast earlier, according to Reuters.

Shares of JetBlue have declined nearly 31% this year and gained 1.1% in the last 12 months. 

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