By Joey Roulette
CAPE CANAVERAL, March 31 (Reuters) - Amazon's Leo satellite internet unit signed a deal with Delta Air Lines to provide in-flight Wi-Fi on 500 of the airline's planes starting in 2028, inking its second major partnership in the skies as it races to launch more satellites and take on Elon Musk's Starlink.
The deal ratchets up competition between Amazon's burgeoning satellite internet service and Starlink for a slice of the in-flight Wi-Fi market, even as Musk's satellite network remains
far ahead in its satellite deployment and global service.
Amazon won its first such deal last year with JetBlue to provide Leo service on a quarter of the airline's fleet starting in 2027. Airlines have been looking at low-orbiting satellite constellations for faster in-flight Wi-Fi with fewer disruptions.
Southwest Airlines last month announced a deal to use Starlink on its planes. The SpaceX service has previously done deals with United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, among others.
Amazon will install its Leo terminals on new Delta planes and start service in 2028 for Delta flights in the continental U.S., said Ranjan Goswami, Delta's chief marketing and product officer. The terms or value of the deal were not disclosed.
Amazon's network, with an investment of at least $10 billion to sell satellite internet globally to consumers and businesses, has launched 214 satellites since April 2025 and aims to double its deployment pace with over 20 launches planned in the next 12 months, said Chris Weber, the vice president of the Leo business.
Amazon since last year has been testing its service with businesses and is "months away" from starting commercial service, Weber said. The service will begin in small regions and expand as the satellite constellation grows.
Delta has used satellite service from Viasat and Hughes across its roughly 1,200 planes to offer in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers signed up to its SkyMiles program. Around 163 million members have used that service so far, the company said.
Goswami said Delta chose Leo over its rivals because of the airline's existing partnership with Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing unit.
Amazon has roughly 100 launches on contract for Leo satellite deployments, Weber said. That represents years' worth of bookings with rocket companies like Blue Origin and the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance, altogether valued at several billion dollars. The company is also launching its Leo satellites on SpaceX's Falcon 9.
SpaceX's swift deployment of over 10,000 satellites since 2019, making it the world's largest satellite operator by far, has been due in part to its in-house, reusable Falcon 9 rockets, giving it a unique advantage in the growing satellite constellation business.
Amazon in January asked the Federal Communications Commission to grant it a two-year extension to a July 2026 deadline to deploy half of its 3,200 tranche of satellites. That has drawn criticism from SpaceX, as FCC Chair Brendan Carr slammed Amazon's pace of satellite launches.
"We're doing everything in our control to get the constellation deployed," Weber said.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
