Your in-flight life is getting higher tech. And we’re ‘only at the beginning.’

Some recent developments highlight how quickly things are changing: Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines rolled out a partnership with DraftKings to let passengers play sports prediction games to win Delta gift cards.

In the last decade Wi-Fi has becoming so widespread on major carriers like Delta, United and American that it has become almost an expectation for travelers — so much so that even ultra low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is adding in-flight Wi-Fi.

Frontier, the second-largest carrier in Atlanta, said it will install high-speed Starlink from Elon Musk’s SpaceX on its planes starting in early 2027. The move comes as Frontier prepares to add first class on its planes.

The rollout of high-speed broadband in the air presents more opportunities for airlines to boost their competitive standing — whether by attracting more customers with a better experience in the air, or unlocking new channels for revenue through onboard screens.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

“If you do not have in flight connectivity, you’re really driving away business travelers who expect to be able to work in-flight, and I think that expectation is nearly universal at this point,” said Joe Leader, Group CEO of the Airline Passenger Experience Association.

In the air, passengers are now “doing what they do at home: they’re multi-screening, they’re looking at social media or browsing on their phone, or they’re working,” Leader said.

“They want it to be better than their life on the ground,” he said. “When you’re flying, whether it’s for an hour or for several hours, you really ideally want to enjoy the experience. You want to have a little bit of escapism.”

During the World Cup, passengers traveling on Delta and some other airlines were even able to watch live World Cup matches via satellite streaming.

Satellite speed

And in-flight technology is still evolving. Leader expects that eventually, airlines will be able to download licensed content on a particular flight for frequent flyers onboard based on their preferences, rather than waiting for monthly refreshes of movies or shows.

“There’s so many possibilities of what you can do with this amount of bandwidth,” Leader said.

While many airlines around the world have signed up for Starlink, Delta has free in-flight Wi-Fi through Viasat and Hughes satellite companies, and has partnered with Amazon for high-speed Amazon Leo satellite-based in-flight connectivity — starting in 2028. The airline plans to have a “multipartner ecosystem” for in-flight connectivity.

Delta, like other major carriers, uses its in-flight connectivity to add more in-flight entertainment choices for passengers — and to strike lucrative partnerships for revenue. A modern airline does a lot more than just sell tickets. Increasingly, Delta is seeing more and more of its revenue come from its American Express-branded credit card and other partnerships.

What in-flight Amazon Leo will mean is “when you go on a trip to Rome, on your flight back, you can upload every photo, do all the things you want to — all the stuff that you always want to get to and never quite get to it because life takes over,” said Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s chief marketing and product officer, during an investor presentation. “And when we think about things and use cases like shopping or content or gaming … these are all places where Amazon plays in a really big way.”

An in-flight media network

One reason there are big money-making opportunities for airlines is because of how much data they have about their customers — and what that means for targeted ads.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said during APEX’s Global Expo last year that targeted advertising through the airline’s connected media is “incredibly successful … because we know a lot about the customers and what they are interested in.”

Goswami also said “if you’re going to go and interrupt the experience with a bunch of random ads, I don’t think that’s what customers want.”

“The experience has to be personalized,” Goswami said. “Then you get into this environment where now all of these brands want you to sample their product.”

“From payments with Amex to mobility with Uber, to coffee with Starbucks, Airbnb, you name it — all the content providers that want to be associated with us,” Goswami said. “They realize that the flight and the quality of the audience are reasons to be a part of the Delta ecosystem.”

For example, Delta started offering its frequent flyers the ability to watch Paramount+ for free in 2023. “We’re giving millions of leads to a company like Paramount,” Goswami said.

“We believe fundamentally in this concept of a media network,” he said.

A better world?

Leader said “we’re only at the beginning of this technology.” He believes consumers will be more likely to opt in to customized ads on airline screens than they would be on the ground.

“There’s something about the engagement with travel where I think customers will be more ready to authorize it,” he said.

It’s all particularly attractive for advertisers because when people are traveling, they are much more likely to make purchases than those who aren’t, according to Leader. A recent study from Expedia Group found 62% of travelers made a nontravel purchase for their most recent major leisure trip, and travelers shop before, during and after their trips.

The Delta-DraftKings partnership shows that online prediction markets “will be yet another significant revenue adder to airlines,” Leader said.

Leader believes the connected life in the air is far better than the days of yore, when he had to resort to thumbing through the Sky Mall magazine.

“It was painful,” Leader said. “So this is a better world.”