American Airlines is adding free AT&T Wi-Fi to all its planes

American Airlines announced it would be offering free, high-speed, satellite-based Wi-Fi provided by AT&T to all of its jets this year. The installation process will start this month with the airline’s narrow-body and dual-class regional planes, with the goal of having its entire fleet updated by spring 2026.

To access the free Wi-Fi, passengers will need to sign up for American’s AAdvantage loyalty program. Signup is free, and once you’re logged in, you can select “Free Wi-Fi” to start browsing. This is similar to United Airlines’ deal with Starlink Wi-Fi, or Delta Air Lines with T-Mobile, both of which require users to sign up for the airline’s free rewards program before logging on.

The news comes as satellite internet providers scramble to make deals with airlines in the hopes of improving the traditionally dismal connectivity offerings on flights. In addition to United Airlines, Starlink has paired up with British Airways, Qatar Airways, and Hawaiian Airlines.

American said it has 900 mainline aircraft that are already equipped with high-speed satellite Wi-Fi connectivity through Viasat or SES (formerly Intelsat). A recent report from Ookla found that Intelsat-powered flights received median download speeds of 61.61 Mbps, while Starlink-powered ones were averaging 152.37 Mbps.

Wi-Fi that relies on low-earth orbit satellites, like Starlink, tend to offer lower latency thanks to the shorter distance the signal has to travel as compared to satellites in geostationary orbit. Viasat uses geostationary satellites, while SES uses multi-orbit, low-earth orbit, and geostationary satellites, Heather Garboden, chief customer officer at American Airlines, said in an email. She also declined to provide median download speeds or latency metrics for both providers.

“Customers can expect the free in-fight Wi-Fi to meet and/or exceed current performance inflight,” Garboden said. “Our inflight Wi-Fi, powered by leading providers Viasat and Intelsat, offers competitive speeds and reliable performance across our fleet. We hold our partners to strict performance standards and guarantees to ensure customers can stream, browse, and stay productive in the skies.”

In recent years, airlines have been noticeably competing on tech in hopes of winning over customers. JetBlue has offered free Wi-Fi on its flights since 2017, United and Delta have been looking to make it easy for customers to use Bluetooth headphones for the in-flight entertainment, and almost every company is adding content from popular streaming services to their seat-back displays or in-flight web portals. But while select video content and Spotify can help pass the time, nothing compares to just being able to use the internet on your own device.