Alan Joyce’s Musk monopoly warning over in-flight Wi-Fi

Elon Musk’s Starlink is rapidly being adopted by airlines, giving one company, SpaceX, much more sway in the consumer experience of many carriers.

But former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has warned that airlines will need to ensure market competition for satellite-based onboard Wi-Fi in coming years.

“I think everybody would be looking at making sure that you would have some contestability,” Joyce said. “Because there are other people talking about having competitors to Starlink at some stage.”

Joyce said that to prevent Starlink from gaining too much influence over the fragmented airline industry, carriers would need to have the ability to switch satellite-internet services.

“I’m sure, like any market, Starlink seems to be making good money out of this,” he said.

While Amazon is in the process of building up Leo, its rival to Starlink, Joyce suggested Chinese satellite network providers might eventually enter the industry. Starlink is a division of SpaceX.

“I’m sure, like any market, other people will be attracted to it,” Joyce said.

Amazon Leo currently has about 400 satellites in orbit versus more than 10,000 Starlink satellites.

Qantas uses Viasat and the nbn Sky Muster satellite service, providing Wi-Fi primarily over Australia and some international destinations.

Joyce said that for airlines, what is important is having the ability to switch.

“The big cost for the airlines is the technology in the aircraft,” he says.

Aircraft maker Airbus is working on a product called HBCplus that will allow a jet to be connected to multiple satellite networks simultaneously.

The product will cut down the time it takes for an aircraft to be fitted with a satellite-based Wi-Fi system, and allow more than one provider access to the same plane.

Joost van der Heijden, senior vice president of marketing at Airbus, said in June that HBCplus “brings more competition, and allows airlines to benefit from the latest level of connectivity.