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Air France will become the latest major airline to offer free Starlink Wi-Fi.

The Paris-based carrier announced Thursday that it will begin installing Starlink satellite internet service on its jets next year. Wi-Fi service will be free for all customers; All that is required is a Flying Blue frequent flyer account, which anyone can sign up for.

Starlink will be available on Air France’s mainline and regional fleet. The airline has not released a timeline for when the Starlink installation will be completed, but it said existing paid Wi-Fi service will remain available until Starlink is installed.

Starlink, a branch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite Internet access to more than 100 countries around the world. While the company’s customers range from individual homeowners to the US military, perhaps the most exciting development for travelers is Starlink’s deployment on commercial airplanes.

Air France will be the largest airline yet to partner with Starlink, especially for Air France, which has spotty connectivity options for long-haul flights, bringing some serious improvements to the inflight connectivity experience. Starlink offers download speeds of up to 350 megabits per second — fast enough to support gaming, VPN access, streaming and more.

I recently tested Starlink’s blazing-fast speed on a demonstration flight of public charter jet service JSX. Although JSX is not a traditional airline like United Airlines, it does offer free Starlink Wi-Fi on its fleet of 30-seat Embraer regional jets.

JSX was the first carrier to install Starlink Wi-Fi, and based on my tests during the demo flight, the service has a lot of potential in the aviation industry.

I had no trouble streaming content, joining Zoom meetings, and downloading music across five devices simultaneously. Real-world download speeds topped 100 megabits per second, and low latency meant I didn’t have to worry about buffering when watching movies and TV shows.

In addition to Air France, Starlink is or is being established on eight carriers worldwide. These include United Airlines, JSX, Hawaiian Airlines, AirBaltic, Zipair, Qatar Airways, Air New Zealand and WestJet. In fact, just this week, Hawaiian Airlines announced that it had completed Starlink installations in its Airbus fleet.

As fast in-flight internet access becomes a feature that passengers expect, hopefully, we’ll see more carriers partner with Starlink. After all, it’s the fastest, most reliable satellite internet provider I’ve tested in all my travels.

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