Amazon Leo, Amazon's low-orbit satellite project, recently announced an airborne satellite Internet antenna specially built for commercial airliners, trying to challenge SpaceX's Starlink aviation business head-on in the in-flight Wi-Fi market. On Monday, Amazon officially released the "Leo Aviation Antenna", a flat-panel, low-profile antenna for aircraft that claims to be able to provide high-speed Internet connections to passengers on board.
In terms of appearance and form, this Leo aviation antenna is quite similar to the "Aero Terminal" previously launched by Starlink for commercial airliners. Both are also installed on the outside of the fuselage and provide broadband access to the aircraft through communication with low-Earth orbit satellites.
However, Amazon focuses on the advantages of its solution in terms of installation efficiency: the official promotion is that it can achieve "installation in a single day," while SpaceX claims that its Aero Terminal usually requires "at least 10 to 14 days of downtime" to complete deployment.
In terms of performance, Amazon said that this aviation antenna system can provide up to 1Gbps downlink and 400Mbps uplink bandwidth capabilities at the same time.
The company said that this bandwidth is shared by all passengers and crew members on the entire aircraft, and airlines can decide at their own discretion whether to grade or segment the use experience, but the overall speed is sufficient to support almost all common Internet application scenarios including gaming, video streaming, and photo sharing.
Starlink aviation services have been put into commercial use by many major airlines and have been praised for their significantly better experience than traditional in-flight Wi-Fi.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also forwarded an evaluation video from Internet celebrity MrBeast, who said that he would only choose flights equipped with Starlink Internet service when booking flights; PCMag had previously conducted an actual test on United Airlines and found that the downlink speed of the Starlink in-flight network could be close to 100Mbps.
Amazon Leo also hopes to replicate this word-of-mouth effect. Its global business leader Trevor Vieweg said that it is expected that passengers will actively look for flights equipped with Leo connection services in the future.
In terms of airline customer expansion, Starlink has reached cooperation with a number of airlines including United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Air France.
In comparison, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways have signed up to use Amazon Leo's in-flight Internet service. However, the overall Leo system is still in the private testing stage. The number of existing satellites in orbit is about 240, which is not enough to provide comprehensive coverage and stable connections.
Amazon has previously applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to extend the deployment deadline because the satellite launch schedule is behind schedule.
According to Amazon's plan, the Leo service will be officially commercialized in mid-2026, and the number of satellites in orbit is expected to reach approximately 700 by then.
Even so, it will take time for Leo's in-flight connectivity service to be implemented: Delta Air Lines will not fully launch Leo on its fleet until 2028, while JetBlue Airways plans to introduce the service in 2027.
Both airlines plan to make Leo's inflight network available to passengers for free, but Delta will require users to sign up for its free membership program before it can be used.
In terms of technical roadmap, the aerial antenna released by Amazon this time introduces some technologies from the Leo Ultra ground terminal previously targeted at enterprise users.
The difference is that the design and manufacturing of the airborne version have been strengthened for the aviation environment and can withstand severe cold at high altitudes, severe weather and various physical stresses during flight to meet the reliability requirements of long-term operation outside the aircraft body.