Amidst his personal battle to purchase and take over Twitter, Elon Musk still found time to cut the first deal for Wi-Fi service on a major airline for his SpaceX company.
SpaceX's Starlink, a network of more than 2,000 satellites designed just for high-speed internet access, will begin providing Wi-Fi to all passengers on Hawaiian Airlines flights by next year - and that's FREE Wi-Fi, mind you, according to CNBC.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ironically, Hawaiian Airlines does not offer in-flight Wi-Fi despite having a vast route network of long-haul flights that traverse the oceans to the mainland United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
"Historically, we've looked at our market and not seen great options over the Pacific. We actually don't have any connectivity on our fleet today," Avi Mannis, Hawaiian's chief marketing and communications officer, told CNBC "The options have been improving over time, but we have waited until there was a product offering ... that we thought would live up to the expectations of our guests."
Short-haul flights from island to island in Hawaii will not have Starlink but the rest of the airline's fleet will be fitted with Wi-Fi.
"Hawaiian Airlines is ensuring its passengers will experience high-speed internet the way we expect it in the 21st century, making hassles like downloading movies before takeoff a relic of the past," Jonathan Hofeller, vice president of Starlink commercial sales at SpaceX, said.
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