By Yadarisa Shabong
Jan 29 (Reuters) – EasyJet has held talks with Elon Musk’s Starlink about offering on-board Wi-Fi, but the economics do not stack up for the British budget airline at the moment, Chief Executive Kenton Jarvis said on Thursday.
The comments come after a social-media spat between Musk and Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary this month over the cost of fitting Starlink’s Wi-Fi service.
O’Leary has said the fuel drag from Wi-Fi antennae on top of planes could cost about $200 million per year, and that few budget travellers would be prepared to pay for the service.
“At the moment … where we are with our talks with Starlink, the economics aren’t quite working for us,” Jarvis told journalists in a post-earnings call, though he added that the product was a “really good one”, with fast streaming speeds.
Jarvis said easyJet was also talking to other providers in what he called a “rapidly changing market”. The airline would keep conversations going with Starlink and other providers and continue to monitor the offerings and prices, he said.
“When the time is right, we’ll pick the right service,” Jarvis said, adding he was unable to say when that might be.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru. Editing by Mark Potter)
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