Key takeaways
- Amazon and Delta to transform travel for tens of millions of people who fly Delta each year.
- Amazon Leo will roll out across hundreds of aircraft in the Delta fleet, beginning in 2028 with 500 aircraft.
- Agreement builds on the existing long-term relationship between AWS and Delta.
Amazon today announced a significant agreement with Delta Air Lines to bring Amazon Leo's advanced satellite technology to hundreds of aircraft, marking a major expansion of the companies' long-standing relationship and delivering next-generation satellite connectivity to tens of millions of people who fly Delta each year.
Under the multi-year agreement, Delta will begin rolling out Amazon Leo in 2028 with an initial installation on 500 aircraft, providing customers with high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi from gate-to-gate. Like Delta’s existing commitment to passengers, Leo-powered in-flight Wi-Fi will be free for all Delta SkyMiles members.
“Delta’s future is global,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive officer. “This agreement gives us the best, fastest and most cost-effective technology available to better connect the world today, and it deepens our work with a global leader that shares our ambition to build what’s next—creating even stronger human connection for our people and our customers for years to come.”
Building on the existing relationship between Delta and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Delta and Amazon plan to work together to integrate AWS, Amazon Leo, artificial intelligence, and other Amazon technologies to enhance the customer experience across the entire travel journey.
“We’ve designed Leo to provide high-speed internet to the billions of people on Earth without reliable connectivity, and this agreement with Delta is a great example of the impact and scale of the technology—bringing even faster in-flight Wi-Fi to tens of millions of passengers who fly Delta every year," said Andy Jassy, President and CEO of Amazon. “People increasingly want to stay connected wherever they are in the world, and Leo’s speed and reliability is going to have a big impact for businesses, governments, and consumers. It’s going to make the in-flight experience so much better, and it’s going to change what’s possible while traveling.”
How Amazon Leo will work for Delta passengers
Amazon Leo is powered by a constellation of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit—roughly 370 miles above the planet's surface. This puts satellites more than 50 times closer to the planet than the traditional geostationary systems that have powered legacy in-flight Wi-Fi, dramatically reducing latency for customers.
Each Delta aircraft will be equipped with a single purpose-built phased array antenna that supports download speeds up to 1 Gbps and upload speeds up to 400 Mbps. The aviation-grade antenna is based on Leo Ultra—the fastest commercial phased array antenna in production—and will allow passengers to enjoy an experience on par with terrestrial networks: streaming movies and TV shows, playing games, uploading content, staying connected to friends, family, and colleagues, and more—all while traveling at hundreds of miles an hour at 35,000 feet in the air.
Delta flies to more than 300 locations across six continents and served more than 200 million customers last year, and Leo-powered Wi-Fi will remain free for all Delta SkyMiles members.
Bringing advanced technology to Delta people, passengers and operations
The agreement with Amazon Leo also builds on an existing relationship that began when Delta migrated substantial portions of its technology infrastructure to Amazon Web Services. Delta uses AWS to power reservation systems, operational tools, and customer-facing applications, and the new agreement with Amazon Leo will help Delta bring more advanced technology to its people and operations.
Amazon Leo currently has more than 200 satellites in orbit, with more than 20 full-scale missions planned over the next year. To learn more about the service, visit leo.amazon.com.
