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I sometimes try to squeeze in work during a long airline flight, and for that I typically need to tap into the in-flight Wi-Fi. How do today's airlines fare at providing good wireless access? A new report from Speedtest app provider Ookla looks at the best and worst of in-flight Wi-Fi.
To compile its report, Ookla analyzed the data collected by its Speedtest app during the first quarter of 2025. The results included Wi-Fi performance for individual airlines, as well as that of specific service providers who offer satellite connectivity or ground-based cellular access.
(Disclosure: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company.)
The best in-flight Wi-Fi providers
In-flight Wi-Fi used to be essentially a luxury -- free to airline club or loyalty members and a paid option for everyone else. Over time, that luxury turned into a convenience and has now become an expected service, according to Ookla. More carriers, such as Delta and American, are freely offering it to all passengers. The airlines are also taking advantage of evolving satellite services such as Starlink.
Though onboard Wi-Fi has grown in demand, the performance doesn't yet match expectations. For the majority of people, in-flight Wi-Fi compares very poorly with their experiences on terrestrial networks, Ookla said. In the past, people complained about the inaccessibility and poor signals of onboard Wi-Fi. Those aspects have likely improved over time, though performance is still lacking in comparison with land-based networks.
"In our recent analysis of Wi-Fi generations in the US, looking at Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6, we compare 'all-providers' with the best in-flight (being Starlink)," Ookla industry analyst Kerry Baker told ZDNET. "The median download speeds on Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 are 226.66 Mbps and 374.76 Mbps respectively, versus 152.37 Mbps on Starlink. We see the same disparity on upload speeds and latency as well. Additionally, this is comparing average Wi-Fi to the best in-flight provider. As we can see from the other in-flight results, it is an even bigger gap for the majority."
Still, when you're 40,000 feet in the air, decent Wi-Fi is better than no Wi-Fi. Among the 30 airlines analyzed, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways took top honors for the best download and upload speeds and the lowest latency, far surpassing the competition. Both carriers use Starlink's low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, allowing them to achieve better performance than many of the other airlines.
Several airlines that also scored well for in-flight Wi-Fi were Spirit Airlines, Air Canada, Delta Airlines, Breeze Airways, American Airlines, and Aeromexico. All serve download speeds above 10 megabits per second, along with basic upload speeds. Taking into account both the upload performance and the higher latency results, passengers should be fine trying to send an email or perform other simple tasks. But online gaming and video calling are probably out of the question.
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