For the last year, general aviation pilots have paid about $50 a month for Starlink internet service on their airplanes, but the subsidiary of Elon Musk's space company recently announced a pricing change that spiked costs to as high as $1,000 a month for less bandwidth, depending on the plane's speed.
The abrupt move surprised thousands of pilots who'd bought Starlink Mini terminals for their aircraft as an affordable way to stay connected while flying. Some described it as a "bait and switch" scheme.
Since the price change was announced last month, more than 9,000 pilots have signed a Change.Org petition calling on Starlink to rethink its pricing. And an aviation advocacy group, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, sent a letter to Musk about the matter.
The rate increases "create a pricing structure that will place the service beyond the reach of a significant portion of the global general aviation community," Senior Vice President James Coon wrote in the association's letter to Musk and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. "Unlike airline fleets or large corporate operators, most general aviation aircraft are individually owned or operated by small businesses with limited operating margins."
Starlink hasn't commented publicly on the price changes.
Coon called the service a "transformational advancement for aviation" that "is not simply a convenience," but also "a meaningful enhancement to operational safety."
Starlink keeps pilots connected to weather information, flight planning resources, coordination and emergency communications in places where there's limited or no connectivity, according to Coon.
"For aircraft operating in remote environments, including humanitarian missions, medical transport, environmental monitoring, and other small operations, the safety value of this capability cannot be overstated," the letter said.
Many pilots and small operators invested in Starlink hardware for their planes, he wrote, "in good faith based on the expectation that the service would remain economically viable for the general aviation sector."
But pilots say the "good faith" was broken with the price hike. Most had been paying between $50 and $65 a month for 100 gigabytes of data on any plane that flew up to 450 mph.
Now they'll pay $250 a month for 20 gigs in airplanes that fly up to 300 mph and $1,000 monthly for the same amount of data in planes that fly faster, up to 450 mph.
Coon wrote that his group wants to "engage directly with the Starlink aviation team to discuss practical alternatives that balance economic sustainability with accessibility for smaller operators."
Before the pricing change, some general aviation pilots were paying less than Starlink's residential rates of $80 to $120 a month, and commercial carriers were paying significantly more for the service. Aviation is one of the company's fastest-growing sectors.
"If a (general aviation) pilot can slap a $250 Starlink Mini on the glareshield and get basically the same service for $50 a month, that's a pricing integrity problem when a bizjet operator is paying $10,000 a month after a (roughly) $150,000 terminal install," said Kim Burke, an analyst at Quilty Space, a space economy research firm in Florida.
More than 30 airlines already have deals with Starlink, and it has added another 3,000 aircraft to its installation backlog.
As Starlink "onboards thousands of commercial aircraft, they also need to manage (satellite) beam capacity over high-traffic flight corridors ... and guarantee (service level agreement) performance for the customers paying $25,000 a month," she said. "So, they can't have consumer-tier users competing for the same beams."
Signers of the petition wrote that the price hike is unfair.
"This was a bait and switch," wrote a signer named Dean. "Please bring back a plan for small (general aircraft). A 500% increase for 80% less data is shockingly unfair after the service we had until now. Shame."
Another signer named John wrote Starlink "was arguably the greatest safety advancement in the last ten years, and now we've had the rug pulled out from under us. Tens of thousands of pilots invested heavily in equipment, plans, and mounts, and Starlink has ignorantly destroyed a lot of goodwill."
The firm is SpaceX's strongest moneymaker and is on track to generate $20 billion this year. It makes as many as 170,000 Starlink user terminals a week at its Bastrop County factory outside Austin.
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