Southwest’s Starlink Debut, United’s Polaris Menu Refresh, Air Canada’s Inaugural A321XLR, and More

In this week’s headlines, Southwest will become the first low-cost airline to offer free Starlink, Canadian airlines Air Canada and WestJet both struck new partnerships, and United is promising a feast with tasty new dishes for international Polaris cabins starting in August.

Before all that, we’ll start with the exciting launch of Air Canada’s Airbus A321XLR.

Air Canada Launches Airbus A321XLR

The Canadian flag carrier is the latest airline to launch its factory-fresh version of the increasingly popular Airbus A321XLR. The single-aisle jet, boasting its new Glowing Hearted cabin, carried passengers for the first time from Montréal (YUL) to Toronto (YYZ) on June 9.

The seats in the business class cabin are in a premium 1-1 configuration to give those flying shorter routes with less demand the same (if not better) premium experience as wide-body aircraft. An example is the Atlantic hop from Montréal to Toulouse (TLS), France, that it will start operating on June 15, marking the aircraft’s first international flight.

Southwest Will Be The First Low-Cost Airline With Starlink

Southwest confirmed that its ultrafast, complimentary Starlink Wi-Fi will debut on its first plane this month. The plan has to have it installed on up to 300 planes by the end of the year, as confirmed by Tony Roach, chief customer and brand officer for Southwest, at the International Air Transport Association annual general meeting in Rio this week.

Across the pond, Hungary-based ultra-low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced it would begin installing Starlink on its planes in 2027.

United’s New International Polaris Menus

United is adding pizzazz to its international Polaris onboard catering this summer. From August 1, the Chicago-based carrier will introduce 30 new dishes by 11 award-winning chefs, including Tashi Gyamtso, Tomos Parry, and Nancy Silverton.

Main dishes take inspiration from United’s destinations, U.S. or international, that each of the featured chefs call home. For example, look out for Brazilian shrimp stew on the menu when flying to São Paulo. And if you’re London-bound, you could be tucking into a dish of slow-roasted lamb, smoked potatoes, and grilled broccoli. As a Brit, that makes me homesick!

WestJet and Icelandair Codeshare

Back to Canada, where WestJet, the country’s second-largest airline, has inked a new codesharing agreement with Icelandair. The deal, signed at that IATA meeting in Rio de Janeiro, allows 1-ticket itineraries to be booked between Canada and 10 European destinations via Reykjavik (KEF) on a combination of Icelandair and WestJet flights.

Air Canada Wants More Connectivity With Central and South America

More news out of Rio this week was that Air Canada wants to increase connectivity across the Americas. It signed an agreement with the parent company of Colombia-headquartered Avianca and Brazilian carrier Gol, part of the Abra Group, to forge a long-term strategic partnership.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, particularly with Gol. Although owned by the same company as Star Alliance member Avianca, Gol isn’t part of any global alliance. It does, however, have close ties with Oneworld member American Airlines and Air France-KLM of the SkyTeam alliance.

Airline Route Updates

As planned, Royal Air Maroc‘s inaugural flight from Casablanca (CMN), Morocco, to Los Angeles (LAX) took off on June 7. This route is niche, so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Breeze and Frontier also made route news this week. Breeze flew its first international flight from Tampa (TPA), Florida, when it launched service to the Bahamas (NAS) on Thursday, June 11. It marked the first of the airline’s 5 international routes planned for launch from Tampa before the end of the year.

Frontier doubled down on Las Vegas (LAS) with its announcement of 2 new services connecting Sin City with Boise (BOI), Idaho, as of September 10, and Oakland (OAK), California, as of August 20.

And finally, Japan Airlines has increased its frequencies on 2 routes from Japan to the U.S. for the summer season. Flights between Osaka (KIX) and Los Angeles (LAX), and between Tokyo-Narita (NRT) and San Diego (SAN), will increase to daily service, up from 5 and 4 weekly flights, respectively.

Final Thoughts

From Air Canada launching its new Airbus A321XLR to United showing off decadent new business class and Southwest getting Starlink installed, a lot happened this week in the airline world.

As always, we’ll be back next week with more!