Starlink is the new must-have in-flight Wi-Fi. But at up to $500,000 a plane to install and $180,000 a year to run, somebody's got to pay. Analysts at Jefferies say fares would need to rise around 5% on average just for an airline to break even on the investment.

Time Horizon: 6–18 months

Should airlines still choosing a connectivity vendor lock in Starlink's faster rollout now, or hold out for Amazon Leo's lower price point to mature?

Airline finance chiefs — fare-increase math to defend · Network/vendor strategy leads — Starlink vs. Amazon Leo lock-in · Loyalty program chiefs — free-perk cost absorption · Aircraft lessors — retrofit cost, residual value

Skift's reporting shows in-flight connectivity flipping from a differentiator into a fixed cost every airline has to absorb, with vendor choice — not customer demand — now driving the bill.

Policy — Middle East's Recovery Stalled Again: Skift Travel Health Index — Athira Thoppil

Operations — 'I Don't Want Cookie Cutter': Dorchester Collection's Stand Against the Flattening of Luxury — Colin Nagy

Demand — Canadian Travel to the U.S. Grew for a 5th Month Despite Trade War — Still Down 27% From 2024 — Rashaad Jorden

Delta's Amazon Leo rollout: whether Bastian's bandwidth-and-price bet holds once Leo scales past its early routes.

United's year-end Starlink milestone: whether it hits 1,000 aircraft equipped by December 31.

Ryanair's connectivity holdout: whether O'Leary's $250 million objection survives the next earnings call as rivals lock in deals.

Every new onboard upgrade lands on the balance sheet, and airline leaders are the ones who decide who absorbs the cost.

On November 12 at the TWA Hotel, JFK, the CEOs and commercial chiefs of IAG, American Airlines, Air Canada, and Breeze Airways work through the profitability and vendor decisions shaping the year ahead. 322 attendees in 2025, 63% director level or above.

Airline revenue growth is cooling fast, from a 91% pandemic-rebound spike in 2022 to a projected 3% by 2027, according to Skift Research.

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Inside how Ennismore and Paris Society are building restaurants that appeal to locals, strengthen hotel brands, and unlock new growth.

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The Iran war has quietly devastated Gulf tourism, with Dubai hotel rates down 50% and recovery not expected before late 2027. Meta has launched an AI agent called Muse that can actually book travel, and Marriott's CEO says AI's biggest impact on hotels won't be chatbots — it'll be distribution.

On this Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down just how bad Gulf tourism's numbers have gotten and what it means for travelers eyeing a Dubai trip right now, what Skift's hands-on test of Meta's Muse agent reveals about how AI is starting to shop for travel on your behalf, and why Marriott is racing to feed AI systems as much content as possible before the distribution battle is decided.

How are public travel companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to understand global market movements. Paid subscribers get full access here.

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