00:31:36 · John Collison, Scott Kirby
[00:31:36] S1: So with Starlink, you know, we now have this moment where there's real differentiation between airlines that previously were closer. The differentiation The is gapped fact that every airline has not chosen Starlink suggests to me that the economic deal for an airline was not like an obviously, oh, yeah, we must do this. It required, you know, there was a case you could have made to not do it because some airlines did not do it. Can you talk us through how you made the decision to do it? How painful was the decision... [00:32:03] S0: It was painful. Painful. I thought it would be a big deal to customers and so I wanted to do it. Economics were, yes, it's more expensive, but it's a whole lot better. Yeah. You often get what you pay for and that's true in this case. Mostly in airlines, you look at this like these things are incremental and so it really takes time to put them on and the easiest way to it on is to do it in a heavy check. So you've got an airplane that's going be down, you strip the airplane down and while you're working on it, you you already got the airplane down, you know, put Starlink on. And that's how we started and, you know, we had, know, we were only going do like 65% of our fleet because planes were retiring and, you know, and once we put it on the first aircraft, we realized like, I just like all these anecdotes. Like I'm talking to people like, I'm switching to flying a regional flight because it's got Starlink and I was like, holy.
00:32:03 · Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson, John Collison
[00:32:03] S0: It was painful. Painful. I thought it would be a big deal to customers and so I wanted to do it. Economics were, yes, it's more expensive, but it's a whole lot better. Yeah. You often get what you pay for and that's true in this case. Mostly in airlines, you look at this like these things are incremental and so it really takes time to put them on and the easiest way to it on is to do it in a heavy check. So you've got an airplane that's going be down, you strip the airplane down and while you're working on it, you you already got the airplane down, you know, put Starlink on. And that's how we started and, you know, we had, know, we were only going do like 65% of our fleet because planes were retiring and, you know, and once we put it on the first aircraft, we realized like, I just like all these anecdotes. Like I'm talking to people like, I'm switching to flying a regional flight because it's got Starlink and I was like, holy. [00:32:54] S2: We got a host of people flight this week and I was just thinking through it. I had to book around the Brewers game, Whereas if I had known for certainty that my flight was gonna have Starlink, I would have booked it during the game. Yeah. And there's a... Such a huge gap between maybe there's Starlink Congratulations, by the way. [00:33:10] S1: With that. [00:33:11] S2: Not yet. We're not talking about [00:33:12] S0: it right now. [00:33:13] S2: Maybe there's Starlink versus there is definitely So it feels to me like you actually haven't reaped any of the benefits yet because certainty is going make a huge
00:33:13 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby
[00:33:13] S2: Maybe there's Starlink versus there is definitely So it feels to me like you actually haven't reaped any of the benefits yet because certainty is going make a huge [00:33:22] S0: I think we're, you're right. I think we've got some, but you know, to 50% matters, But you're right. So we wrote out a tracker today that gives you a bunch more data. We're going to put in the app sometime soon the probability that there'll be Starlink on your flight. So at least know the probability for flights and it'll be different. Like today, you know, if you're flying on a Max eight, if you're flying on a Max eight, it might be 25%. But if you're booking for Christmas, it's 36% because we know how many we plan to have done. And so we're going to have that. We also are going to have a bunch of premier markets that we're going get to 100%. So our first hub, I'm not going to tell you the date yet, the first hub that's going be 100% Starlink is Los Angeles. So sometime in the first half of next year if you're in LA. [00:34:09] S2: And is that because that's the most competitive hub? [00:34:11] S0: It's a competitive hub but it also, like, it's also the kind of aircraft that fly there. So, our only aircraft that are still a challenge, we have to get Boeing over the finish line on some of the certification work on the 787s. Oh, so We will get there, but, we will get there, but if you've got a market like San Francisco that has a lot of 787s, it's gonna take longer because we... Boeing is slower.
00:34:11 · Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:34:11] S0: It's a competitive hub but it also, like, it's also the kind of aircraft that fly there. So, our only aircraft that are still a challenge, we have to get Boeing over the finish line on some of the certification work on the 787s. Oh, so We will get there, but, we will get there, but if you've got a market like San Francisco that has a lot of 787s, it's gonna take longer because we... Boeing is slower. [00:34:36] S1: Was the CapEx or OpEx more painful in the economic model as you looked at it? [00:34:42] S0: The numbers aren't that big. [00:34:44] S1: Oh, really? Well, I mean... But then like, why is Delta's strategy rational or do you think it's like completely mistaken?
00:34:44 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[00:34:44] S1: Oh, really? Well, I mean... But then like, why is Delta's strategy rational or do you think it's like completely mistaken? [00:34:50] S0: It was a mistake. Okay. I think at all airlines, even the ones that kind of, if you watch the other airlines that picked it after United had done it, they're sort of stepping into it gradually. That's just the way we've always done it in airlines. Know, everything is slow. Like do an aircraft, remodification takes eight years. Like just like, that's the way we've done it. I mean, so I think it's just the way everyone has done it. And if you're thinking that this is like an eight year project, okay, I'm a year behind on starting, but that's not that big deal. You know, United will be at 12%. You know, we'll be a year behind. Like it's not going to be enough to matter. Like it's a, you can, in a traditional way of looking at it, it can feel rational. I don't think people, we even didn't appreciate how big it was. It's not as big, but then we put the pedal to the metal and SpaceX supported us and going Is this gonna be the [00:35:37] S2: biggest differentiator of all time? [00:35:38] S0: I think it is. I think it's the biggest competitive advantage and it's temporary. Everybody eventually is going to have high speed, low earth orbit internet connectivity. It's gonna be a must have. [00:35:50] S1: But to the speed
00:35:50 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[00:35:50] S1: But to the speed [00:35:50] S0: moment But of we are gonna have a few years of being the only airline that has it at scale and that's our mission is I think we're gonna convince customers that United is the best airline and we're gonna get customers to switch their loyalty to United, get our credit card, switch their loyalty to United. Not because of Starlink. They're going to try us for Starlink and they're going to stay because all the other technology and everything else is better. And the technology in particular is so much better than technology and it's accelerating because we're out there at Techstack and because we're like our gap is getting wider and wider with our technology every day. [00:36:23] S1: You have a two to three year window to woo customers. Exactly. [00:36:26] S0: Yeah. That's exactly right. [00:36:28] S1: What do think of Elon's strategy of requiring airlines to make it free? [00:36:31] S0: We were gonna make it free anyway, so, you know. Free was gonna be... Although, in fairness, free is not the value proposition. Fast is the value proposition. And the truth is like on... I've flown all three of my big competitors who have it free on the legacy systems and it's terrible. I've flown them each two or three times in the last year. No, was... It's terrible because there's not enough... It's physics. Exactly. There's not enough bandwidth to make it free. Was [00:36:56] S2: reason sad, we talked they started making it free. Yeah. Because I'm like, is gonna make my experience