Which airlines have no wifi?
Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2, TUI, Volotea, Frontier and Allegiant all fly with no onboard internet. Wizz Air has signed with Starlink, but that rollout does not begin until 2027. Several of them carry an offline entertainment portal, which is not a connection — nothing on board can reach the network. GPS still works, because it only receives.
· Airline details checked August 2026
Europe: the low-cost fleets are still offline
Ryanair carries more passengers than any other airline in Europe and has no wifi on any aircraft. In January 2026 it turned Starlink down again, citing installation cost, the fuel burn of carrying the hardware, and sector lengths too short to earn it back. easyJet reached the same conclusion the same month: its chief executive said the product was good and the economics did not work yet.
Wizz Air is the one that changes, but not soon. It has signed with Starlink for its new-generation A320neo-family aircraft, and that rollout starts in 2027 — roughly sixty older A320s and A321s are outside the deal. Nothing is fitted today, so treat a Wizz flight in 2026 as an offline flight.
All of these are A320-family and 737 narrowbodies, so there is no seatback screen either. No moving map in the cabin, and nothing telling you what is below.
| Airline | Onboard internet | Seatback screens |
|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | None | None |
| easyJet | None — offline portal only | None |
| Jet2 | None | None |
| TUI Airways | None — offline portal only | None on short-haul |
| Wizz Air | None until the 2027 Starlink rollout | None |
| Volotea | None — trials from late 2026 | None |
The United States: the screens went from the aircraft you actually fly
The American picture is the other way round, and the thing that matters is which aircraft. Screens survive on widebodies — American keeps them on the 777 and 787, and the A321XLR has 13.3-inch panels in business. They did not survive on the narrowbodies: every A319, A320, A321 and 737-800 in the domestic fleet had them stripped out, finished in 2025. Those are the aircraft flying almost every domestic sector you will ever book.
United and Delta went the other way and kept screens on many single-aisle aircraft, which is the pressure American is now publicly weighing a reversal under — a reconsideration as of this check, not a decision. Southwest, Frontier, Allegiant and Alaska never fitted them at all.
Wifi moved in the opposite direction on the same fleets. American switched on free connectivity for AAdvantage members in January 2026 across 100% of its narrowbody and regional aircraft, while the long-haul widebodies on Panasonic equipment stay paid. So on a domestic 737 you can get online and there is no screen; on a 777 to London there is a screen and the wifi has a price.
| Airline | Onboard internet | Seatback screens |
|---|---|---|
| Frontier | None | None |
| Allegiant | None | None |
| Southwest | Free, Rapid Rewards members only | None |
| American | Free for AAdvantage on narrowbody; paid long-haul | None on narrowbody, yes on widebody |
| Alaska | Paid, Starlink selected | None |
| United | Paid, free after the Starlink fit | Yes, many single-aisle |
| Delta | Free, SkyMiles members only | Yes, and expanding |
| JetBlue | Free, no membership needed | Yes, every seat |
Free wifi is not free, and it is not a map
Read the second column again. Almost every "free" in it has a condition attached. American's is free to AAdvantage members, Delta's to SkyMiles members, Southwest's to Rapid Rewards members. You join the programme, you sign in at 30,000 feet, and your itinerary joins a marketing profile. That is a price, paid in something other than money. JetBlue is the honest exception in that column: free, fleetwide, nobody asked to enrol.
Where it is not free it is simply paid. United and Alaska still charge for a session today. American charges on the long-haul widebodies. On Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2, Frontier and Allegiant there is nothing to buy at any price.
And here is the part worth sitting with: none of it puts a map in front of you. Buy the wifi on an American 737 and you have bought internet in a cabin with no seatback screen — the moving map is not in the purchase, because the screen it used to live on was removed. You can pay, enrol, sign in, and still not know what is below the window.
An onboard portal is not a connection
Several airlines in the first table advertise something that sounds like wifi and is not. easyJet, TUI and others carry a box on the aircraft serving films and menus over a local network — you join a wifi access point, but it reaches only that box. There is no path to the internet from your seat.
This matters for anything that needs live data. A flight tracker that asks a server where you are gets no answer on those aircraft, whether or not your phone says it is connected to wifi. Anything computed on the device carries on working.
What still works with the radios off
GPS. It is a receiver, not a transmitter: your phone listens to satellites and works out where it is without sending anything back, which is why Airplane Mode does not switch it off. Download the map for your region before you board and the position, the route, the altitude and the name of the town below all keep working for the whole flight.
You do not need to buy wifi to know where you are. That is the job SkyDot does.
Questions
Does Ryanair have wifi?
No. Ryanair has no onboard wifi on any aircraft. It looked at Starlink again in January 2026 and turned it down, pointing to installation cost, the fuel burn of carrying the equipment and sectors too short to pay for it. Plan for a fully offline flight.
Does easyJet have wifi?
No internet. easyJet aircraft carry an onboard entertainment portal you connect to, but it serves content stored on the aircraft and has no route to the internet. Its chief executive said in January 2026 that the Starlink economics did not work for easyJet yet.
Does Jet2 have wifi?
No. Jet2 has chosen not to fit onboard wifi or seatback televisions, which it treats as part of keeping fares low. Bring what you want to use on the flight with you.
When does Wizz Air get Starlink wifi?
The rollout begins in 2027 and covers the new-generation A320neo-family fleet, more than 200 aircraft. Around sixty older A320s and A321s are outside it. Nothing is fitted in 2026, so a Wizz flight this year has no connectivity.
Is American Airlines wifi free?
On the domestic fleet, if you are an AAdvantage member. Free connectivity covers 100% of American’s narrowbody and regional aircraft — the A319, A320, A321, 737 and the regional jets — and you have to be enrolled and signed in. The long-haul widebodies on Panasonic equipment are still a paid product.
Do I have to join a loyalty programme to get free wifi?
Usually, yes. American, Delta and Southwest all give it free to members of their programmes and charge everyone else, so you enrol and sign in mid-flight before it works. JetBlue is the exception: free fleetwide with nothing to join. United and Alaska still sell a session outright.
Does buying inflight wifi give me the moving map?
Not on an aircraft with no seatback screen. The map lived on the screen, and American removed those from its whole narrowbody fleet. Paying for connectivity buys you internet, not a flight map — you can be online and still have no idea what is below you.
Can I still see where the plane is without wifi or a seatback screen?
Yes. Your phone’s GPS works in Airplane Mode, because it receives satellite signals rather than transmitting. With an offline map downloaded before departure, you get your live position, altitude, speed and the place below without any connection — no session to buy and no programme to join.
Why do budget airlines skip wifi?
Weight, installation cost and fuel burn against short average sector lengths. On a ninety-minute hop the equipment cost per passenger is hard to justify, which is the reason Ryanair has given publicly more than once.