Latvian airline, airBaltic, announced plans to equip its entire Airbus A220-300 fleet with Starlink internet and give passengers complimentary access to the in-flight, high-speed, low-latency broadband internet. Connectivity will be available to passengers who won’t have to visit a login page. Instead, they’ll connect directly to the network and use the service.
The company noted that it plans to work with SpaceX to achieve the necessary supplemental type certification (STC) approval. It is expected to begin installing Starlink on its fleet this year.
The future is here! š We have selected @SpaceXās Starlink to bring internet connectivity to our @Airbus A220-300 fleet āļø All of our passengers will have access to complimentary, high-speed satellite internet on every airBaltic flight.
š Learn more: https://t.co/Ke1aOHk9nk pic.twitter.com/dDVaH5wbR4— airBaltic (@airBaltic) January 10, 2023
Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic Martin Gauss gave a statement, calling the moment a historic one for the airline and the industry as a whole.
“This marks a historic moment for our airline and the industry as a whole. SoonĀ airBalticĀ will become the first airline in Europe to launch high-speed, unlimited, and free-of-charge satellite internet on board. We are excited to further improve our service to our passengers who will soon benefit from this internet connectivity onboard our flights within theĀ airBalticĀ network in Europe and beyond,” Gauss said.
āWe are glad to have found the right connectivity provider āĀ SpaceXās StarlinkĀ ā that fits our needs and meets our wishes. Having the most modern aircraft type on the market, it was the next logical step forĀ airBaltic to implement the most modern available inflight internet solution on this fleet,āĀ Gauss added.
Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Sales, also gave a statement.
āBy becoming the first European airline to implementĀ StarlinkĀ fleetwide,Ā airBalticĀ is setting a new standard in ensuring its passengers have an internet experience that they have come to expect in our modern age,ā said Hofeller.
āWithĀ StarlinkāsĀ high-speed, low-latency internet,Ā airBalticĀ passengers will have internet similar to or better than what they experience at home. Customers will walk on the plane, and the internet will simply work, making the stress of login pages and downloading large files before takeoff a thing of the past,” he added.
Starlink is providing its high-speed, low-latency broadband internet service in over 40 countries and now has over one million subscribers globally. In recent news, Starlink opened offices in Azerbaijan with plans to begin services sometime this year.
In 2022, Starlink launched several variations of its services connecting users in several modes of transportation, such as aviation and maritime. Starlink, which can deliver up to 350 Mbps to aircraft with latency as low as 20 ms, will enable airline passengers to engage in online activities that weren’t available while in the air. These activities include online gaming, virtual private networks, and other high-data-rate activities.
Teslarati reached out to airBaltic for additional comments. We’ll let you know when/if we receive them.
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Tesla has entered an interesting situation with its Full Self-Driving suite in California, as the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles had adopted an order for a suspension of the company’s sales license, but it immediately put it on hold.
The company has been granted a reprieve as the DMV is giving Tesla an opportunity to “remedy the situation.” After the suspension was recommended for 30 days as a penalty, the DMV said it would give Tesla 90 days to allow the company to come into compliance.
The DMV is accusing Tesla of misleading consumers by using words like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving on its advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features.
The State’s DMV Director, Steve Gordon, said that he hoped “Tesla will find a way to get these misleading statements corrected.” However, Tesla responded to the story on Tuesday, stating that this was a “consumer protection” order for the company using the term Autopilot.
It said “not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.” It added that “sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
This was a āconsumer protectionā order about the use of the term āAutopilotā in a case where not one single customer came forward to say thereās a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.
ā Tesla North America (@tesla_na) December 17, 2025
Tesla has used the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for years, but has added the term “(Supervised)” to the end of the FSD suite, hoping to remedy some of the potential issues that regulators in various areas might have with the labeling of the program.
It might not be too long before Tesla stops catching flak for using the Full Self-Driving name to describe its platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi suite has continued to improve, and this week, vehicles were spotted in Austin without any occupants. CEO Elon Musk would later confirm that Tesla had started testing driverless rides in Austin, hoping to launch rides without any supervision by the end of the year.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Tesla enters interesting situation with Full Self-Driving in California
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
