Elon Musk Says Delta Boss Could Lose Job Over Amazon Deal as United Calls Starlink a 'Game-Changer'

Elon Musk has claimed Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian could lose his job over the airline's decision to pick Amazon's satellite internet instead of Starlink. The row flared again on Sunday, when United Airlines called Starlink a 'game-changer' in a post on X.

For context, Starlink is the internet service run by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Nasdaq-listed company (SPCX) that Musk leads. United Airlines and Alaska Air Group have chosen to offer it to passengers. Delta went with Amazon's Leo satellite internet.

Musk has not kept quiet about it. He has said Delta could stand to lose customers over the decision, and later that Bastian could lose his position as chief executive over the Starlink omission. Bastian reportedly said Delta did not want to collaborate with Musk.

IBTimes UK has not seen his exact wording, so that remains a paraphrase.

Elon Musk Posts Five-Game Flight Video

The latest chapter began with a clip. On Sunday, Musk quoted a post by the X user DogeDesigner, which showed a passenger on a flight streaming five college football games across different devices.

'5 live football games streamed simultaneously on a commercial flight with Starlink,' Musk said.

United's official account shared the same video and added its own line. 'We told you our @Starlink Wi-Fi is a game-changer,' the airline said.

It is a neat piece of marketing, and nobody paid for the ad. The clip does not make clear which flight, route or date it was filmed on, and IBTimes UK cannot independently verify the footage, so take everything lightly.

Elon Musk and the Delta Dispute

Wi-Fi, of all things, has become a proper fault line in the airline business. Passengers used to treat in-flight internet as a bonus if it worked at all. Now carriers are being picked apart in public over which satellite network they bought.

Musk's claim about Bastian is the sharpest edge of that argument. It is also the least supported part. Nothing is confirmed about any threat to Bastian's position, and the material reviewed by IBTimes UK contains no sign that Delta's board has discussed one. It is a prediction from a rival supplier's owner, nothing more.

Support for Starlink has come from outside the aviation industry too. Jason Calacanis, an investor and host of the All In podcast, said Starlink availability now plays a major role in deciding which flights he books.

'I'm picking commercial flights based on Starlink, not total time, route or price,' Calacanis said.

That is a wild thing for a frequent traveller to say. Most passengers weigh fares and schedules first, and a single frequent flyer's habits are not a trend. Still, it hints at why the dispute has travelled so far online. Everyone has sat on a plane with Wi-Fi that crawled.

Neither Delta nor Amazon appeared in the material reviewed to have responded to the football video. Delta's position, as relayed in the source material, is that it did not want to work with Musk. Amazon's Leo service was not shown in any comparison clip.

Nothing is confirmed yet on how the two networks perform against each other on the same route, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt. The five-game clip shows what one passenger could stream on one flight. It does not show what happens when a full cabin tries the same thing.

For now, Musk has his video, United has its slogan and Delta has not answered the clip. Whether a Wi-Fi row can really cost a chief executive his seat is another question entirely.