Almost half of United Airlines departures now operate with Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, on board.
The airline has the service installed on 635 aircraft. A new website is tracking the rollout as it continues.
The two numbers measure different things. The 635 counts planes. The "almost half" figure counts departures, which is closer to what a passenger experiences, since a plane that flies many short hops shows up in the data many times. The two shares need not match, and no fleet total accompanies the 635, so there is no sound way to say how many aircraft are still waiting for the hardware.
The reason to care is the technology underneath. Starlink uses satellites in low Earth orbit, much closer to the ground than the older geostationary satellites that have carried most airline Wi-Fi. Closer satellites generally mean less delay, which is the difference between a video call that works and one that stutters. Whether United's installs deliver that in practice is something the airline's own numbers cannot show.
A public tracker is a small act of accountability for a company that wants credit for an upgrade. It matters most if it lets a traveler check a specific flight before booking. Whether this one does is the open question.