In October 2023, Qatar Airways made an exciting announcement when it comes to inflight Wi-Fi, as the oneworld carrier revealed it would introduce Starlink connectivity. In October 2024, we saw the first jet equipped with this service. The airline has now revealed a positive update regarding the rollout of this service, so let’s cover the details.
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Qatar Airways offering free high speed Wi-Fi
Qatar Airways is in the process of introducing free Starlink Wi-Fi, making this one of the largest airlines in the world to collaborate with SpaceX on Wi-Fi. Not only does Starlink offer speeds of up to 500 megabits per second for gaming, VPN access, sports streaming, and more, but Qatar Airways is offering this Wi-Fi on a complimentary basis, with one-click access.
Qatar Airways is one of several airlines that’s working with Starlink on inflight connectivity, with other airlines including airBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Hawaiian Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and WestJet.
In October 2024, Qatar Airways’ first aircraft was equipped with the new inflight connectivity, and the press release was even uploaded from 35,000 feet, using the Starlink inflight Wi-Fi. Below is a video call that Qatar Airways’ CEO made with Elon Musk during this first flight, on October 22, 2024.
For context, Qatar Airways’ fleet is otherwise primarily outfitted with Inmarsat’s GX aviation technology, which the airline refers to as “Super Wi-Fi.” This typically costs $10 for a flight, with no data caps. Some of Qatar Airways’ other aircraft have OnAir Wi-Fi, which is quite slow.
Qatar Airways’ Starlink Wi-Fi rollout schedule
Qatar Airways has revealed an updated timeline for the introduction of free Starlink Wi-Fi, and it’s much better than was initially planned:
- Qatar Airways has now finished installing Starlink Wi-Fi throughout its fleet of Boeing 777s, meaning that 50+ of these jets now have the service
- Qatar Airways has started installing Wi-Fi on its Airbus A350s, and the entire project is expected to take around a year
For context, the initial plan was for all 777s to get Starlink Wi-Fi by December 2025, and for A350s to get Starlink after that. So the process is way ahead of schedule, which is awesome. That’s impressive, and shows how quick the installation process can be, once planes are certified to get the service — the retrofit time for each aircraft was cut from the initially planned three days to just 9.5 hours per aircraft.
It remains to be seen when the carrier’s other aircraft types, including the 787 and A380, will start to get Starlink (it’s tricky on 787s, since the carbon fiber fuselage makes certification more complicated). However, it makes sense that the 777 and A350 are the priority, since these planes fly the longest routes.
Here’s how Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer described this latest development:
“This new milestone demonstrates our strategic investment in redefining our passengers’ expectations. We promised the fastest, most seamless in-flight connectivity in the industry, and with Starlink we have delivered it faster and at an unmatched scale. Having completed our rollout programme for Boeing 777s, we are now fully focused on equipping our Airbus A350 fleet with Starlink, bringing this game-changing experience to even more routes across our global network of over 170 destinations.”
Bottom line
Qatar Airways is making great progress with installing Starlink Wi-Fi. Not only are we starting to see Starlink Wi-Fi available on Qatar Airways on a widespread basis, but it’s also complimentary. This is a very nice competitive advantage for Qatar Airways.
The carrier now has Starlink Wi-Fi on all of its 777s. The current task is to install Wi-Fi on A350s, with that project expected to be completed within roughly a year.
What do you make of Qatar Airways introducing free Starlink Wi-Fi?
i flew it earlier this year with starlink - game changer. free and air speeds i've never enjoyed. amazing
last week i flew qatar 777-200lr qsuites gru-doh without starlink. i think only the 777-300 are updated with the starlink internet.
The only 777s which won't have starlink are the BO series (Ex-Cathay and Virgin Australia Airframes) and one single B777-200LR: A7-BBF. I suppose that's because BBF should leave the fleet soon.
It's worth noting that starlink is only available on their own metal. Leased aircraft such as a the ex Cathay planes don't have WiFi from starlink. I flew on an ex Cathay plane from HKG a week ago and it didn't have it and looking at their website the 777s aren't identified as having it either.
It's also worth noting that it's actually 0 click if you've already ever connected to the WiFi before...
It's worth noting that starlink is only available on their own metal. Leased aircraft such as a the ex Cathay planes don't have WiFi from starlink. I flew on an ex Cathay plane from HKG a week ago and it didn't have it and looking at their website the 777s aren't identified as having it either.
It's also worth noting that it's actually 0 click if you've already ever connected to the WiFi before and have it on auto connect. I've paid the $10 before and on the way to LHR my WiFi connected automatically and started working on the ground!
A7-AMJ A359 been flying with Starlink since mid May. Believe AMK also has since sometime in June
Have they stopped retrofitting their A350-900s with QSuites? I wonder if it’s because they decided they’ll just go ahead with QSuites 2.0 with other aircraft types later, or maybe because they’re stretched pretty thin already in the way of utilisation?
@ Ray -- Yep, they stopped a long time ago. I'm not sure what exactly is going on, as I find it a bit strange. Officially, there are no plans to retrofit existing aircraft with the Qsuites 2.0 product, so I'm not sure what to make of that.
I suspect Qatar Airways simply thinks that the reverse herringbone product on the A350-900s is good enough, so there's no need to spend the money and take...
@ Ray -- Yep, they stopped a long time ago. I'm not sure what exactly is going on, as I find it a bit strange. Officially, there are no plans to retrofit existing aircraft with the Qsuites 2.0 product, so I'm not sure what to make of that.
I suspect Qatar Airways simply thinks that the reverse herringbone product on the A350-900s is good enough, so there's no need to spend the money and take planes out of service to retrofit them. Hopefully it does eventually happen, because those planes have a lot of life left in them.
Funny enough you say that. 2 B777-300ers have been retrofitted with Qsuites 1.0 in the last 2 or so months. I guess this is due to the Virgin Australia venture requiring additional premium eqiuipped frames. Here's hoping more aircraft are retrofitted.
Now if only they could achieve such consistency with the business class product across the fleet...
Starlink's STC for the 787 won't be approved by the FAA until the second half of 2026 according to Starlink website. So installations on QR's 787 will begin somewhere around the 4rth Qatar of 2026. Probably also the reason Virgin has choose to begin installations around the same period.
I was actually wondering this. I keep hearing the difficulty in installing it on the 787s, and I was wondering if any airline had installed it yet on a 787. It sounds like the answer is no. Hopefully there doesn't turn out to be a bigger problem with doing so.