Sky-High Speeds: Qatar Airways Completes Starlink Rollout on 777 Fleet, Eyes A350 Next

Qatar Airways has officially finished flying SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet on its entire 54-aircraft Boeing 777 fleet, becoming the first airline in the world to completely equip more than 50 widebody aircraft with the high-speed network. The deployment, originally scheduled to take two years, was finished in nine months—nearly 50 percent ahead of schedule.

Key Highlights

All the aircraft now have free, gate-to-gate Wi-Fi with speeds of up to 500 Mbps

Retrofit time was reduced from three days to 9.5 hours per aircraft, continuing around-the-clock work

Over 15,000 flights related to Starlink have now been flown since the first installation in October 2024

Passenger Experience

Available in both Economy and Premium classes, the service supports streaming, gaming, video conferencing, and web browsing

Quality of connectivity matches ground-based broadband, rewriting the rules for long-distance travel

Qatar Airways is still the leader in passenger satisfaction, recently crowned World's Best Airline by Skytrax 2025

Next Generation: Airbus A350

The airline has since shifted towards hosting Starlink on its Airbus A350 fleet and will do so in the next year

The expansion will add high-speed connectivity to more than 170 of Qatar Airways' destinations across their network

Outlook This investment strategy is reflective of Qatar Airways' intent on innovation and customer-centric service. When its competitors begin their own Starlink integrations, Qatar's head start positions it as the Middle East and world standard for in-flight connectivity.

Sources: Qatar Airways Newsroom, AeroTime, QNA, AirlineGeeks, Aviation Business M

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