Qatar Airways reaches 150 Starlink-equipped widebody aircraft
SpaceX · Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways says its Starlink Wi-Fi rollout now covers 150 widebody jets, including the first Starlink-equipped Boeing 787-9.
what happened
Qatar Airways said its Starlink connectivity rollout has reached 150 widebody aircraft across its Boeing 777, Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 fleets, about 83% of its widebody operation, and now includes the world's first Starlink-equipped Boeing 787-9, per Gulf News. The airline completed its Boeing 777 fleet in nine months, its A350 fleet in eight, and its 787-8 sub-fleet in seven, and is targeting the full Boeing 787 fleet by the end of 2026, per Travel And Tour World; it says more than 23 million passengers have used the free Wi-Fi, offering speeds up to 500 Mbps, across more than 86,000 flights since the service launched in October 2024.
why it matters
Qatar Airways is one of SpaceX's largest airline Starlink customers by fleet size, and its rollout pace is a reference point other carriers weighing Starlink Aviation against Viasat, Panasonic and Gogo's inflight-connectivity offerings will watch. For SpaceX, the milestone extends Starlink's aviation business beyond satellite counts into a visible commercial-adoption metric.
for who
airlines evaluating inflight connectivity vendors
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SpaceX, Qatar Airways
- Category
- partnership
- Impact
- noise
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-08-20
- Published
- 2026-08-23 17:30 UTC