Qatar Airways said it now operates 150 Starlink-equipped widebody aircraft, including the world’s first Boeing 787-9 with Starlink installed, as the airline pushes free high-speed cabin Wi-Fi deeper into its long-haul fleet.
In an August 20 update, the Doha-based carrier said it has completed Starlink rollout across its Boeing 787-8 sub-fleet in seven months and is more than 83 percent through what it calls the fastest and most ambitious Starlink widebody installation program in aviation. Qatar Airways already markets itself as the operator of the worlds first and largest Starlink-equipped fleets of the Boeing 777, Airbus A350, and Boeing 787.
The airline says Starlink-equipped jets can deliver Wi-Fi speeds of up to 500 Mbps per aircraft, free for passengers from gate to gate. Since launching Starlink connectivity in October 2024, more than 23 million passengers have connected across more than 86,000 Qatar Airways flights, with up to 323 Starlink flights operating daily.
That scale is why the aviation story keeps mattering for SpaceX. In-flight Starlink turns the same constellation that serves homes and remote users into a product airlines compete on, and Qatar’s pace has set the bar other carriers are trying to match as American and others outline large retrofit plans.
That follows Qatar Airways becoming Starlink’s biggest airline partner and its earlier first Starlink-equipped 777 flights. The 150-aircraft mark, plus the first 787-9, shows the retrofit program is still accelerating rather than stalling after the initial widebody wave.
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