In an announcement, Qatar Airways has selected Starlink as its in-flight internet partner for its planes flying around the world. The airline is planning to deploy Starlink to specific planes in its fleet. It will be the largest airline to collaborate with Starlink as of today.
The Elon Musk company was chosen to provide Qatar Airways customers with high-speed internet as part of its commitment to offer 5-star onboard experience. They join other airlines such as JSX, Hawaiian Airlines, airBaltic, and ZIPAIR in offering high-speed internet powered by Starlink.
“Qatar Airways is proud to announce its agreement with Starlink to provide seamless and complimentary Wi-Fi to its global passengers. This exciting collaboration is not only in line with our industry-leading approach to technological adoption, but also serves as an unmissable opportunity to connect Starlink to our global passengers. We look forward to our passengers benefitting from this state-of-the-art addition to Qatar Airways’ in-flight experience.”
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker
Currently, the airline and Starlink are in a pre-launch phase of the rollout strategy. There has been no mention yet on which fleet will receive the Starlink devices, nor on which route it will be deployed.
Once the service is active, passengers will be able to enjoy ultra-fast Wi-Fi speeds of up to 350 Megabits per second which can be used for a variety of internet-based services such as video streaming their favourite entertainment and sports videos, gaming, enriched web-browsing, among others.
The deployment of Starlink will also help Qatar Airways offer gate-to-gate connectivity for its customers as well.
The 350 Megabit offered by Starlink trumps other in-air internet service providers; Panasonic Aviation, which Malaysia Airlines currently deploys in its Airbus A350 planes, has a maximum download speed of 75Mbps with its High Throughput Satellite (HTS), or 200Mbps with its eXtreme high Throughput Satellite (XTS).
