Review: Qatar Airways’ superfast Starlink Wi-Fi
“Broadband above the clouds”? We put Starlink to the test on a 14-hour flight.
By David Flynn, September 22 2025
There’s an undeniable wow factor when an airline serves up inflight Internet that’s not only a staggeringly fast 100Mbps or higher, but is also completely free.
Welcome to Wi-Fi powered by Starlink, available on every Qatar Airways Boeing 777 (including those flown by Virgin Australia to Doha) and now being rolled out to Qatar’s Airbus A350s.
The first Starlink-equipped A350 is already flying, and the airline says the rest of the fleet will be upgraded “within the next year” – with the Boeing 787s to follow.
Qatar Airways' Starlink Wi-Fi is fast, free and unlimited.
Executive Traveller recently put Starlink to the test on a packed 14-hour 777 flight from Sydney to Doha, and this really is “broadband above the clouds.”
Download speeds reliably ranged from 50Mbps to 140Mbps (uploads peaked around 30Mbps), while Qatar Airways says Starlink pumps “up to 500 Mbps per aircraft.”
That’s a pretty impressive feat of what the boffins term dynamic bandwidth allocation – sharing the total bandwidth between each user based on their needs and applications from minute to minute.
And yes, it’s 100% free for every passenger, from the first row in business class to the last row in economy.
Qatar Airways' Starlink Wi-Fi has plenty of bandwidth to share around.
There’s no data cap to limit your activity. You can use it on any number of your devices – laptops, smartphones and tablets – without disconnecting from one and logging in on another.
In fact, there’s no log-in process at all.
Forget about entering your seat number or frequent flyer number: just connect your device to the plane’s OryxComms Wi-Fi network, and you’re on the air.
For all that simplicity, the tech behind this is mind-boggling.
Thousands of Starlink micro-satellites blanket the Earth.
Starlink has a constellation of over 7,500 ‘micro-satellites’ no larger than a dining table, all whizzing around the planet at almost 30,000km/h, while the plane’s antenna is constantly steering towards and switching between satellites.
And because Starlink uses a low-Earth orbit just 550km high, instead of the 36,000km orbit of conventional satellites, your connection experiences less lag (around 100ms) and faster signal turnaround.
If there’s any single drawback to the amazing performance of Qatar Airways’ Starlink Wi-Fi, it’s that your fellow passenger will be tempted to conduct loud FaceTime or WhatsApp video calls with their family – something which annoyingly happened several times during my flight.
Thankfully, a quiet word to the cabin crew will see that sorted out.
The author traveled as a guest of Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Oct 2016
Total posts 163
It's unbelievable!! I used it on DOH to JFK and reached speeds of 195MBps download!
10 Dec 2024
Total posts 34
My home internet currently provides speeds of only 96 Mbps download and 16 Mbps upload. On my last international flight, I was dialed into a Teams meeting—when I answered, the team was joking about who had won the bet that I’d actually pick up the call.
15 May 2019
Total posts 14
Any reason why it won't be on the A380's
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2583
QR hasn't yet confirmed any A380 rollout of Starlink probably because the fate of the A380s is unclear. That said, it's apparently not a massive upgrade – there's a really good look at the airline install process at Head for Points – and as QR doesn't have a large A380 fleet, who knows what surprise may await...
15 May 2019
Total posts 14
I notice on the Qatar website that they are listing if a flight has Starlink, and when Virgin start flying to and from Melbourne in December, the Virgin flights do not have Starlink. I have looked at a couple of different dates in December, and they are all the same.
Why would that be?
Virgin Australia - Platinum
21 Mar 2021
Total posts 11
It’s good to see the ability for reliable business style internet access on flights. Especially those long hauls where you can keep up with work and not worry about the backlog when you arrive.
In saying that, it does bring with it the end to the ability to switch off if you want to and the expectation to remain connected.
It also brings the whole FaceTime on speaker phone debacle into play. Perhaps that’s the next rule that needs to be applied to flights.
05 Mar 2015
Total posts 441
Starlink is absolutely incredible, and it's one of the main reasons I choose to fly with QR. Qsuites, great F&B and service, keep connected with Starlink for not just work but Teams meetings (and yes, I use my noise-cancelling Airpods and keep my voice down!). Start ex-SYD at the Qantas First Lounge if you have Platinum status, it doesn't get much better!
One World
31 Mar 2020
Total posts 23
How many airlines are fuming, fists in the air, how / why are they giving it away for free, we charge our customers so they should do the same.
08 May 2020
Total posts 67
I was really impressed, I was able to use the internet during taxi-ing, takeoff, over India etc. and stream video with no issues.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
15 Sep 2011
Total posts 14
Just did a roundtrip to London on a Starlink-enabled 777. Amazing tech but they need to block FaceTime and WhatsApp calls. All flight, people on their phones on speakerphone rambling in to relatives for the whole plane to hear. I complained to cabin crew and they told me they can’t stop people. Definitely ruined the Qatar experience.
Etihad
07 Jan 2016
Total posts 17
Great news, flew QR last week from DOH to FCO (Business) and only given 1hr free. Poor service considering QR excellence in every other aspect of the flight.
23 Oct 2014
Total posts 245
Now that’s how your deliver an upgrade - roll it out turn it on and it over delivers day one - not long drawn out PR announcements with no delivery.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Jun 2017
Total posts 96
Agree with bigchin. Bad enough having to put up with these people wandering around airports and airline lounges loudly FaceTiming and Teams Meetings with family, friends and business colleagues. If Qatar don’t control this, I’m out!
25 Jun 2012
Total posts 62
I had it on our flight MEL - DOH in late June and it worked very well.
Unfortunately, As other readers here have also commented - I had an inconsiderate man walking up and down the aisles on facetime with someone showing them the cabin and just chatting away without headphones like they were in the privacy of their own home. Crew didn't do anything.
Wild how inconsiderate people are.
17 Nov 2023
Total posts 72
Pretty sure this will prevent me ever travelling Qatar unless they say, no phones on speaker allowed, EVER.
It bugs me enough on trains!
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