Gulf Airlines compete for passengers with Starlink internet

Providing dependable internet connections is the latest battleground in competition between Gulf airlines.

The rivalry on international routes between Emirates and Qatar Airways is being stoked by the increased availability of Starlink, the low-orbit satellite network developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

While the Qatar carrier has already equipped more than 100 of its long-haul aircraft with Starlink’s service, Dubai-based Emirates is trying to catch up with a new fleet-wide rollout of Starlink that will enable streaming videos, playing video games and making voice calls simultaneously.

Budget airline Flydubai, meanwhile, is preparing to offer Starlink’s high-speed WiFi as a standard feature rather than a premium perk.

Saudia in talks with SpaceX to outfit aircraft with Starlink

Saudia Airlines is talking with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet to more than 140 of its aircraft.

If signed, the deal would mark SpaceX’s entry into the Gulf’s largest economy, even as local rival Neo Space Group races to develop its own in-flight service, Bloomberg reports.

While Saudia, the country’s flagship airline, did not comment on the news, its chief guest experience officer, Rossen Dimitrov, said in a post on LinkedIn that he recently toured SpaceX’s industrial complex in Texas to explore “the exciting future they are bringing to aviation.”

Starlink’s airline service follows a subscription model, with upfront hardware costs of $300,000 to $500,000 per plane plus a monthly fee per seat.

SpaceX is also in talks with Emirates, Flydubai, and Gulf Air, the news agency added.