Members of Musk\u2019s team have also pitched Starlink to other carriers including Gulf Air\u00a0and FlyDubai,\u00a0and are now in advanced talks with Saudia, the region\u2019s No. 3 airline, according to people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winning business with Middle Eastern airlines, particularly those like Emirates, re<\/span>cognised for their luxury brands, would mark a watershed moment in Starlink\u2019s global competition against legacy operators like EchoStar Corp.,\u00a0Viasat Inc.\u00a0and SES SA.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those rivals aren\u2019t willing to cede ground without a fight. Instead, they are reworking business plans and pursuing a wave of deal-making as the battle accelerates over a fast-growing slice of the $100 billion<\/a> satellite communications market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SpaceX has gained a toehold in the global aviation market by delivering the\u00a0fastest Internet connection speeds<\/a>\u00a0across the industry using roughly 8,000 satellites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company offers its Starlink technology through a subscription model in which carriers pay to install the hardware and an additional monthly price for connectivity per seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, putting Starlink onto a Boeing 737 costs about $300,000, while a larger 787 Dreamliner model commands a $500,000 price tag per aircraft, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monthly pricing on a per seat basis can vary based on many factors, including the length of the contract a carrier is willing to sign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in some cases, Starlink has been agreed to sell its service for around $120 monthly per seat, with an additional $120 for live television, one of the people said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Negotiations are still underway and carriers could pursue different strategies, the people cautioned.\u00a0 FlyDubai said it\u2019s\u00a0\u201ccurrently assessing different options for connectivity to meet our growth plans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gulf Air declined to comment. Saudia didn\u2019t reply to requests for comment. Emirates said it\u2019s committed to the best in-flight service, while declining to comment on the deal.\u00a0British Airways\u2019 parent IAG declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In-flight web access was long an offering as exotic as it was unreliable and expensive, both for airlines to install and passengers to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many carriers are pushing to provide fast and reliable alternatives, since enabling customer to stream, work and communicate on long flights can be a gamechanger for the cabin experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carriers with an eye for marketing have also bathed in the halo effect of Musk\u2019s star power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar Airways chief executive officer Badr Mohammed Al-Meer was visibly thrilled to be communicating with the SpaceX CEO by video\u00a0during a Starlink trial<\/a>\u00a0at 30,000 feet last October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Starlink Internet \u201cis only going to get better,\u201d Musk promised at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, however, Musk\u2019s public standing has shifted from industry disruptor to political iconoclast during his stint as head of the DOGE government-slashing effort under President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That, in turn, has turned off many consumers and has made Musk an increasingly polarising figure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Trump-Musk relationship now fractured, some countries may hesitate to authorise Starlink and thus associate themselves with the SpaceX boss, particularly those that have closely aligned themselves with the US president.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a degree of increased sensitivity to all of this political fallout, as seen in things like the falling sales of Tesla cars,\u201d said technology consultant Tim Farrar, an analyst with TMF Associates. \u201cThose airlines might hold back a bit longer.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starlink aviation terminals are cheaper than some rival products, according to William Blair & Co. analyst Louie DiPalma, and require less time to install, according to United Airlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Starlink network sends signals to an aircraft just as it does to its\u00a0other 6 million<\/a>\u00a0residential, mobile or maritime active users: A\u00a0terminal about the size of a pizza box is affixed to an aircraft and connects with a stream of satellites moving across its path\u00a0roughly 560 kilometres above Earth, in what\u2019s known as low-Earth orbit, or LEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n By comparison, legacy operators like Viasat and SES have achieved global coverage with a small number of much larger, more powerful satellites about 65 times higher<\/a>, in geostationary orbit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because these satellites are more distant from Earth, data has a much longer distance to travel, sometimes leading to sluggish Internet connection on flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But with modern demands for broadband speeds from anywhere, legacy satellite operators are taking a page out of SpaceX\u2019s playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EchoStar, Viasat and SES have started marketing multi-orbit solutions directly to airlines<\/a>, pulling together capacity from diversified satellite constellations in geostationary orbits and orbits closer to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past few months, Viasat announced deals to power in-flight connectivity with\u00a0American Airlines<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Riyadh Air<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Intelsat, acquired in July by SES, announced partnerships with\u00a0Thai Airways International<\/a>\u00a0and planemaker\u00a0Embraer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A multi-orbit system \u201cprovides resiliency, it provides consistency, it offers the network operator the ability to adapt to changing environments like weather or a concentration of aircraft around certain parts of the world,\u201d said Andrew Ruszkowski, global head of aviation at SES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other large carriers, including Delta Air Lines Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp., have so far taken a wait-and-see approach on Starlink. Representatives for each declined to comment on discussions with SpaceX. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their resistance may be explained by SpaceX\u2019s own lingering challenges and restrictions as the company races to build out and improve its network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SpaceX and airlines have sparred at the negotiating table over Starlink\u2019s demand that carriers offer\u00a0Wi-Fi free to everyone on board.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starlink has budged on that issue in some cases because airlines have pushed to offer the service only to passengers in their loyalty programs, people familiar with the matter said. Talks are ongoing with other carriers, one of the people said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SpaceX also requires airlines to agree to install the technology on all of their planes before announcing a deal, the people said, a risky gamble particularly for airlines with larger fleets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n United\u2019s own high-profile bet on Starlink has already hit a snag. In early June, the carrier confirmed it was experiencing issues of static interference with its Starlink system, temporarily shutting off Wi-Fi on two dozen regional planes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n United has resolved the issue and installed Starlink on 60 of\u00a0its regional Embraer planes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSensitivity around association with Musk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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