GadgetWings
Starlink comes to SA – but only in the skies
South African passengers will soon be able to experience complimentary, high-speed, low-latency internet on Qatar Airways flights.
Starlink is coming to South African, but not in the way Internet users may have expected. It will only be available once they are the sky, on Qatar Airways flights.
Passengers travelling between Cape Town and Doha will be able to access Starlink’s cutting-edge internet connectivity on-board select flights. They will be allowed to use a fully complimentary and ultra-fast Wi-Fi service for streaming, gaming, and working at 35,000 feet.
Starting on 1 June 2025, Qatar Airways will introduce a Boeing 777 on the route to operate one of the seven weekly flights alongside its existing Airbus A350 aircraft. This comes as the Starlink roll-out of the airline’s Boeing 777 fleet nears completion.
In a global first, Qatar Airways has now progressed to equipping its Airbus A350 fleet with Starlink, becoming the first airline to bring this cutting-edge connectivity to passengers on-board this aircraft type.
Qatar Airways is the only carrier in the Middle East and North Africa region to offer a fully complimentary Starlink service to customers. The reigning World’s Best Airline, as voted by Skytrax in 2024, also operates the largest Starlink-equipped fleet of Boeing 777s in the world.
Starlink’s frictionless one-click-access allows easy connection to the complimentary Wi-Fi service, which is a further enhancement of the five-star airline’s award-winning on-board experience.
The introduction of Starlink on the Cape Town route comes during Qatar Airways’ 20th year of operations in South Africa.
Qatar Airways serves Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg with up to 28 weekly flights, connecting people and goods with a global network of over 170 destinations.
Its current Africa-wide summer capacity averages over 44,000 seats per week, equating to a maximum of 180 flights a week to 29 cities across the continent.
