Starlink inflight internet service is now active on the largest commercial jet flying, as well as one of the smallest commercial planes in service.
At the upper end of the spectrum, Emirates‘ first A380 fitted with the Starlink system rejoined the fleet in late April. Aircraft A6-EEA spent three weeks at Newquay-Cornwall airport being fitted with the system before returning to Dubai. On Sunday morning, ten days after it ferried to Dubai, the aircraft returned to passenger service, operating to Singapore.
Notably, this is the first Starlink installation to include three antennae atop the fuselage (a story first confirmed at AIX2026 and reported for PaxEx Premium subscribers last week). SpaceX and Emirates tout capacity of 2+ Gbps to the aircraft with this configuration on board. Each terminal initially supported approximately 220Mbps of service to the aircraft, with a roadmap to doubling that performance. Recent announcements used the higher ~450Mbps per antenna number. Getting to 2Gbps with just three terminals suggests another 50% increase, though details are scarce.
Relatively recent changes to the on-board router hardware allow traffic to move between the routers and, by extension, via any of the antennae on board. This is a significant update from the original Hawaiian A321neo implementation where the plane effectively has two separate networks on board. The satellite links are not technically bonded, but any link can be used for any given request. If one fails the device connections seamlessly migrate to the other, without requiring end-user devices to re-associate to a different network. That’s a very important update, especially for larger aircraft installations.
At the other end of the spectrum, JSX’s first ATR 42-600 with the Starlink service entered service in April as well. N401JX was first to receive the hardware, followed by N400JX. With that work completed the first air carrier to fly with Starlink is back to a fully fitted fleet. New ATR deliveries are also expected to have the kit installed as part of the retrofit for delivery to the carrier.
As with the other JSX installs, this is a simple, single-antenna job. It also remains one of the few Starlink implementations without a capture portal involved.
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