Starlink has become the must-have upgrade for private jets, with CEOs and executives celebrating the fact they can now take Zoom meetings and calls without interruption while flying.
“It’s the most important advancement in jet passenger communications in modern aviation history,” said Max Schrage, Vice President of Jet Charter at Blade, who has seen a surge in demand for the satellite internet service on charters since it was unveiled in October 2022. “We have clients who only fly on Starlink-equipped aircraft, and it’s replicated the productivity of being in an office.”
For executives required to fly all over the world, it’s a game changer.
“This is transforming the architecture of work — I can bring a team with me now and make it a floating office,” said one CEO who flies on a weekly basis and asked to remain anonymous.
Starlink, which is a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and provides high-speed connectivity anywhere on Earth, works by beaming signals from thousands of low-orbit satellites across the globe.
“Once people are exposed to it, they require it moving forward,” Schrage said. “At the beginning of last year, maybe 5% demanded Starlink when chartering jets — now that number has jumped to 30%.”
Those who own or lease jets are upgrading their aircraft as well. “The rate at which people are adding Starlink to aircraft is much higher than people upgrading WiFi previously,” Schrage adds.
The cost of adding Starlink is significant. It requires drilling hardware into the pressurized fuselage at the top of an aircraft to install an aerodynamic antenna that looks like a small hump on the top of the plane. The installation costs more than $300,000 (plus $10,000 monthly to continue receiving service) and can put the aircraft out of commission for three to five weeks.
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But for jet charters — which can charge six figures for a flight across the continent — or billionaires with money to burn, that investment is well worth it.
It’s not just private fliers who can experience perfect connectivity. A handful of commercial airlines such as Qatar Airways already have Starlink, and United Airlines announced it has installed and will be unveiling the technology on some key routes in the coming months.
While executives see this as a way to dramatically increase productivity, not everyone is on board with being constantly reachable.
“Flying used to be my one reprieve… the one time I had an excuse to avoid calls and avoid emails,” one mid-level employee said. “Now even that is being taken away from me.”
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