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Emirates Airline To Roll Out Free Starlink Wi-Fi This Month
The airline’s two-year program begins November 2025, and will put Gulf rivals in a fast race for high-speed inflight access.
Emirates has begun a push to upgrade its entire in-service fleet with SpaceX’s Starlink, a move that shifts inflight connectivity from a perk to a standard feature on Gulf long-haul routes. The first modified Boeing 777-300ER, A6-EPF, is on display at the Dubai Airshow and will operate the airline’s first commercial flight with the service once the show closes.
The rollout starts on Boeing 777s this month. A380 installations follow from February 2026. Emirates plans to work through about 14 aircraft a month, aiming to cover all 232 active jets by mid-2027.
Access will be free across all cabins, without logins or loyalty requirements. The carrier says bandwidth should support streaming, gaming, video calls and work apps on personal devices and seatback screens.
Sir Tim Clark, Emirates’ president, cast the tie-up as part of a wider cabin refresh. “Partnering with Starlink is another defining moment in our continuous commitment to ensuring our customers fly better,” he said, pointing to refurbishments across First, Business and Premium Economy.
The region’s airline sector is moving quickly with hi-speed Wi-Fi. Qatar Airways says more than 100 of its widebodies now carry Starlink. Several Saudi operators are following suit. With Gulf hubs stitching together long east-west networks, fast internet is becoming a differentiator — especially in sectors where travelers expect to stay online.
For Emirates, the connectivity upgrade lands alongside one of the largest cabin projects in commercial aviation, tightening the airline’s pitch as Dubai grows its role as a global transit stop.
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SpaceX framed the scale of the deal as a stress test of Starlink’s capacity on dense, long-haul fleets. “With Starlink onboard your Emirates flight, you’ll be able to stream, game, and have seamless video calls, just as you can do on the ground,” said Chad Gibbs, vice-president of Starlink Business Operations.
As the Middle Eastern carriers compete to anchor next-generation passenger experience standards, Emirates’ two-year timetable signals that high-bandwidth connectivity is shifting from a premium option to a baseline expectation across the region’s long-haul fleets.
News
Noon And Yango Switch On Robot Deliveries In Dubai
The rollout folds autonomous couriers into noon’s rapid-delivery network as the UAE tests everyday autonomy.
Noon and Yango Group have signed an agreement to put autonomous robot deliveries into commercial use in Dubai, turning Yango’s earlier pilots into a daily service for noon Minutes orders. The launch in Sobha Hartland is the first full integration of Yango Autonomy’s electric robots with a major e-commerce network in the region, with wider deployment planned across Dubai and, later, other GCC markets.
Residents can choose a robot at checkout, track it in the app and unlock its compartment once it arrives. The hardware runs on Yango’s AI navigation and routing stack, which plans paths, avoids obstacles and yields to pedestrians. The units had already covered more than 1,500 kilometers during previous Dubai pilots, a test bed that demonstrated their ability to operate in mixed pedestrian environments and dense residential streets.
The rollout adds a contactless option to noon’s last-mile network and is positioned as extra capacity during peak periods. “Partnering with Yango Group lets us bring a future-ready delivery option straight to our customers,” said Ali Kafil-Hussain, noon’s Chief Business Officer. Noon has used Minutes to set rapid-delivery expectations in UAE cities; autonomous units now slot into that same high-frequency model.
Regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority underpins the move. The RTA authorized Yango’s robots to operate on public walkways and in neighborhoods, smoothing the shift from controlled trials to commercial work. Dubai has framed autonomous mobility as part of its smart-city buildout, and the partners lean on that agenda to accelerate integration.
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For Yango, the partnership is an anchor for its autonomy platform in the Gulf. Islam Abdul Karim, Yango’s Middle East regional head, said the aim is to make autonomous delivery an “everyday, reliable service” for UAE communities. The company views operational data from early districts as the basis for scaling into more communities and, eventually, cross-border rollouts.
The move lands as Gulf retailers search for faster fulfilment and lower-emission logistics. Autonomous couriers remain a small share of last-mile delivery, but Dubai’s approvals and early usage data give the partners a clearer path to turn pilots into durable infrastructure.
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