SpaceX Reprices Starlink Aviation: What Gulf Fleets Need to Know

SpaceX moved every Starlink business-aviation customer to a new tariff starting with the first billing cycle after 7 August 2026. The old unlimited plan became a regional one at $12,500 a month; worldwide coverage now costs $20,000. An aircraft based in the Gulf is assigned to Asia, and on a regional plan its service ends where Europe begins.

On 7 July 2026, SpaceX told its business-aviation customers that Starlink’s two Business Jet plans would be replaced by three. The change took effect on each customer’s first billing cycle after 7 August. Starlink’s notice states that existing customers were migrated automatically: “You do not need to take action for the migration to apply.”

The entry plan doubled, from $2,000 to $4,000 a month, and so did worldwide coverage, now $20,000 against $10,000 before. An existing Unlimited customer was not doubled by default. Starlink’s migration table moved Business Jet Unlimited, at $10,000 a month for service anywhere Starlink operates, to Aviation Regional Unlimited, at $12,500 a month for service inside one continent. Worldwide coverage is a separate upgrade the customer must request.

The New Plans

Source: Starlink Business Aviation Plans notice and product page.

Existing customers keep their hardware. All three plans run on the antenna already fitted, and the regional speeds are in line with what it delivered before. The 1 Gbps is new. It belongs to the Aviation Performance antenna, a two-channel terminal Starlink first showed to airlines in May, and the July plans are the first to offer it to business jets. It is available only on the global plan, and an earlier antenna on that plan gets 500 Mbps. The terms are the same for all three plans: no minimum contract, the old prices are not protected, and a change of plan or continent is made through a support ticket.

The equipment lists at $200,000 for most business jets, up from $145,000, excluding installation. Delivery takes 2-12 weeks, installation takes 2-4 days, and there is an additional 2-3 weeks when cabin fixtures must come out. Installed, a large-cabin aircraft should budget about $400,000 to $450,000.

The Continental Border Constraint

A regional plan covers one of six continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe or Australia. Starlink assigns the continent based on the aircraft’s billing address; the customer can change it via a support ticket.

For an aircraft billed in the Arabian Gulf, the assigned continent is Asia, and the boundary that matters is the one with Europe. What happens there is stated in one sentence: “Service stops after leaving the ocean within the regional boundary in the selected continent.” There is no automatic step up: “Starlink does not support temporary upgrades for specific trips.”

On a regional plan, a Gulf-based aircraft bound for Europe loses its service upon entering Greek airspace over the Aegean, or upon crossing the Red Sea into Egypt if it routes that way. Starlink’s answer for the operator who “occasionally” flies abroad is Global Unlimited, at $240,000 a year, or a region change through support on every trip.

The region change looks like the practical answer, since the continent can be switched by a support ticket. It has a limit. The ticket moves the continent, not the home country, and the home country carries its own rule: “extended use outside the home country (over 60 days) may restrict service”. An aircraft that switches its region to Europe for the season is then within its continent but outside its country, and after 60 days, Starlink may restrict it. The remedy is a flight home: “To regain access, return to the home country and connect for at least 24 hours.” For a permanent move, Starlink’s advice is to transfer the account.

The global plan has an edge of its own. It “works anywhere Starlink Aviation offers service”, and Starlink’s list of countries where it “has received regulatory approval to provide in-motion Aviation service”, on the ground and in flight, includes Qatar, the UAE and Oman and not Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Bahrain. The page is undated and lags the regulators: every GCC state has now licensed Starlink or announced its approval, the UAE most recently, on 28 August. But on the vendor’s own list, an aircraft based in Riyadh, Kuwait or Manama is paying $240,000 a year for worldwide coverage that does not yet name its home country. The list also trails what is already happening: Gulf Air has flown Starlink gate to gate from Bahrain since May.

The Alternative

Gogo’s Galileo, on Eutelsat OneWeb’s constellation, is the other low-Earth-orbit system certified on the same airframes. It comes as two flat electronically steered antennas built by Hughes. HDX is the small one, 10 kg and 60 cm long, approved on 24 aircraft types from light jets to the G650 and G650ER, whose supplemental type certificate Gulfstream itself obtained in July; FDX is roughly twice the size and weight, carries about three times the throughput, and is certified so far on the BBJ 737 and the Challenger 600 series, with 24 further types in the pipeline. Neither approaches Starlink’s speed. What Gogo sells instead is a cheaper antenna, a lower monthly bill on a three-year contract, and a price that stays the same for the term.

Sources: Starlink; Gogo, LEO plans and Galileo overview. Monthly, US dollars; antennas exclude installation.

Falcon Technic, the maintenance arm of Falcon Aviation Services, is now Gogo’s Middle East dealer, reinforcing the company’s push into the region. That push had already secured a major customer: Vista, the Dubai-headquartered owner of VistaJet, chose Galileo for all 270 of its aircraft in October 2025, before the Starlink repricing. Starlink has not publicly designated a Gulf-based regional dealer for Starlink Aviation, although its US-based authorised dealer, AeroX, maintains offices in the region.

What It Costs Against the Aircraft

The one Gulf fleet on the books is Qatar Executive’s. On 4 December 2025, it announced Starlink for every Gulfstream and Bombardier it operates, installed by its own engineers; half its 15 G650ERs and both Global 5000s were already flying with it, and the rest, including the G700s, were due “by early 2026”. It has not announced completion, and it has said nothing about the tariff. The commitment was made under the old one, and what the fleet pays now is not public.

Global Unlimited costs $240,000 a year. A customer who held Business Jet Unlimited and upgraded to keep worldwide coverage pays $120,000 more per year than before.

Set that against the aircraft. A Gulfstream G700 or Bombardier Global 7500 flown 400 hours a year costs its owner about $4m to run. Roughly $1.2m of that is fixed: crew, hangarage, insurance and training, paid whether the aircraft flies or not. The other $2.8m is the cost of flying, mostly fuel and maintenance. The global plan is a fixed cost too. At $240,000 it adds a fifth to the fixed bill, takes about 6% of the total budget and comes to $600 for every hour flown.

Starlink has not moved its satellites. It has drawn six lines on the ground and put a price on crossing them. The constellation is global; the plans are not, and for the Gulf, the difference is Europe.