Elon Musk joined a video call at 38,000 feet to show off Qatar Airways' new Starlink WiFi

• Qatar Airways' first formation utilizing Elon Musk's Starlink took disconnected connected Tuesday.
• The SpaceX CEO antecedently joined a video telephone pinch nan Qatar CEO, who was connected committee a trial flight.
• Business Insider was connected nan first formation and knowledgeable download speeds of up to 215 Mbps.

Qatar Airways has launched its first formation featuring Elon Musk's Starlink internet.

Flight QR1, operated by a Boeing 777, took disconnected from Doha for London Heathrow astir 8 a.m. ET connected Tuesday.

Business Insider was connected committee and recovered net download speeds arsenic accelerated arsenic 215 megabits per second, faster than galore location net connections.

Starlink WiFi is besides free for passengers successful each cabins, whereas nan airline's regular inflight WiFi costs $10 for a afloat formation — astatine speeds astir 5 Mbps.

The higher speeds mean passengers tin make video calls, watercourse videos, and play games online. For business travelers, Starlink is group to beryllium a productivity crippled changer, fixed that regular inflight WiFi commonly suffers from slow speeds and connectivity problems.

Qatar plans to rotation retired Starlink to a full of 12 Boeing 777-300s by nan extremity of 2024 and to each of its 777s and Airbus A350s adjacent year.

On a erstwhile trial flight, Musk joined a video telephone pinch Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer.

From 38,000 feet, Al-Meer showed Musk astir nan compartment arsenic good arsenic nan position from nan formation deck, while nan SpaceX CEO was astatine location successful nan US.

"That's ace cool. I'm connected Starlink correct now astatine my house," Musk said connected nan call.

Saad bin Ali Al-Kharji, nan president of Qatar Tourism, said he recovered nan inflight relationship amended than nan net connected nan ground.

"It's only going to get better," Musk replied. "We support making improvements: We motorboat caller satellites, and we support improving nan software."

"So complete time, I deliberation you'll find it conscionable gets amended and better," he added.

"By providing Starlink reliable, seamless net connected board, we are connecting group to things they emotion nan astir moreover astatine 35,000 feet, making each travel pinch america a memorable one," Al-Meer said successful a property release.

Qatar — named nan world's champion hose by Skytrax — is nan 2nd bearer aft Hawaiian Airlines to motorboat a Starlink service.

United Airlines and Air France are among different airlines to person announced plans to instal Starlink.