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British Airways has equipped Starlink on just five aircraft since launching the free in-flight Wi-Fi service in March after facing apparent hangar availability problems. This averages at one aircraft every 12 days, despite Starlink’s hardware taking an average of just eight hours to install at other airlines.
The slow rollout puts British Airways’ promise to fit more than 300 aircraft with Starlink by March 2028 in serious jeopardy. Under its current pace, the carrier would complete fewer than 60 aircraft by that deadline.
British Airways Starlink Installation Delays
The airline became the first UK carrier to offer Starlink on March 19, debuting the system on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The immediate plan was to install Starlink on 12 Boeing 787-8s that had never been fitted with Wi-Fi before moving on to newer 787-9 variants. However, as reported by Paddle Your Own Kanoo, the carrier has managed just four additional installations since launch, equipping Starlink on four more 787-8s. As such, the airline’s rate of five planes over the span of nine weeks is well behind industry benchmarks.
|
BA Planes With Starlink (as of May 23, 2026) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Registration |
Aircraft Type |
Age |
|
G-ZBJA |
Boeing 787-8 |
13.1 years |
|
G-ZBJI |
Boeing 787-8 |
8.7 years |
|
G-ZBJJ |
Boeing 787-8 |
8.0 years |
|
G-ZBJK |
Boeing 787-8 |
7.7 years |
|
G-ZBJM |
Boeing 787-8 |
7.5 years |
One of the selling points of Starlink is its ease and speed of installation, which the company claims is ten times faster to equip than conventional in-flight Wi-Fi systems. For example, Emirates has cited a rate of around 14 aircraft per month — working out at around one plane every two days — while United Airlines was equipping roughly 40 planes per month across its regional fleet. British rival Virgin Atlantic also debuted Starlink Wi-Fi this month — 12 of its Airbus A350-1000s are due to be ready by “early summer,” with the full fleet equipped in 2027.
Hangar Space At A Premium
The cause of British Airways’ slow rollout pace is not a problem with the Starlink hardware or availability. Reports claim that the holdup is due to a more mundane reason: British Airways simply cannot find enough hangar time to carry out the work. The airline has grappled with fleet reliability issues in recent years, particularly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, which has frequently left aircraft out of service for maintenance.
Consequently, its hangar space is already being heavily utilized to keep its fleet airworthy, reducing availability for Starlink installation work. The problem is unlikely to improve in the coming months as the carrier enters its busy summer season, putting further strain on hangar and fleet availability.
British Airways has a large fleet of almost 300 aircraft, all of which are earmarked for Starlink capability within the next two years. The airline has publicly committed to completing the fleet-wide rollout by March 2028, a target that now appears increasingly unrealistic given the current rate of progress. This is part of a larger initiative by parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) to fit over 500 planes with Starlink, including Aer Lingus, Iberia, Vueling, and LEVEL.
Free Starlink Wi-Fi Is Coming To British Airways This Month – Here’s What We Know
The carrier is set to revolutionize in-flight connectivity with the introduction of Starlink Wi-Fi on its first aircraft this month.
What British Airways Says
Simple Flying reached out to British Airways for comment on this story. While a spokesperson said the Starlink rollout “is continuing as planned,” they did not comment on the slow installation pace or confirm any hangar availability issues. As it stands, the carrier has seven remaining 787-8s to be equipped with Starlink before it plans to move on to its fleet of 18 787-9s.
With its first Starlink-enabled flight taking off on March 19, the airline’s customers expected the service to spread rapidly across the fleet in the weeks that followed. However, with just five of its 300-strong fleet equipped, passengers currently stand a less than 2% chance of being onboard an aircraft with Starlink.
IAG chief executive Luis Gallego has made upgrading the onboard experience a core part of the group’s modernization strategy, and free, high-speed Wi-Fi is a critical component. While Virgin Atlantic was the first UK carrier to announce a Starlink partnership, British Airways beat it to the punch in terms of actually debuting the service, but Virgin will be the one with wider Starlink coverage this summer.
