The unlimited global plan on a business jet went from $10,000 a month to $20,000 a month, and the hardware from $145,000 an aircraft to $200,000. Those prices took effect on 7 August 2026, which means the first doubled invoices have now landed, and the question the industry deferred through July is due.
Corporate Jet Investor reported the change on 9 July. Aviation Global Unlimited, the plan an intercontinental operator actually needs, doubles to $20,000 a month. The base plan, 25GB of data at up to 250 Mbps, doubles to $4,000. Equipment and installation move to $200,000 per aircraft. SpaceX also introduced a middle tier, Aviation Regional Unlimited, at $12,500 a month.
What Starlink Now Costs a Business Jet
New Starlink Aviation pricing took effect on 7 August 2026. The plans an intercontinental operator can actually use are the ones that doubled.
| Plan | Coverage | Per occupied hour |
|---|---|---|
| Aviation Global Unlimited | Worldwide | $300.00 |
| Aviation Regional Unlimited | One selected continent, its territorial waters and 12nm beyond | $187.50 |
The regional tier is not a discount for this region
The new $12,500 plan is the one being presented as the release valve, and it is worth reading the coverage definition rather than the price. Per Corporate Jet Investor, Regional Unlimited covers the land and territorial waters of one selected continent, plus 12 nautical miles beyond it. The $4,000 base plan carries the same restriction.
For an operator whose flying is domestic, that is a real saving. For a Gulf-based fleet it is close to meaningless. A Dubai to London leg is two continents. Dubai to New York is three. The missions that justify a large-cabin aircraft in this market are precisely the missions that a single continent selection cannot cover, so the practical menu for an operator based in the UAE is $20,000 a month or nothing. There is no downgrade path, only a decision about whether to keep the service switched on.
What it costs per flight hour
Private Jet Card Comparisons translated the monthly figures into the number an operator actually budgets against. At 800 occupied hours a year, Doug Gollan puts Global Unlimited at $300 per occupied hour and Regional Unlimited at $187.50. Connectivity has quietly become a line item on the scale of a meaningful share of variable cost, on an aircraft where the annual cost of ownership is already dominated by fixed items the owner cannot flex.
The same report carries the sharpest single example. A Bombardier Global 6000 owner who had already put more than $300,000 into equipment and installation faces a rise of about 208 percent, from roughly $6,500 a month to $20,000. Nothing about the aircraft changed. The bill did.
At fleet scale the arithmetic stops being a line item. Baker Aviation chief executive Tim Livingston told Private Jet Card Comparisons the increase costs his company $420,000 a month across a fleet of more than 40 aircraft, and said he had not decided on the best solution and was still negotiating with Starlink on a fleet plan.
Who is absorbing it
The striking part of the response, reported by Gollan in Forbes on 26 July, is how many operators have chosen to eat the cost rather than pass it through.
Flexjet president Jay Heublein described wifi as non-negotiable and included in the cost of a fractional purchase. flyExclusive, Northern Jet and Fly Alliance have all indicated they will not add a surcharge to jet card and fractional customers. Baker Aviation, despite the $420,000 monthly figure, said it will not add a line-item surcharge. NetJets declined to comment.
Not everyone is absorbing. Nicholas Air paused Starlink installations, with its chief executive calling the move a bait and switch and criticising a doubling of prices with little to no advance notice.
Operators sold Starlink as a differentiator, told customers it was included, and are now learning what an included feature costs when the supplier reprices it. For a customer choosing between a fractional share, a jet card and ad hoc charter, the practical effect is that the cost has moved into the programme rate rather than onto the invoice, at least for now.
The NetJets silence is the loudest data point. In December 2025 the operator committed to installing Starlink across 600 aircraft by the end of 2026, on Citation Latitudes and Longitudes, Praetor 500s, Challenger 350s and 650s and the US Global fleet. That programme is mid-rollout, and the subscription cost attached to it repriced halfway through.
The competitive answer arrived in five days
Gogo published a piece on 14 July, five days after the Corporate Jet Investor story, headlined on predictability versus sudden hikes. It does not name Starlink. It refers to a major alternative provider, cites the $12,500 regional and $20,000 global figures, and offers operators a three-year rate lock, arguing the rate is locked for 36 months.
Gogo has standing to make that argument. When it acquired Satcom Direct in a deal announced on 30 September 2024, SpaceNews reported the combined companies served roughly 8,200 of the 9,200 connected business jets in service, close to 90 percent of the installed base. Starlink's growth has come at the expense of that base, and the increase hands Gogo the first genuinely commercial argument it has had since Galileo launched. Gogo does not publish Galileo rates, directing operators to contact sales, so a like-for-like monthly comparison is not available from either supplier's public material.
What an owner should actually do
Three things are worth establishing before the next invoice. First, which plan the aircraft is on, because a global plan on an aircraft that flies one region is now a $7,500 a month decision rather than a $2,000 one. Second, whether the operator or management company is absorbing the increase this year and what happens at renewal, since absorption announced in July is a commercial position, not a contract term. Third, whether a multi-year rate lock from a competing supplier is worth more than the performance difference, which is a question that did not exist in June.
The equipment is already installed on most of the fleet that wanted it. What has been repriced is the subscription, and subscriptions are the part of an aircraft budget owners have historically watched least closely.