Inside the Dubai Airshow: Emirates + Starlink, Riyadh Air's soft product, and the 777-9 future

Hey {{first name | reader}},

Happy Monday! Coffee's ready, and today's issue is all about one thing: the Dubai Airshow. Dan's there this week as a guest, sending me live nerd updates from the ramp, and I'm way too excited not to share.

I've got four things for you today:

Dan sent me a voice note from the Dubai Airshow that basically said: "If you're even a tiny bit into aviation, this is Disneyland."

Here's what that means in practice:

Anyone can go (on public days). Dubai Airshow runs industry days plus public access; for the public days, pretty much anyone can buy a ticket and walk in alongside airline staff, manufacturers, and military delegations.

You get hours of flying displays. You can see fighter jets pulling crazy angles, widebodies showing off steep climbs, formation flying, and smoke trails. It's like an air-nerd stadium show.

Static displays = cabin playground. In Dubai, Emirates has a 777, an A350 and an A380 open to visitors, and a bunch of other airlines park their toys too. You can walk through economy, premium economy, business, and even first, check out the bedding, peek at the amenity kits, and see how the seats actually feel. The best part is that you can even talk to the crew and staff about how they operate the flights.

Instead of seeing glossy marketing photos, you get to physically compare multiple cabins in a couple of hours.

Lots of things happen at airshows besides people visiting planes. Manufacturers and airlines close deals for aircraft, announce new products, and learn from each other. It's the pinnacle of an aviation event. So if you've ever wanted to test-drive airline cabins before burning points or cash, Dubai Airshow is probably the closest you'll get.

The headline announcement from Emirates at the show: They're rolling out Starlink on their entire in-service long-haul fleet of 232 Boeing 777s and A380s, and it'll be free for every passenger, in every cabin.

Rollout details:

Dan got to try the demo on the ground and ran a speed test: ~450 Mbps down and 52 Mbps up. That's already faster than a lot of home connections - and in the air, with clear satellite view, it should be even more impressive.

Emirates is not alone here; Starlink is turning into a serious trend:

Why this matters for you:

We're moving from "maybe I can send a WhatsApp if the Wi-Fi doesn't crash" to full-on home-internet in the sky: video calls, uploading 4K content, real work, proper streaming.

Emirates making it free across the fleet sets a new bar. If you're paying $30 for unusable Wi-Fi on another airline in 2026, that's going to feel… rough.

For me, this is one of the most passenger-visible shifts happening in aviation right now. Seats evolve slowly; Wi-Fi jumping from "painful" to "actually amazing" is a game-changer.

Riyadh Air hasn't flown a single paying passenger yet, but at Dubai Airshow, they're already acting like a future top-tier player.

Dan got hands-on with their soft product at the stand, and the level of detail is impressive:

Amenity kits + loungewear are part of a partnership with Kayanee, a Saudi wellness brand. Long-haul Business Elite, Business, and Premium Economy passengers will get custom amenity kits; Business cabins also get upgraded skincare and little wellness touches.

Loungewear (pajamas) is designed to feel more like high-end hotel sleepwear than typical airline PJs, with softer fabrics, more tailored fits, and a look you'd actually post on Instagram.

The tableware and plates feel closer to a boutique restaurant than a mass carrier: clean design, modern lines, not overly blingy.

The strategy is very clear: launch with a super polished, wellness-focused premium experience from day one, instead of slowly iterating like a traditional start-up airline. This isn't just about matching the Gulf Big Three, it's about positioning Riyadh Air as a wellness-first carrier that happens to fly planes.

If they execute half as well in the air as they're promising on the ground, Riyadh Air could become one of those aspirational "I want to try them once" products. The soft product alone suggests they're not messing around.

My take: I'm genuinely curious to see how this translates onboard. Soft products are easy to nail in a trade show booth; consistency at 40,000 feet across hundreds of flights is the real test. But the attention to detail here is promising, and it's clear they're betting big on the premium traveler who values wellness and design as much as the seat itself.

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The other big storyline from Dubai Airshow: big twins are still the future.

On day one of the show, Emirates ordered 65 additional Boeing 777-9s, worth about $38 billion, bringing their total 777X family order to 270 jets. That's not a typo - 270 of the world's newest-to-be twin-engine aircraft, all for one airline.

The 777-9 program is running roughly seven years behind schedule, with first deliveries now expected from 2027 onwards (we'll see…), but Emirates is clearly still all-in. They're betting that the 777-9 will be the backbone of their long-haul network for the next two decades.

Boeing brought a 777-9 to Dubai for the flying display, and videos from the show make it clear: the performance is wild. The wingspan is enormous - 235 feet, with folding wingtips to fit standard gates - and it really will be the spiritual successor to the big 777-300ERs you see everywhere today.

But here's where it gets interesting for premium travelers:

Qatar Airways unveiled Qsuite Next Gen (a.k.a. Qsuite 2.0) last year, specifically designed for the 777-9. It'll debut on Qatar's 777-9 fleet from around 2025 - 2026, and early renders show an evolution of the current Qsuite.

So when you see "Emirates orders 270 777-9s" and "Qatar builds Qsuite Next Gen for the 777-9," what you're really seeing is: The 777-9 is aiming to be the flagship long-haul platform for Gulf carriers, and probably the benchmark for business class for the next decade.

Emirates hasn't revealed their 777-9 cabin yet, but given their A350 business class and the competitive pressure from Qatar's Qsuite 2.0, I am excited to see what they come up with (some rumors say they may even introduce doors!

That's it for today's all-Dubai-Airshow edition. If you want me to go deeper on any of these in a future issue, hit reply and tell me what you're most curious about.

More deals and strategies coming your way on Wednesday.

Catch you in the clouds,
Tomi