Azul is stretching its in-flight Wi-Fi program to long-haul operations. The carrier expanded its partnership with Viasat to add service on its A330neo planes.
The new service will, for now, only be installed on the carrier’s new A330-900s, with the system installed at the factory. Seven of those remain on order from Airbus. The first delivery carrying the Viasat kit is expected to arrive in 2025.
From Brazilians’ thirst for real time sports scores to their desire to stay connected to loved ones on the ground while flying, our hypothesis that this feature would be critical to customer satisfaction is playing out in the market. – Jason Ward, Azul’s Chief People and Customer Officer
The carrier activated inflight internet on its single-aisle fleet in 2021. That offering is complimentary for passengers on board. For the A330neo fleet, however, the companies say passengers “will be able to acquire packages for streaming audio and video, web browsing, and messaging.” This implies that at least some of the services will be a paid tier, not free for travelers. A query to Azul for clarification was pending at time of publication.
The companies also shared that they will deploy options for ad-supported access to streaming sessions, powered by the Viasat Advertising platform. Viasat handles ad sales and targeting for the network. It allows for a variety of service offerings, including different performance tiers or time-based sessions.
Viasat notes that the service is supported, in part, by Telebras’s SGDC (Geostationary Satellite for Defense and Strategic Communications) Ka-band satellite. Viasat also uses that satellite for its terrestrial hotspot services in the Brazilian market. To deliver for the A330neo fleet, however, the company will need more Ka-band coverage than SGDC can deliver.
That service theoretically could’ve been provided by the ViaSat-3 F1 satellite, but its antenna malfunction leaves it limited in geographic coverage. Viasat recently filed to add the SES-17 satellite to its operating licenses, which could deliver the necessary coverage and capacity to bridge the intercontinental gaps in Viasat’s owned coverage footprints to serve the Azul A330neo operations.
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