For a decade or so the inflight connectivity market (self included) has obsessed over the potential for electronically steered antenna (ESA) solutions to change the way internet services are delivered to airplanes. With the first planes now flying with such equipment, and a second supplier’s installations underway, one could be forgiven for believing the die is cast and ESAs’ future secure as the future of the industry. But not everyone agrees.
Depending on who you ask – and I asked several people at at Aircraft Interiors Expo 2024 last month – ESAs are the best way forward, or a compromise that come up short for airlines.
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More news from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2024
- Expliseat launches new economy class seat with Hop! E190 contract
- Back to basics: New business class seat designs vie for Crystal Cabin Award honors
- Upstarts get creative in economy class for 2024 Crystal Cabin Awards
- In search of sleep: innovation targets snoozers for 2024 Crystal Cabin Award
- AIX Preview: New IFE ideas set to fly
- Increased supplier option a Plus
- Anuvu validates dual-panel Ka-band antenna with in-flight testing
- IndiGo taps AirFi for on-board entertainment trial
- Condor taps Intelsat for inflight internet
- Intelsat, JAL partner on LEO/GEO connectivity
- Eclipse snags 50+ plane connectivity retrofit deal
- Thales FlytEDGE delivers a new paradigm for in-flight entertainment
- AJet to offer inflight internet via TCI
- Introducing Helix, the new single-aisle economy class seat from Collins Aerospace
- Feeling the squeeze: 10-abreast A350 moves closer to mainstream
- Dropping out of the IFE race
- Inflight Dublin snags order-to-seat deal with AirAsia
- Starlink sees Qatar Airways, airBaltic both online by end of year, architecture changes beyond
- Southwest shows off customizations for new Recaro seats
- Airbus adds to HBCplus backlog
- ThinKom sees trio of innovations driving growth
- Collins, Panasonic launch Maya: next-gen business class concept seat
- SES Open Orbits brings multi-constellation, multi-orbit Ka-band connectivity together on a global scale
- Shifting install sequencing
- AirBaltic takes Pratt to task for engine issues
- ESAs, China, and the future of inflight connectivity
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