LOT Goes Live with Viasat Inflight Internet on 787s

LOT Polish Airlines‘ first 787 fitted with inflight internet from Viasat recently entered service, part of an aircraft retrofit program first announced in 2023. The first aircraft, SP-LSA, returned to service last week after spending a month in Rzeszow for the retrofit work.

Our passengers travel with different purposes and expectations. We want them to be able to spend their time on board exactly as they need – productively, staying in touch with loved ones, or in complete relaxation.

– Izabela Leszczyńska, Director, Product Development and Customer Experience Office, LOT Polish Airlines

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LOT offers two paid service levels on board, a $7 option for chat/messaging services and a $29 tier for streaming and browsing. Complimentary access is provided for business class passengers as well as some elite status tiers in the Miles & More loyalty program. This is not quite the “diverse range of packages [that] allows passengers to flexibly tailor the service to their needs…” described in the press release, but at least there are options.

LOT’s 787 fleet operates from its Poland hubs across most of the northern hemisphere, stretching from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Seoul and Tokyo. Viasat is able to deliver connectivity across that footprint using the GM-40 antenna via its own Ka-band satellites as well as partner capacity. The company confirms that, among other things, it will take advantage of its ability to segment part of the available GX satellite capacity on to the ViaSat-3 operation, making it available without multi-carrier modems or other on-aircraft hardware changes.

When this deal was announced in 2024 the companies anticipated being able to deploy Viasat’s newest ModMan technology, enabling native access to multiple satellite signaling waveforms. That means seamlessly switching between the latest ViaSat-3 satellites (only one in service today, but the second should be in a few months and the third by the end of the year) and the company’s GX satellites, acquired from Inmarsat in 2023.

A query to Viasat to confirm the new technology deployment remains pending at time of publication.

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Two more of LOT’s 787s are expected to be retrofit by the end of April 2026. SP-LRF is currently in Rzeszow; it is unclear if it is undergoing a full retrofit or a smaller maintenance program. The carrier has 15 total 787s in its fleet currently. All are expected to eventually receive the Wi-Fi kit installation.