PaxEx Bits: Week ending 5 April 2024

Some PaxEx headlines worth noting in the industry this week:

Telesat secured a C$2.14 billion loan from the Canadian government to complete financing of the Lightspeed constellation. The loan will carry a floating interest rate that is 4.75% above the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA) with a 15-year maturity. Telesat LEO Inc. will also provide the Government with warrants for 10% of the common shares of Telesat LEO based upon an equity valuation of US$3 billion.

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Viasat refinanced $2.4 billion in debt from the Inmarsat side of its operations. A $1.75 billion loan (December 2026 maturity) and $700 million line of credit (December 2024 maturity) converted to a new $1.3 billion loan (September 2029 maturity) and $550 million revolving credit line (March 2027 maturity). All but $300 million of the original loan was repaid by the new loan, with interest eliminated for the remaining term, leaving just a $300 million payment due in December 2026. The deal drops the interest rate by ~2% for the outstanding balance.

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Gogo Business Aviation is partnering with Atlas Air Service AG to develop the first European Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the Gogo Galileo program. The companies will initially certify the HDX antenna, provided by Hughes for the Cessna CitationJet series of light jet aircraft and also develop an EASA-supported STC for the Embraer Phenom 300.

The Cessna Citation 525 is up first, with D-ILHE the test aircraft. A commercial installation is targeted later this summer on a CJ1+.

And the ground version of the terminal is now ready for the market, having been approved by OneWeb for use on the LEO satellite network.

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Thales Group closed on its purchase of Cobham’s Aerospace Communications group. The move aims to boost Thales’ position in the connected cockpit market (something Iridium is also pushing aggressively into).

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Airbus is getting ready for the first A350s to start their cabin refreshes, and recently published an outline of what goes into that process. The company is hyping its HBCplus inflight connectivity option (similar to Emirates taking that option for its A380 retrofits), as well as potential seating layout adjustments.

Pitching updated business class cabins and larger premium economy offers is good news for customers. The idea that 10-abreast in economy is “a more optimal” configuration, however, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of defining “optimal.” The shift in that terminology is not new, but it is still bad news for passenger comfort.

The company does call attention to the challenges of aligning interior designs across generations of the A350 cabin; Airbus is up to “Step-8” layouts now, and both 7 and 8 have a slightly longer cabin as well as different floor, seat tracks, seat-to-seat cabling routings and sidewalls.

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ANA unveiled its new 787-10 domestic interiors. The plane offers a 2-2-2 premium cabin with seats from Safran and 3-3-3 in economy, with the seats designed by ANA and Toyota Boshoku Corporation.

The premium cabin includes 15.6″ IFE screens, 50″ pitch, electric recline, and both AC/USB power. In economy the screens are 13.3″, including a USB-A power port, plus AC power ports as well.

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A couple weeks ago Recaro’s CL3810 was announced as the seat of choice for the economy class cabin in Malaysia Airlines’ new A33neo fleet. We now have a few more details on the offering.

Seat pitch will range from 31 to 36 inches, plus 6-inch recline, a 13.3-inch IFE screen, and USB-A/C power will be available at each seat. All seats will also include Recaro’s six-way adjustable headrest.

For the Comfort+ extra leg room seats, the seat bottom articulates, adjusting the recline, particularly notable for the passenger experience on long-haul flights. In addition, Recaro says the backrest design will provide an extra inch of knee space.

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