The first CRJ550 for United Airlines is out of the shop and beginning the process for service introduction. With its return come the first photos of the new 50-seat, premium-heavy interior for the aircraft.
gogo
Air France adds A220s, retires A380s
Air France will add sixty A220-300 aircraft to its fleet from September 2021. The planes will replace the carrier’s aging A318 and A319 aircraft. The carrier also announced plans to fully retire its fleet of ten A380s by 2022.
PaxEx Update: 12 July 2019
Sweet new premium cabins and another step towards free wifi for passengers top the headlines for this week’s passenger experience news.
Delta continues to push towards free inflight wifi
“Entertainment will continue to be a differentiator for Delta moving forward.” That includes free WiFi for passengers, a product that is still on the roadmap for the company.
PaxEx Premium: More phased array delays??
The inflight connectivity community has suffered from years of disappointment as promise after promise from manufacturers failed to yield electronically steered phased array (ESAs) antennae for commercial aircraft. Phasor and others appeared poised to break that streak, with the news at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg more optimistic than not. An update from one inflight connectivity provider this week calls some of that optimism into question, however.
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Upgraded "Gogo 5G" ATG network to launch in 2021
The next generation air-to-ground (ATG-NG) inflight connectivity network from Gogo is officially back in development. The project, rebranded as “Gogo 5G,” is expected to be available beginning in 2021. The system will operate with both licensed and unlicensed spectrum to provide the best possible performance and redundancy for aircraft owners and passengers.
Viasat’s inflection point
Massive expansion costs are set to give way to recurring revenue growth. That is the message Viasat delivered as it issued is most recent earnings numbers this week. Even as the company pushes forward with the build-out of its new ViaSat-3 constellation with dramatically more bandwidth and geographic coverage, it hopes to convert the existing capacity into new deals and new subscribers, with a significant push into new inflight connectivity markets, among other areas.
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Bits and bobs from EBACE 2019
The annual Geneva gathering of the Business Aviation world known as EBACE is once again underway. The event is a showcase for aircraft manufactures and third party suppliers to highlight their new offerings and features for the private jet travel industry. This year’s show includes incremental updates in the inflight connectivity and entertainment segment, as well as fun new interiors and even progress towards sustainability.
Considering Gogo’s ATG-NG play
The on again, off again progress on an upgraded terrestrial network for inflight connectivity provider Gogo appear to be back in motion. In the company's most recent earnings call CEO Oakleigh Thorne indicated that the company is "particularly excited by some of the plans we’re developing for our next-gen network," though he stopped short of delivering too much in the way of additional details. Hardware supplier ZTE is out, thanks to questions about the long-term viability of growing the network with a Chinese vendor in the mix. But the program is very much alive, despite skepticism sown in Thorne's early days at the helm.
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Gogo 2Ku to fly on the ACJ319neo
Late last month Airbus performed an impressive feat: It flew an A319neo for more than 16 hours as part of the certification process for the type. That same plane, the first customer frame of the A319neo, will soon be delivered to a private owner. When that happens it will also allow for the travelers on board to be online and entertained for any of its trips. Gogo announced today that it will be fitted with the 2Ku inflight connectivity solution as part of the kitting out process.