More Ku-band capacity is coming on line over Europe, the North Atlantic and Middle East in 2022. Eutelsat will launch 10B, a replacement for its existing 10A satellite, delivering a significant boost to capacity. Gogo is a committed customer for the new satellite and others are also in the wings.
Ku
Sunrise Stretch: PaxEx Update 2019-10-18
The beginnings of Project Sunrise and extra leg room for the Kiwis. Plus more wifi (maybe) coming in China and another loyalty top tier moves further away.
Get these stories and more in this week’s PaxEx Update.
Lufthansa Technik dives in to the Chinese inflight connectivity market
Announcements related to inflight connectivity in China are hard to process. Vendors continue to sign agreements and push out releases but forward progress in terms of getting hardware on planes remains stalled. This week Lufthansa Technik (LHT) joined the field with an announcement of an offering for airlines in China. But, like the others, it is unclear what the timeline for implementation will be or where things will go from here.
Gogo sees a clear path to free WiFi on Delta
Often when someone says something is not about the money there’s little doubt that it is entirely about the money. When it comes to delivering free WiFi for all of its passengers, however, Delta Air Lines’ CEO Ed Bastian is probably telling the truth. It is not the cost of the service, but making sure the network can handle the dramatic uptick in demand. For Gogo CEO Oakleigh Thorne the reality is far more nuanced than that, and suggests that it really is just a matter of when, not if, his company can support the load.
OneWeb, Iridium look to partner on LEO-based solutions
Iridium is taking full advantage of its Partners Conference this week to bolster its market position. Following yesterday’s announcement of a major US Department of Defense contract the company announced today a Memorandum of Understanding with LEO upstart OneWeb to see if there are synergies in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) neighborhood that could allow the two companies to grow better together rather than apart.
Gogo makes a China 2Ku play
Airlines in China find themselves spoiled for choice when it comes to picking an inflight connectivity solutions provider. Gogo (re)joins that party with an announcement this week that it will partner with APT Mobile Satcom Limited (APSATCOM) in selling its 2Ku connectivity solution in the country.
A setbacKa in China
Ka-band capacity over China will not expand this year as previously planned. The failure of ChinaSat-18 made sure of that. The near-term impact to the inflight connectivity world may extend beyond this one satellite problem.
The Polar Connectivity Push
Emirates issued a press release touting inflight connectivity over the North Pole, which is interesting since none of the carrier’s aircraft can deliver that today and the service from Inmarsat’s GX Aviation network won’t exist until 2023. But perhaps there’s more involved in the story??
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.
This content is for subscribers only.
Register
Register
Already a member? Log in here
American Airlines reportedly expanding IFC relationship with Viasat
A lack of global Ka-band coverage won’t stop American Airlines from expanding its Viasat inflight connectivity relationship. The pair are reported to be deploying a Ku/Ka offering on upcoming 787 deliveries.