The Business of Passenger Experience
Major drama in the inflght connectivity world this afternoon as joint venture partners Eutelsat and Viasat are splitting on a major project. Eutelsat is launching KONNECT, its own massive increase in Ka-band capacity in 2021 and has new partners to work with on that deal. Oh, and it is bailing on its potential partnership for the ViaSat-3's EMEA coverage.
Gogo is the first inflight connectivity provider to pass data on the SES-15 Ku-band satellite. That’s great news for passengers, and it should get even better soon as others join that party.
SES and Yahsat have more capacity in the sky thanks to an Arianespace launch last night. The launch suffered from anomalies after the second stage ignition and the satellites were not inserted where initially expected, though both companies report control of their assets.
Air Canada's 737 MAX fleet is getting inflight connectivity but it might not be what was expected. The first radome installation is complete and it looks like a new vendor may be in play, with Thales breaking in to Gogo territory.
Choosing to launch on a flight-proven SpaceX rocket earns Iridium a (mostly useless) mark on history. The company will be the first to launch multiple times on the same rocket.
The next generation of satellites promises a massive boost in total capacity available, including for service to airplanes. You just have to wait for it to show up. And hope it really works as promised.
Another agreement has been inked to bring faster satellite connectivity to the skies. Global Eagle (IFEC provider to Southwest Airlines, among others) signed a capacity purchase agreement from SES for bandwidth from three new satellites launching in 2017.
