Flight International - 5 June 2018

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EBACE 2018

Show report

Targeting mental

health stigma

head-on

Air Transport P

S

atellite companies made a big

push at EBACE to expand

their reach in the business avia-

tion in-flight connectivity space.

Major players introduced new

broadband solutions, announced

new OEM customers for existing

solutions, and offered a glimpse

at how under-development satel-

lite technology will shape the fu-

ture of this fast-growing sector.

Inmarsat used the show to un-

veil its decision to bring its Euro-

pean Aviation Network (EAN)

hybrid connectivity solution to

the business aviation market,

while rival ViaSat announced

that Embraer had agreed to be the

first midsize business jet OEM

customer for its Ka-band service.

Meanwhile, Gogo Business

Aviation celebrated becoming the

latest value-added manufacturer

and service provider for Iridium

Certus, the new L-band broad-

band flightdeck and cabin connec-

tivity service that will be enabled

by the Iridium NEXT low-Earth

orbit satellite constellation, which

is in the process of being launched

into space.

Inmarsat surprised its peers

with a plan to introduce EAN –

which will enter commercial air-

line service with International

Airlines Group (IAG) later this

year – to the business aviation

market. The service integrates

connectivity from a satellite oper-

ated by Inmarsat with an LTE-

based ground network operated

by Deutsche Telekom. It covers

all 28 EU member states, as well

as Norway and Switzerland.

LIGHTER OPTION

EAN will be available to business

aircraft operators from the begin-

ning of 2019. The associated

smaller, lighter hardware gives In-

marsat access to smaller aircraft

that cannot be equipped with its

existing Jet ConneX in-flight wi-fi

system, which has now been in-

stalled on 275 business jets.

Embraer’s announcement early

in the show that it had selected

ViaSat’s Ka-band connectivity

service for linefit installation on

its Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 ex-

ecutive jets was seen by the Cali-

fornia-based satellite company as

lighting the touch paper on a se-

ries of similar deals, as it transi-

tions away from its Ku-band busi-

ness aviation service.

“This is a big deal for us. We

will have additional announce-

ments throughout this year and,

as we put aircraft in service, we

will have other OEMs sign up,”

says Jerry Goodwin, executive

vice-president of ViaSat’s net-

work services portfolio.

Customers for ViaSat’s Ku ser-

vice will eventually be able to ei-

ther lift out the previous system

and replace it with Ka, or opt for a

dual-band solution that enables

them to keep the Ku service as a

backup or use it as a bridge until all

three of the firm’s Ka-band satel-

lites have been launched. ViaSat-

is scheduled for launch in 2020.

The new shipset was “specifi-

cally designed to have the same

footprint and the same wiring” as

the Ku shipset, facilitating the

swap-out process, says James

Person, director of business de-

velopment and strategy for Via-

Sat’s business and VVIP avia-

tion division.

Inmarsat and ViaSat operate

geostationary satellites, but an

announcement from Iridium and

Gogo drew attention to a new

generation of low-Earth orbit sat-

ellites which promise to provide

lower latency, pole-to-pole cover-

age.

As a value-added manufactur-

er and service provider for Iridi-

um Certus, Gogo will produce the

antennas that communicate with

the NEXT constellation.

Initial flight trials for Iridium

Certus aviation applications will

take place later this year, with

commercial service introduction

specifically for aviation users tar-

geted for mid-2019.

To date, there have been six

successful Iridium NEXT launch-

es, deploying 55 new satellites.

Two additional launches are

planned for 2018, delivering 20

more satellites to orbit and com-

pleting the new constellation.

In total, 81 Iridium NEXT sat-

ellites are being built, with 66 in

the operational constellation,

nine serving as on-orbit spares

and six as ground spares.

As the trend to equip business

aircraft with in-flight wi-fi contin-

ues, Satcom Direct used its pres-

ence at EBACE to warn the indus-

try about the threats posed by

cyber-criminals, who can use

phishing and password-cracking

techniques to gain access to, and

inflict damage on, business avia-

tion operators’ online systems.

HALTING HACKS

Since launching its Cyber Securi-

ty Solution portfolio last October,

Satcom Direct has signed up

“well over 300 clients”, for

whom it stops an average of 10

hacks a month, according to

chief commercial officer Chris

Moore.

“With Ku- and Ka-band [in-

flight connectivity] you’ve got

multiple megabits available on

these aircraft which can be used

like connections on the ground.

But that means they face the

same cybersecurity vulnerabili-

ties as on the ground,”

adds Moore. ■

ESA/CNES/Arianespace

Low-Earth-orbit satellites should

deliver lower-latency coverage

Inmarsat’s Michael Rack celebrated 275 Jet ConneX installations

CONNECTIVITY

Space for growth as demand lifts off

Operators offer new solutions and improve global coverage while tailored hardware eases adoption of in-flight wi-fi

“This is a big deal

for us. We will

have additional

announcements

throughout this year”

Jerry Goodwin

Executive vice-president, ViaSat