Following the recent acquisition of Inmarsat business, Viasat will now be offering an expanded range of service options to business aviation customers using Viasat’s existing GAT-5510 terminal, as well as three upcoming next-generation Jet ConneX terminals – Satcom Direct’s Plane Simple Ka-band, Orbit’s AirTRx30, and Honeywell’s JetWave X.
Satcom Direct completed the installation of the first Plane Simple® Ka-band antenna on the company’s Gulfstream G550. The prototype terminal, consisting of only two line-replaceable units (LRUs) – the tail-mount antenna and SD Modem Unit – is testing the advanced technology hardware’s compatibility with Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX inflight broadband service.
Although the global aviation industry is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the global pandemic, the business aviation sector has fared comparatively better than its airline counterpart. A prime example of its resilience is the fact that many of Inmarsat’s business aviation customers have utilised any downtime over the past 18 months to upgrade their inflight connectivity systems, ensuring that they continue to meet the evolving needs of operators across the world, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic itself but well into the future too. And as principals’ needs continue to evolve in the long-term, they can rest assured in the knowledge that we are investing more than ever before to deliver highly differentiated global technology platforms, that will meet their needs today and for decades to come. After all, we have a deep understanding based on decades of experience in the business aviation market and appreciate that inflight connectivity alone is no longer enough, it needs to be reliable and consistent, regardless of location, time or other uncontrollable factors. Predictability is ‘the new luxury’ for business aviation.
The Inmarsat Jet ConneX solution is available for all in-production, large-cabin aircraft: G650™, G650ER™, G500™,G600™ and the all-new G700™. It is also available as a retrofit option on in-service large-cabin Gulfstream aircraft: GIV™, GV™, G450™ and the G550™.
