TAMPA, Fla. — Delta Air Lines has picked Hughes Network Systems to upgrade the Wi-Fi on around 400 Boeing 717 and smaller regional jets serving North America that currently use Intelsat’s inflight connectivity (IFC) services.
The IFC deal, the primary Hughes has made directly with an airline despite operating within the aviation connectivity marketplace for over a decade, sees the broadband operator join Viasat, which Delta has installed on greater than 600 mainline aircraft so far.
Reza Rasoulian, vice chairman of broadband satellite services at Hughes, said work will begin in mid-2024 to put in antennas that will be compatible with the corporate’s Ka-band network in geostationary orbit (GEO), including its colossal Jupiter-3 satellite set to enter service by the tip of the 12 months.
The antennas, supplied by ThinKom, would even be compatible with future non-geostationary (NGSO) constellations operating in Ka-band, Rasoulian said, equivalent to Telesat Lightspeed and SES O3b mPower.
He declined to debate performance statistics, but said Hughes would have the capability to enable every body on planes carrying 70 to 117 passengers to stream Netflix concurrently.
This level of bring-your-own-device inflight streaming was impossible under the air-to-ground service Intelsat was providing, which connects to cell towers as a substitute of satellites.
Intelsat declined to comment.
All of Intelsat’s air-to-ground systems are set to get replaced for U.S. airline regional jet aircraft by the tip of 2025 to maneuver toward higher-bandwidth satellite solutions, where Intelsat has also had success in recent months in deals with Alaska Airlines and Air Canada. These airlines plan to make use of an antenna that would hook up with Intelsat’s GEO network along with OneWeb’s NGSO constellation in Ku-band.
Delta recorded 938 mainline aircraft and 326 regional planes operated by firms on its behalf as of Sept. 30 — considered one of the most important business fleets on this planet.
Delta spokesperson Grant Myatt said all of Delta’s mainline aircraft — except for the 74 Boeing 717s currently within the fleet — are being equipped with Viasat, and all regional aircraft will use Hughes.
By the tip of 2024, Myatt said Delta would have upgraded Wi-Fi capabilities across the whole fleet to supply fast, free Wi-Fi.
The corporate conducted exploratory tests with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation last 12 months but has not moved forward with any deal.
Starlink’s emerging aviation service is seen as a growing threat to legacy IFC providers because it ramps up contracts with airlines, including regional jet service provider JSX which is currently offering a service boasting Wi-Fi speeds of as much as 350 megabits per second.
Qatar Airways became the most important airline to announce plans to make use of Starlink Oct. 13, although their partnership is at a really early stage and no date was given for the beginning of services.