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HAMBURG—Despite the multiple satellite constellations in orbit and their growing bandwidth, carriers have yet to find a way to meet passenger expectations in inflight connectivity, an expert panel said April 7.
Albeit improving, the situation shows the difficulty for carriers to find a viable business model, keep up with technologies and navigate regulatory challenges. Service providers should also do their part with more straightforward, less fragmented offerings. As a glimmer of hope, the maritime industry has overcome similar obstacles in recent years, demonstrating the possibility of global, reliable coverage.
Carriers look for ways to extract revenues from their connectivity, such as via sponsorships, but the trend for free Wi-Fi onboard is clear. It is driving demand for bandwidth, SES global head of aviation Andrew Ruszkowski said at the Passenger Experience Conference here. The upcoming tendency is demand from the Far East, where the majority of unconnected aircraft are based, he added.
Will 100% of commercial aircraft be equipped for inflight connectivity in 2030? The short answer is yes, but more slowly than expected 15 years ago, panelists said. “The level of integration and cooperation is increasing, which is facilitating the ubiquity of connectivity,” Jon Norris, Thales’ director of marketing operations, InFlyt Experience, noted.
The company is happy with both exclusive partnerships, as with SES on the SES-17 geostationary satellite, and a noncommittal approach. “We are agnostic in terms of which connectivity will integrate our intellectual property,” he said. Thales just wants to provide excellent passenger experience and that should not be a technical problem, he pointed out, noting too many interfaces between players create hurdles.
Shortening technology cycles create a decision-making issue for carriers. The duration of a cycle used to be 10 years and, with the advent of multi-orbit services, is now close to three years, said Mike Moeller, SVP aviation for Quvia, which specializes in allocating satellite capacity across multiple customer endpoints. Airline executives fear the solution they choose may become outdated just after installation. Industry has to find a solution for those executives to be comfortable with embracing a technology, Moeller said.
The main paradox may be the technical availability of global coverage and the actual “Swiss cheese nature” of some networks, Jonas von Kruechten, principal consultant at the Dgtlsky advisory practice, said. Some countries do not allow every service provider, artificially creating an area without network coverage and causing headaches for carriers.
Some routes are more important than others. Transatlantic flights, for example, bring in high revenues for some carriers. They want those “money routes” to have a high quality of experience, Moeller noted. Sometimes, an executive on board detects a problem in a congestion area and the quick escalation inside the company helps solve the issue.
Meanwhile, in the maritime industry, especially cruise ships, onboard Wi-Fi is no longer an issue, Moeller and Aaron Goldberg, Intelsat’s director of product management, said. “Five years ago, it was expensive and not working very well,” Moeller said. Goldberg referred to a cruise ship relying on communications satellites on three different orbits.
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