The nose of an Emirates A380 at the Dubai Airshow. The airline will retrofit 50 A380s with HBCPlus connectivity.

Airbus HBCplus client list grows including for Emirates A380 retrofit

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Airbus’ groundbreaking new supplier-furnished catalogue option for inflight connectivity — known as Airspace Link HBCplus — has been making waves since the programme was first announced in 2022. Now Airbus reports from the Dubai Airshow that shipset commitments for HBCplus installations have grown to 125 aircraft across three aircraft families: the A330neo, A350 and A380. Notably, the A380 installs will be delivered as a retrofit package to Emirates, as the carrier plans to keep its double-decker aircraft flying well into the future.

All 125 aircraft commitments for HBCplus made to date will use Viasat London (formerly Inmarsat) as their managed service provider, with the firm’s Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band satellite service in line to support high-speed Internet on board each aircraft type.

That means that Safran Passenger Innovations, which is sitting pretty as terminal provider and integrator to Airbus on both the Ka-band and Ku-band sides of the linefit HBCplus programme (and indeed for retrofits), will provide its ThinKom Solutions Ka2517 VICTS-based terminal for the 125 commitments secured by Airbus. Other prominent suppliers standing to benefit from Airbus’ HBCplus Ka-band IFC wins include Astronics, which is delivering the outside aircraft equipment including radome and adapter plate, and aero modem manufacturer ST Engineering iDirect.

Launch customer Emirates is by far the largest client of HBCplus, having selected the solution to be linefitted to 50 new Airbus A350s, as first announced at this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. Together with its new order for Airbus’ retrofit package on 60 A380s, the carrier has committed 110 aircraft to HBCplus.

It’s not immediately clear when the HBCplus Ka-band IFC retrofits on Emirates’ A380s will begin. Referencing Airbus’ delivery of the engineering mod solution and kits to Emirates’ designated upgrades/MRO facility, an Airbus spokesperson says: “that generally depends on the timing required by the customer.” RGN has sought comment from Emirates.

The Dubai-based airline has in the past turned to Lufthansa Technik when retrofitting some of its A380s with Panasonic Avionics’ IFC system. But Emirates also boasts its own extensive MRO facilities so its engineering team may opt to handle the IFC retrofits in-house. (The carrier has certainly shown itself adept at nose to tail refurbishments. Last year, it earmarked 67 of its near 90 in-service A380s for a broader refurbishment programme, including a refresh in every cabin and the installation of new Premium Economy class cabins. So far, 16 aircraft have been upgraded and are now in full commercial service.)

Once the A380 IFC retrofits are completed, Emirates passengers aboard these 60 super jumbos should be able to expect a vastly improved experience when trying to browse the Internet. At present, many of Emirates’ A380s carry a low-bandwidth L-band satellite-based offering which is also supported by Viasat London after Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat. That L-band satellite service has not received a great reception from passengers, but is also apparently now seeing some service interruptions as a service migration plan is pursued by the satellite operator. “Due to a satellite issue outside of our control, our customer Wi-Fi and mobile service may not be available on some of our A380 flights. We’re sorry for this inconvenience and hope to be back online again soon,” Emirates confides in a message to passengers.

Other customers for HBCplus are Ethiopian Airlines, which selected the solution to be linefitted to four new A350s during the 2023 Aircraft Interiors Expo. In the ‘new customer’ category, Airbus announced at the Dubai Airshow that Air Algerie is also taking the Ka-band variant of HBCplus, covering five A330neo linefits whilst Air India will have six A350 linefitted with the solution.

Air India Airbus aircraft inflight.

HBCplus enables participating airlines to switch bandwidth suppliers without changing the linefit (or approved retrofit package for) inflight connectivity hardware on their aircraft. With Airbus providing the broadband connectivity kit — and related services — as linefit supplier furnished equipment, the airframer effectively considers the certified terminal and radome to be part of the aircraft.

That means that, in the future, if any of the HBCplus airline customers revealed to date want to try a different service provider, they can avail of a multi-orbit option from SES — which, in addition to Viasat London, is an MSP on the Ka-band side of the programme — without changing the Ka-band terminal hardware. For now, these airlines have chosen an MSP with a ‘here and now’ service in the form of Viasat London GX, operating over a nextgen antenna system.

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“We are honoured that Airbus’ HBCplus launch customer Emirates has reaffirmed its confidence by selecting the technology for its flagship A380 fleet. Together with our partners Viasat and Safran Passenger Innovations, we are also thrilled that more airlines, now also including Air Algerie and Air India, have chosen to equip HBCplus across their Airbus fleets to keep their travellers connected with lightning-fast internet,” says André Schneider, Airbus VP Cabin & Cargo Programme.

“Seeing our valued customers committing to our reliable satellite connectivity model, while combining a flexible choice of network providers and seamless hardware integration, is a real testimony to our Airspace Link philosophy.”

These HBCplus deals also speak to a shifting landscape where satellite operators have a much more direct pipeline to the airlines. Emirates, for instance, has long used SITA as its service provider across different aircraft types and across different IFC hardware, but SITA will exit the cabin connectivity business on 31 January 2025, as exclusively reported by RGN.

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All images credited to Airbus