Viasat London, previously Inmarsat, has long supported Emirates’ cabin connectivity (and indeed cockpit communications) with its L-band satellite services.
While SITA manages inflight connectivity for Emirates (for now) — on both Viasat London’s lower-bandwidth SwiftBroadband (L-band) and Panasonic Avionics Ku-band satcom installs in the airline’s fleet — Viasat London has obviously been there in the background, powering the L-band portion on many equipped aircraft.
Now Viasat London is poised to have a more prominent role at Emirates: it is in line to support true broadband connectivity on a growing number of aircraft types in the carrier’s current and future fleet, and will enjoy a more direct relationship with the top-tier airline.
It started with 50 tails for Inmarsat/Viasat London
Viasat London’s indirect relationship with Emirates started to change only very recently, when the airline selected Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band connectivity for 50 incoming Airbus A350-900s, as announced in January 2023.
“This announcement marks the beginning of a direct partnership between Emirates and Inmarsat, and Inmarsat will continue to look for further opportunities to support Emirates in providing the best inflight connectivity service to its passengers,” Inmarsat Aviation regional vice president, Middle East, Neale Faulkner told Runway Girl Network in January 2023 when the 50-tail IFC order was first announced — a few months before Viasat finalized its acquisition of Inmarsat and indeed before Airbus confirmed at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in June that this is the launch deal for its supplier-furnished HBCplus programme, with Safran Passenger Innovations providing its Ka-band terminal and Viasat London serving as the managed service provider (MSP).
Then the tally grew to 110 tails for Viasat London
We now know, of course, that the 50-strong A350-900 order is not the only ‘more direct’ relationship for broadband connectivity that Emirates will have with Viasat London, with Airbus announcing at last month’s Dubai Airshow that Emirates will retrofit 60 A380s with the Ka-band version of HBCplus, and confirming that Viasat London will serve as MSP.
Emirates has since told RGN that it is “working with Airbus to expedite these retrofits as soon as possible”.
Here again Safran Passenger Innovations (SPI), as Airbus’ terminal provider on the HBCplus programme, also stands to benefit. Its Ka-band terminal is based on ThinKom Solutions’ popular Ka2517 VICTS antenna and branded by SPI as RAVE AeroConnect Ka.
“Safran is already delivering terminals for various HBCplus programmes. Integration is well underway across many aircraft platforms on track for deliveries as planned,” said a SPI spokesperson.
The tally grew again to 160 tails for Viasat London
Emirates also recently confirmed to RGN that it has “selected Viasat London with their GX solution” for the 50 Boeing 777-9 aircraft earmarked for Safran Passenger Innovations’ RAVE AeroConnect terminal, a deal announced by Safran at the Dubai Airshow, and confirmed by SPI to RGN as being the ThinKom Ka2517 VICTS-based terminal.
Notably, Emirates also informed RGN that it has not yet announced a connectivity provider for the new 777X twinjets ordered last month in Dubai, i.e. the 55 Boeing 777-9s and the 35 Boeing 777-8s (which brings Emirates’ total 777X order to 205 units.)
That means, then, that Safran is supplying the IFC hardware for 50 777-9s in the original batch of 777Xs ordered by Emirates (the carrier in 2014 ordered 150 777Xs, but by April 2021, the actual number stood at 115 for the delayed aircraft, as reported by Cirium).
For those keeping track at home, that puts 160 aircraft in Viasat London’s camp.
But wait, there’s more.
A total 225 tails for Viasat London?
Emirates, Thales and Inmarsat on 15 November 2017 each announced on their respective websites that, to quote Emirates’ PR, “Emirates and Thales have signed a new agreement to equip its Boeing 777X fleet with the next generation broadband inflight connectivity using Inmarsat GX global network. The partnership will give Emirates customers best in class connectivity on its Boeing 777X aircraft due for delivery starting in 2020.” Emirates and Inmarsat mentioned in their statements that the airline had orders (at that time) for 150 777Xs.
Though not explicitly stated in these press releases from six years ago, readers could be forgiven for assuming that GX value added reseller Thales — already chosen at this point to provide embedded IFE on Emirates’ first batch of 50 777Xs — was in line to act as the service provider. After all, given Faulkner’s aforementioned discloser to RGN in January 2023, Inmarsat’s role was completely indirect until the A350 deal.
But Emirates appears to see Viasat London as the direct service provider for its original 777X order.
Asked by RGN if Emirates is still planning to use Thales for connectivity on up to 150 777X [sic 115 after the rejig], or if it looking to go in a different direction, Emirates’ spokesperson stated via email:
Inmarsat (Viasat) GX has been selected as previously announced. We do not comment on discussions with potential suppliers.
We don’t have visibility into Emirates’ connectivity arrangement with Thales, including the exact number of aircraft earmarked for GX from that 2017 announcement. However, taking Emirates’ statement at face value, it seems fair to add the remaining 65 tails in the original, albeit-later-amended 777X order to Viasat London’s tally.
That takes us to 225 aircraft, of which SPI’s ThinKom VICTS-based terminal has thus far been formally earmarked for 160 aircraft.
Related Articles:
- Emirates looks to expedite A380 inflight connectivity retrofits
- Safran sits pretty as Airbus breaks vertical integration of IFC
- ThinKom Ka2517 in the home stretch for Boeing linefit offerability
- Airbus HBCplus client list grows including for Emirates A380 retrofit
- Inmarsat well positioned as airlines show interest in Airbus HBCplus
- Exclusive: SITA confirms it is exiting cabin inflight connectivity
- Thales aiding airline clients given SITA plan to exit cabin IFC
- Emirates partnership with Inmarsat evolves as it taps GX for A350s
Featured image credited to Boeing
