Gogo Business Aviation plans to ensure its OneWeb Ku-band LEO satellite-powered Galileo inflight connectivity service is competitively priced with SpaceX’s LEO-based Starlink Aviation service for BizAv.

“We’ll be competitively priced,” a Gogo spokesman confirms to RGN when asked explicitly about Galileo pricing in the face of SpaceX’s new dramatically reduced pricing tiers.

Gogo’s facility in Broomfield, Colorado recently received its first fully constructed prototype of the Gogo Galileo HDX antenna. Engineers are engaged in rigorous software integration and engineering testing, and expect to flight-test the hardware this summer and seek supplemental type certification (STC).

“We’re actually a little ahead of schedule with the HDX. We have an STC aircraft for ourselves and then have multiple discussions under way for STCs for other models,” says the Gogo spokesperson.

The HDX electronically steered antenna (ESA) hardware, built by Hughes Network Systems, has met Gogo’s specs, and indeed “has exceeded some specs”, Gogo reveals.

For its part, Hughes confirms to RGN that it still expects to make serial production deliveries to Gogo in the second half of 2024. “Yes, the HDX timeline is still on track for production units to be delivered in H2 2024,” says Hughes vice president Reza Rasoulian. Hughes will also be supporting Gogo in the launch and testing of the ESA, he confirms.

Gogo will offer Galileo to the market in both standalone form and in a hybrid air-to-ground/LEO satcom configuration for those North American operators which already have Gogo’s AVANCE platform for air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity and want to add LEO satcom when flying overseas (or indeed for those who want to order the hybrid from the get-go).

When Gogo’s 5G ATG product is available, now expected in the late fourth quarter, according to a report from financial services firm William Blair, operators can opt for both 5G and LEO satcom.

Whilst OneWeb is a global Ku-band network, Gogo doesn’t anticipate operating its Galileo solution in Russia, China or North Korea due to geopolitical reasons. Galileo can be added to aircraft of various sizes. And when Galileo service is available, it will directly compete with Starlink in business aviation.

But Gogo doesn’t presently see Starlink as a competitive threat to its core business of powering ATG connectivity on business aircraft flying in North America. Nor indeed does Gogo’s ATG rival in CONUS, SmartSky Networks — the reason being that Starlink’s current chosen antenna is large and better-positioned atop larger aircraft types.

That said, Gogo management believes Starlink will launch a smaller antenna for bizjets in the next two years.

Separately, Hughes expects to flight-test its own commercial ESA in H1 2025 “with production shortly thereafter for the global Hughes In-Flight connectivity service to commercial airlines worldwide”, says Rasoulian.

Hughes’ LEO-only IFC offering for airlines is supported by OneWeb and will use the Hughes commercial ESA. (Its Hughes Jupiter Fusion product will use the ThinKom Solutions ThinAir Plus package of VICTS with the Hughes ESA tucked alongside it.)

Related Articles:

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• Emerging satcom not threatening core ATG business: SmartSky and Gogo
• Hughes on target to flight-test ESA for Gogo Business in 2H 2024
• Gogo teams with Hughes, OneWeb for global LEO inflight connectivity