Viasat has unveiled major performance improvements — including uncapped speeds, expanded capacity and increased network prioritization — for its Jet ConneX inflight connectivity customers in business aviation. The new enhancement program, which is available on selected plans, is branded as JetXP.
Powered by the Global Xpress network of Ka-band geostationary (GEO) satellites (and soon HEO payloads) that Viasat acquired when it bought Inmarsat, Jet ConneX IFC for business aviation has enjoyed steady growth. Some 1,700 business jets are currently activated with Jet ConneX, representing a 700-tail increase since October 2021. Service plans and support are managed by Viasat’s distribution partners: Collins Aerospace, Honeywell and Satcom Direct, with the latter two also providing terminals.
According to Viasat, JetXP unleashes the full power of its GX network for Jet ConneX customers. The boost has already been successfully trialed by hundreds of existing Jet ConneX clients and supports what the satellite operator and aero ISP calls “the market’s shift away from empty speed promises”.
JetXP’s introduction arrives at a time when Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-based IFC solutions are seeing strong traction in civil aviation. Incumbent SpaceX, which is offering its Starlink IFC service directly to the market, has a growing backlog of tails, and Eutelsat OneWeb LEO, which has pursued a B2B approach, will start powering IFC on business aircraft on 1 January 2025. It also comes amid industry consolidation, with Gogo readying to combine forces with Satcom Direct, and tackle the threat of Starlink with significant heft and multi-orbit solutions.
Runway Girl Network is pleased to share our interview with Claudio D’Amico, Viasat’s vice president of strategic market engagement, business aviation, about the launch of JetXP.
RGN: How are the JetXP performance improvements being achieved? Is Viasat dedicating additional capacity to Jet ConneX customers? Is the additional capacity derived solely from the Global Xpress constellation that powers Jet Connex (or are any other satellites in play?)
D’Amico: Our JetXP program is a unique proposition that could only be achieved because of Viasat and Inmarsat coming together last year. Even before the acquisition, both companies were leading providers of business aviation in-flight connectivity, with vast amounts of expertise, experience and data insights in this market, in addition to impressive technology infrastructure and world-class partner ecosystems. By bringing all of that together as a single entity, we had a unique opportunity to transform the business aviation in-flight connectivity experience and that’s how the JetXP program was born. It marks an important step in harmonizing Viasat’s business aviation service offering and network management strategy by combining the aspects that are most beneficial to our customers.
The first step was extensive consultation with customers, partners and research agencies, in addition to detailed analysis of usage trends over the past year. These insights were extremely valuable and reinforced our belief that traditional speed-based plans are now outdated, especially those that advertise a top-speed without details around when, where and how frequently it will be achieved. Instead, the business aviation industry has broadened its focus to the overall experience.
One of Jet ConneX’s key strengths has always been delivering a strong overall experience, including consistency, reliability, global coverage and speed, in addition to white-glove customer service and 24/7 support through our partners. But we wanted to raise the bar even further and following the acquisition, we were able to utilize tools that managed our GX satellite capacity, which powers Jet ConneX, more efficiently.
RGN: Can you share more color around what Viasat has done to support “increased network prioritization”? And how does this prioritization, specifically, improve the passenger experience?
D’Amico: Increased network prioritization is a key enhancement that we were able to introduce for business aviation customers by more efficiently managing our GX capacity. This aligns with our company-wide focus to prioritize available capacity for the various mobility segments that we serve, including business and commercial aviation. And we are confident this approach will deliver an enhanced experience across the board in these segments. By increasing network prioritization, together with uncapping speeds and expanding capacity, we are unleashing the full power of our GX satellites to Jet ConneX customers. As a result, our more ‘experience sensitive’ customers on selected plans can rest assured that we’ll consistently meet a defined quality of experience across different applications, devices and flight routes.
JetXP enhancements have already been rolled out to hundreds of Jet ConneX customers on selected plans as part of a trial period and we have been monitoring their connectivity. The results have been extremely positive. For applications such as bulk file transfers, real-time entertainment and web browsing, which have traditionally performed strongly using Jet ConneX and enjoyed packet transmission first time success rates of greater than 99%, the enhancements have delivered improvements of 20-45% even in those already tiny margins, making the connectivity even more reliable, consistent and snappy. These are fantastic proof points and show we are not making empty promises. We have data to back our claims from hundreds of real operators on our live network.
RGN: Which select plans are seeing the JetXP improvements? Do GB/month plans receive this boost?
D’Amico: JetXP enhancements have already been rolled out to hundreds of customers on selected Jet ConneX plans. As always, details of these plans and any potential new plans in the future will be provided by our distribution partners — Collins Aerospace, Honeywell and Satcom Direct — to the market.
RGN: Is Viasat working with its partner network to deliver JetXP? Has Viasat entered any talks with Gogo about next steps now that Satcom Direct is being acquired by Gogo?
D’Amico: Yes, the JetXP enhancements have already been rolled out on several existing service plans through our three Jet ConneX distribution partners (Collins Aerospace, Honeywell and Satcom Direct). In terms of Gogo’s acquisition of Satcom Direct, both are long-standing business aviation partners of Viasat, and both have an excellent customer-centric focus, like us. We look forward to building on our strong partnership. We believe their combined expertise and focus on business aviation can enhance their joint offering of Viasat’s Ka-band and L-band in-flight connectivity services.
RGN: Per Viasat’s press release, Viasat’s research found that “reliability, coverage, consistency, value for money and overall experience (including white-glove customer service and 24/7 global support) were deemed more important than fast speeds alone”. Yet, some operators are drawn to the high speeds of SpaceX’s Starlink service, even though there are questions about long-term support and Starlink coverage challenges. How does Jet ConneX with JetXP stack up against Starlink IFC in terms of PaxEx and, importantly, the support provided by Viasat to operators?
D’Amico: Today’s business aviation customers are savvy enough to understand that beyond a certain bandwidth threshold, higher speed has little impact on actual passenger experience. Our extensive research and consultation has shown that while speed is still a component in the delivery of a high-quality experience, the market believes that reliability, coverage, consistency, customer service and 24/7 support are more important. You need all of these factors for a great quality of experience wherever and whenever you fly, whether it’s a remote off-the-path location or the world’s busiest business aviation traffic regions. And that’s exactly where Viasat really excels, supported by our world-class partner ecosystem. As the breadth and depth of criteria used to assess connectivity becomes more mature, there’s definitely a sense that the days of speed test decision-making are over.
RGN: Starlink has disrupted the maritime industry. Has Viasat capacity been freed up in maritime to support this JetXP aero boost?
D’Amico: We have been able to introduce the JetXP enhancements of uncapped speeds, expanded capacity and increased network prioritization by enhancing our service model and optimizing our network, unleashing its full power to business aviation customers.
RGN: I read on Viasat’s website that three next-generation terminals are forthcoming for Jet ConneX; these are developed by Satcom Direct, Orbit, and Honeywell, with SD and Orbit to deliver terminals this year that can later be upgraded to access the full Ka-band network, followed by JetWave X which will be fully interoperable out of the gate. Is JetXP relevant to the forthcoming new terminals?
D’Amico: Yes, that’s correct.
RGN: Viasat’s services are activated on more than 5,000 business jets around the world; how does this figure break down in terms of L-band, Jet ConneX and Viasat high-capacity Ka-band installs?
D’Amico: Jet ConneX is currently activated on more than 1,700 business jets around the world. The remainder of the business jets we serve either use our Viasat Ka service for business aviation or SwiftBroadband service on L-band. Some aircraft have SwiftBroadband activated alongside either Jet ConneX or Viasat Ka.
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Featured image credited to istock.com/Ryan Fletcher