EchoStar chief reveals Hughes IFC wins at two large airlines

Hughes Network Systems was recently selected by “two large airlines” to bring its inflight connectivity solutions to their fleets, Hamid Akhavan, president and CEO of Hughes parent EchoStar revealed during the firm’s 2Q 2025 earnings conference call.

The new deals underscore the Germantown, Maryland-based firm’s continued penetration into the IFC market, Akhavan said of Hughes, which has already secured Delta Air Lines as a customer.

“Our inflight connectivity business provides the aero industry’s only future-proof solution by leveraging multi-frequency LEO/GEO satellite networks with multiple connectivity providers to offer airline customers a unique, flexible and cost-effective solution,” he said on the call.

Though Akhavan did not detail which IFC solutions have been selected — or indeed the names of the two airlines — the multi-band, multi-network LEO/GEO architecture he referenced in his broader statement is called Hughes Fusion (formally Hughes Jupiter Fusion), and is supported by ThinKom Solutions’ new ThinAir Plus mix-and-match package.

ThinKom Ka2517 sitting alongside the Hughes ESA in the same package, as displayed at the ThinKom booth at AIX

ThinAir Plus combines a ThinKom Ka2517 VICTS antenna, which talks to Ka-band GEO satellites, with Hughes’ own electronically steerable antenna (ESA) tucked beside it under the same radome (or positioned elsewhere atop the fuselage) talking to Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO satellites, for which Hughes is an aero service distribution partner.

Additionally, Hughes’ cadre of IFC solutions includes Hughes Jupiter In-flight, a high-throughput Ka-band GEO-now focused IFC product in the Americas and beyond (with a path to Ka-band MEO and LEO in the future) that uses VICTS hardware. Delta is a customer of both Hughes Fusion (for its Boeing 717s, plus select new A321neos and A350s) and Hughes Jupiter In-flight (for its regional jet fleet.)

Hughes also offers a LEO-only IFC product that utilizes the Hughes ESA and is powered by Eutelsat OneWeb service.

Akhavan noted on the earnings call that Hughes has made “significant advances” in obtaining linefit offerability at airframers. He pointed to the selection of Hughes by Airbus “to offer joint service technology solutions to their customers via their HBCplus inflight connectivity program.”

Hughes is a publicized Ka-band managed service provider on HBCplus, which is the linefit, supplier-furnished offering from Airbus. But the firm has also expressed interest in serving as a managed service provider on the Ku-band side of the program. RGN has sought clarity from Hughes on whether it is now in line to be a Ku-band MSP, based on Akhavan’s comment.

Also of note during the second quarter, Hughes achieved the AS9100 quality certification. “We are pleased with the success of this business unit and are optimistic about future global opportunities in this market,” Akhavan said, calling the AS9100 achievement a “complement” to Hughes’ various FAA certification milestones.

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