Air France surprised many in the aero world when it selected SpaceX’s Starlink inflight connectivity solution for its fleet of aircraft, as opposed to Paris-headquartered Eutelsat’s competing OneWeb Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satcom service.
But while Eutelsat chief executive officer Jean-François Fallacher says it’s “a pity” the satellite operator didn’t win the French flag carrier’s business, he reveals that new contracts with other carriers — including with an undisclosed operator in South America — have been forged.
“We are equipping other airlines, Delta Air Lines, amongst others,” Fallacher noted during a conference call to report Eutelsat’s fiscal year 2024/2025 earnings, including an impressive 84.1% year-over-year increase in connectivity revenue for its LEO business, which supports a variety of clients including enterprise, government and mobility.
“And there are more to come,” he assured in reference to new airline clients.
We just signed this week an important contract with a South American airline so it’s a pity we did not convince Air France in the past but sometimes it happens in a competitive market.
By the end of Eutelsat’s fiscal year, on 30 June 2025, over 100 “certified antenna installations” supporting OneWeb LEO had been completed aboard aircraft out of a backlog of “close to 1,000 aircraft,” according to Eutelsat. And the first jets are now in service including at Air Canada and American Airlines, as managed by SES-owned satellite operator and aero ISP Intelsat.
In contrast, SpaceX in mid-April revealed at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg that some 3,000-plus aircraft had committed to Starlink, a figure which is understood to include business aviation (BizAv) tails. Virgin Atlantic later announced a full-fleet deal for Starlink.
On the LEO-for-aviation front, SpaceX has enjoyed a solid head start to Eutelsat, whose OneWeb LEO service only went live in aero earlier this year. Both firms have pursued different approaches to the inflight connectivity market, however, with SpaceX servicing airlines directly, and Eutelsat embracing a B2B model that sees integrators resell and add value to the OneWeb LEO service.
Eutelsat’s Delta contract, for example, was won — and is being managed — by satellite operator and aero ISP Hughes Network Systems, which is a service distribution partner of OneWeb LEO in aero. Hughes is bringing the service to Delta’s Boeing 717s, plus select A321neos and A350s as part of a hybrid, multi-band, multi-orbit GEO/LEO architecture that will also blend capacity from geostationary satellites. Hughes is also actively growing its IFC business, EchoStar management has revealed.
Elsewhere within the mobility vertical, India-based Station Satcom is bringing OneWeb LEO to the global maritime sector, Fallacher noted on Eutelsat’s earnings call.
In terms of possible future opportunities, French state-owned rail company SNCF is launching a tender to explore satcom-based solutions to power connectivity on board its trains, Reuters reported last month. And rumors have been swirling that SpaceX is in talks with SNCF, as an analyst noted on Eutelsat’s earnings call. Fallacher confirmed that Eutelsat is “in talks with SNCF as well.”
As to when a train connectivity contract could start, the Eutelsat CEO said: “It is honestly not to me to comment. This is obviously a choice of SNCF. And that is, to my knowledge, potentially going to happen in 2026. And one thing I confirm, once more, obviously this is a competitive market. There will be competition, no doubt with Starlink.”
For the 12 months ended 30 June, Eutelsat grew its revenue by 2.5% year-over-year on a reported basis to EUR 1.24 billion. And LEO revenue now represents 15% of Eutelsat’s total revenue.
The firm is, however, experiencing “challenging conditions” for GEO-specific enabled solutions, as evidenced by the 7.3% year-over-year decline in connectivity revenue for GEO during the 12-month period.
With a global LEO fleet of over 650 satellites, and another 440 expected to be deployed in the coming years to enhance performance, Eutelsat sees continued strong momentum behind its LEO business, even though five more gateways need to be built to support truly global coverage — now estimated for 2026.
Longer term, total revenue at the firm is expected to grow at a double-digit rate by 2028/29 “mostly driven by the LEO business,” Fallacher said on the call.
He also confirmed that Eutelsat has no interest in competing with Starlink or Amazon’s future Project Kuiper service in the consumer market.
“Our strategy is really to take the lion’s share in the B2B connectivity market,” he said, noting that “the cake is huge and the cake is growing very, very fast on B2B and government service.”
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Featured image credited to istock.com/helloabc
