{"id":55132,"date":"2022-06-28T23:32:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T15:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-works-to-educate-airlines-on-virtues-of-starlink-and-leo-in-flight-connectivity\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T23:32:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T15:32:42","slug":"spacex-works-to-educate-airlines-on-virtues-of-starlink-and-leo-in-flight-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-works-to-educate-airlines-on-virtues-of-starlink-and-leo-in-flight-connectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Works to Educate Airlines on Virtues of Starlink and LEO In-flight Connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

SpaceX<\/strong>\u2019s top Starlink executive is leading the drive to convince airlines that Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-powered in-flight internet services would be superior to current offerings in terms of speed, ease of use, and the ability to provide widespread, consistent coverage \u2014 even for transoceanic flights.<\/p>\n

Speaking on a panel at the Connected Aviation Intelligence conference earlier this month, Starlink Vice President of Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller said current in-flight internet services powered by Geostationary (GEO) satellites will not be able to keep up with the connectivity demands of airline passengers, particularly younger consumers.<\/p>\n

The Starlink constellation of more than 2,330 LEO satellites powers internet service for 400,000 consumers and enterprises in 32 countries. Starlink this year has inked deals with Hawaiian Airlines and JSX, a California-based Part 135 public charter operator, to begin equipping aircraft with its LEO-powered in-flight connectivity (IFC) service in 2023. Hawaiian\u2019s service will be free for passengers.<\/p>\n

Hofeller said aviation is a potentially significant market for LEO-driven internet services that Starlink is actively targeting, noting that beyond the Hawaiian and JSX contracts are \u201cseveral more [airline agreements] in the works.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re obsessive about the passenger experience. We\u2019re going to be on planes here very shortly, so hopefully passengers are wowed by the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key differentiator between GEO- and LEO-powered internet services for airlines will be the low latency of LEO options, Hofeller said, explaining that consistent, high-speed connectivity comparable to the \u201chome experience\u201d is not possible with GEO satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re transitioning from a download-heavy model to more of a symmetric type of environment,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look to the future and you believe two-way communication is important, then that latency becomes extremely important, whether it\u2019s co-editing documents or doing real-time FaceTime calls \u2026 There are a lot of applications where latency is super important to being productive on an aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this reason, airlines will consider moving to LEO-driven services, according to Philippe Schleret, vice president of aviation for Telesat<\/strong>, the Canadian satellite operator that aims to equip aircraft with LEO IFC capabilities by 2026. \u201cWe see a lot of excitement with the airline community about the prospect of having the IFC services over LEO networks,\u201d he told the Connected Aviation Intelligence conference. \u201cIt\u2019s really about bringing a superior quality of experience at an affordable price. [LEO can] enable free services with higher throughput and a lot of features. We\u2019re pretty bullish about the prospect of having the vast majority of airline IFC traffic over LEO ultimately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another panelist, OneWeb<\/strong>\u2019s Market Development Director for Business Aviation Jason Sperry, predicted that LEO-powered IFC will be commonplace in the 2030s. \u201cBy 2030, you\u2019ll see a considerable amount of aviation traffic on LEO networks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like Starlink, U.K.-based OneWeb aims to be offering LEO-driven IFC services on aircraft by 2023, but it has not yet announced any agreements with airlines.<\/p>\n

Sperry said airlines are concerned with what he calls \u201cthe five Cs\u201d when it comes to IFC: cost, coverage, capacity, connection, and consistency. All of these will be improved by LEO-based services, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re really going to see an adoption by the airlines,\u201d Sperry said. \u201cThe passenger experience matters and airlines really want to provide a passenger experience that will continue to allow that customer to come back to that airline and not go to another airline. The younger generation is pushing the demand and the expectation to have that aboard the aircraft. Airlines are really looking forward to getting on with LEO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofeller noted that Starlink\u2019s current consumer-based internet offering provides service within a country\u2019s borders, but airline service will be provided across borders. \u201cThe deal we signed with Hawaiian Airlines opens up the transoceanic [coverage],\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we have our inter-satellite links, which enables that capability, and that system is being deployed as we speak. We\u2019ll be able to be servicing folks intercontinental early next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sperry said a big hurdle to overcome is a lack of awareness among airlines about LEO satellites and the IFC capabilities they can provide. \u201cFrom our perspective, education is important,\u201d he explained. \u201cEach airline has a different kind of mindset in what they understand about the [LEO] networks \u2026 The generation now and the generation upcoming really demands this on aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added it is \u201cnot a question of if airlines are going to do it, but when.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofeller said many airlines currently have a view that technologies such as IFC should be upgraded only every 10 to 12 years. \u201cThat\u2019s completely misaligned with how technology develops,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIf you\u2019re ultimately looking at what the best thing is for the passenger experience, you have to have the flexibility to get the best product for them\u201d as soon as it is available.<\/p>\n

Hofeller predicted airlines will be convinced when Starlink\u2019s services are on aircraft and \u201cwe show airlines the technology and what can be done.\u201d He added: \u201cThe product that we have is simple, it\u2019s lightweight, easy to install, and easy to de-install.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Starlink\u2019s LEO satellite constellation will continue to grow and provide increasingly robust coverage. The company is building eight satellites a day at its Seattle-area manufacturing facility. Hofeller added that Starlink is telling airlines it will handle all aspects of its service, enabling fast troubleshooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the beauty of our system is that we are completely vertically integrated,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

But some airlines will need to be persuaded to end current IFC contracts early, Hofeller said: \u201cI know the aviation industry is focused on long-term cycles and that doesn\u2019t necessarily align with the adoption of new technologies, but we\u2019re hoping to disrupt that [and convince airlines] not to be stuck into a legacy contract that\u2019s seven years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as airlines need to learn about Starlink and LEO satellites, Starlink needs to become more familiar with the airline industry, Hofeller conceded: \u201cWe\u2019re new at this. We\u2019re going to adapt \u2026 We\u2019re not stuck in a particular way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was first published by Via Satellite sister publication Avionics International<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s top Starlink executive is leading the drive to convince airlines that Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-powered in-flight internet services would be superior to current offerings in terms of speed, ease of use, and the ability to provide widespread, consistent coverage \u2014 even for transoceanic flights. Speaking on a panel at the Connected Aviation Intelligence conference earlier this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}