{"id":65040,"date":"2018-06-06T20:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/american-airlines-focus-on-streaming-opens-door-for-more-satellite\/"},"modified":"2018-06-06T20:00:42","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T12:00:42","slug":"american-airlines-focus-on-streaming-opens-door-for-more-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/american-airlines-focus-on-streaming-opens-door-for-more-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines\u2019 Focus on Streaming Opens Door for More Satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

American Airlines<\/strong> has a fleet of 950 aircraft that carried 200 million passengers in 2017, but how many of those passengers had a happy in-flight internet experience? Though that\u2019s hard to say, the airline is hoping to improve the experience vastly into the future. In 2016 the international carrier agreed to a new contract with Viasat<\/strong> to deploy satellite-based internet onto its fleet. The upgrades began recently on American\u2019s first Boeing<\/strong> 737 MAX aircraft, while the airline already features satellite internet across its international fleet of aircraft.<\/p>\n

Streaming in Focus<\/h3>\n

At the executive level, American Airlines is laser-focused on providing the ability for passengers to stream internet-based content from their Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs). The Texas-based carrier\u2019s vision aligns with internet-user trends that are a reality both on the ground and in the air. Cisco\u2019s<\/strong> latest mobile data traffic forecast, for example, predicts that 78 percent of global mobile data traffic will be the consumption of video by 2021.<\/p>\n

Streaming has become a major part of American\u2019s business model and an aspect of its passenger experience that it highlights to shareholders, according to its 10-K annual report recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission<\/strong> \u2014 specifically highlighting its introduction of new \u201cstreaming-capable, satellite-based internet access on our Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker has touted that stream-worthy internet experience repeatedly throughout the first half of 2018. \u201cThe next big thing we have coming is satellite Wi-Fi,\u201d said Parker, in a presentation about American\u2019s commercial strategy at the J.P. Morgan, Aviation, Transportation & Industrials Conference in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve flown us internationally, you\u2019ll notice we have a nice satellite Wi-Fi product, much different than the ground-based Wi-Fi product that we have flying around the U.S. The satellite Wi-Fi product has much more bandwidth, allows everybody on the airplane to be streaming if they would like to at the same time,\u201d Parker added.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s presentation to investors also included comparisons to the \u201cground-based product\u201d that he said \u201callows a few people\u201d online simultaneously. He also emphasized his view that the network he was referring to \u2014 which is currently still featured on hundreds of American\u2019s domestic fleet of aircraft \u2014 passengers \u201ccan\u2019t stream anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

American held its first-quarter-earnings call in April, when Parker again emphasized in-flight streaming as a key focus for the airline\u2019s in-flight passenger experience. It was one of the first things he referenced in prepared remarks when discussing the introduction of American\u2019s new Boeing 737 MAX fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the introduction of the 737 MAXs, we now have satellite Wi-Fi on domestic aircraft, something that will be continued to roll out through 2019, a huge advancement in the product,\u201d said Parker. \u201cEveryone on the aircraft can stream at the same time \u2014 much different from the ground-based Wi-Fi on much of the American fleet and [commercial aviation] industry\u2019s fleet today. It\u2019s being well noticed, by our customers, a huge advantage for American that continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the Streams<\/h3>\n

What Parker left out in his briefing to shareholders, though, was how exactly American enables the streaming that it is focused on providing.<\/p>\n

To enable the use of satellite-based streaming on American airplanes, the aircraft needs to feature an antenna, power supply, modem, IFEC server and wireless access points, according to ViaSat, which is the network that American is deploying across its Boeing 737 MAX fleet domestically in the U.S. ViaSat\u2019s overview of its in-flight internet offering provides a depiction of the aerial pathway that a stream of data has to travel across to enable streaming on a mobile device.<\/p>\n

Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg in February told investors that the satellite service provider was behind the delivery of more than 4 million PED sessions during its third quarter. With ViaSat-2 coming online in 2018, ViaSat will have with 300-plus gbps, followed by the eventual introduction of ViaSat-3, which will offer more than three terabits per second of total network capacity from its satellite trio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think there\u2019s a clear trend toward airlines capitalizing on in-flight connectivity as a cost-effective way to differentiate themselves and to drive passenger satisfaction,\u201d said Dankberg on the first-quarter earnings call.<\/p>\n

American\u2019s Future Fleet IFC Strategy?<\/h3>\n

American Airlines also made a major fleet upgrade announcement in April, by deciding to an agreement with Boeing to purchase 40 new Boeing 787 aircraft. The 787 will operate on domestic and international routes, the latter of which are the only aircraft routes that feature airplanes with seatback screens.<\/p>\n

But based on Parker\u2019s repeated focus on offering streaming as a passenger-experience differentiator, something to look out for at American will be which internet service provider the airline will pick for its fleet of 787s. The 787s will not begin delivery until 2019. Parker\u2019s focus on streaming is a clear indication that the carrier will continue to invest in the best available in-flight internet connection that can enable a seamless streaming experience for every passenger, regardless of whether the connection is beamed over an ATG, Ku- or Ka-band connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is on bringing the living room experience in a seamless and simplified way for our customers. This means giving them faster Wi-Fi and a large library of complimentary entertainment. With the faster Wi-Fi, customers who purchase Wi-Fi will be able to access their own streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cFor customers who wish to disconnect for a bit, they can enjoy complimentary entertainment on their own device or seatback with new movies, TV shows, games and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story on Via Satellite\u2019s sister publication GCA Link.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Airlines has a fleet of 950 aircraft that carried 200 million passengers in 2017, but how many of those passengers had a happy in-flight internet experience? Though that\u2019s hard to say, the airline is hoping to improve the experience vastly into the future. In 2016 the international carrier agreed to a new contract with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49352,"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-65040","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\/65040"}],"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=65040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}