The business aviation sector will be able to use Inmarsat’s European Aviation Network (EAN) inflight wi-fi solution by January 2019. EAN integrates connectivity from an Inmarsat satellite and Deutsche Telekom’s LTE-based ground network. All 28 member states of the European Union, as well as Switzerland and Norway, will be covered.
Inmarsat says the satellite and ground network combination offers lightning fast, low-latency performance over land and water. It will enable such internet use as working with remote business desktops, HD video streaming, online gaming and image sharing. The company says the solution uses small and lightweight hardware, making it suitable for small and mid-sized jets, as well as larger ones.
“EAN is a game-changer for the business aviation market, offering gold-standard inflight wifi to a broad spectrum of aircraft, from small turboprops to larger platforms such as the Citations, Learjets and Phenoms,” said Philip Balaam, president of Inmarsat Aviation. “It really is ideal for any business jet whose mission keeps them predominantly in Europe. Our projections show that the European business aviation fleet will grow beyond 5,000 aircraft in the coming years. We expect a strong uptake for EAN by offering a variety of data plans to meet every budget. Work has already commenced with a large business aviation launch customer for the service and planning for our first STC is underway.”
EAN’s integrated satellite and ground network is fully operational, with a number of flight trials already completed across Europe. The evaluations were conducted with partners Cobham, Thales and Nokia using a Cessna 550 Citation II provided by NLR.
June 7, 2018
