Inmarsat Receives Aviation Achievement Award | EAN Celebrates Third Year Anniversary | Thales Alenia Space & Microsoft Announce Strategic Collaboration | Analogic’s ConneCT Checkpoint Security Screening | ASL Orders 20 Additional B737-800s

INMARSAT WINS ‘SATELLITE OPERATOR EXCELLENCE’ ACCOLADE FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR AT AVIATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Inmarsat has taken top honors at the Aviation Achievement Awards, after being crowned winner in the ‘Satellite Operator Excellence’ category for the second consecutive year. The prestigious accolade was presented during an awards ceremony in Dubai, with special praise from the judging panel for Inmarsat’s ‘exceptional leadership, innovation and resilience’ over the past year.

As the aviation industry continues to recover from the unprecedented global impact of Covid-19 on air travel, Inmarsat was hailed for providing outstanding support to customers of its market-leading cockpit and cabin connectivity solutions in both the airline and business aviation markets. It also achieved a number of contract wins, installations and activations, with the latest milestones including:

• GX Aviation selected by more than 35 airlines (including SAUDIA as a new customer) and activated on over 550 aircraft, with approximately 1,000 additional aircraft in the order book.
• European Aviation Network(EAN) becoming available on more than 265 aircraft, with Greek national carrier AEGEAN joining British Airways, Iberia and Vueling as a new airline customer.
• More than 215 aircraft flying with SB-S, with new customers including Cebu Pacific and Tunisair.
• Thousands of business jets equipped with Jet ConneXand SwiftBroadband.
• Launch of OneFi airline passenger experience platform to monetize inflight connectivity.

Judges for the awards, which are primarily focused on the Middle East, described Inmarsat as a ‘pioneer of satellite innovation, achieving an impressive number of industry firsts during the last 12 months’. They added that ‘Inmarsat enjoyed another strong year of milestones, from launching I-6 F1, the largest and most sophisticated commercial communications satellite, to unveiling it to transformative ORCHESTRA network, which draws together the benefits of multiple technologies to create one cohesive solution’.

Neale Faulkner, Inmarsat Aviation’s Regional Vice President Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEASA), said “Inmarsat prides itself on being a customer-centric organization and we are delighted that the Aviation Achievement Awards have once again acknowledged the outstanding service we provide, alongside our world-class partner ecosystem, to both airline and business aviation customers. Although Covid-19 has continued to impact air travel during the last 12 months, conditions are improving thanks to the re-opening of borders and easing of travel restrictions, which is helping to boost passenger numbers.

“Inmarsat is excited about the fundamental role that connectivity will play in this exciting new era for aviation, from providing an enhanced onboard experience that boosts passenger confidence and unlocks new revenue opportunities for airlines, to transforming operations and safety by powering concepts such as ‘4D’ trajectories and electronic flight bags. Our latest innovations, such as the ELERA and ORCHESTRA networks that were also praised by the award judges, will further enhance our capabilities and unlock even more innovations for decades to come.”

Kenneth Mitchen, Executive Director at Creative Middle East Media, organizer of the Aviation Achievement Awards, said “Satellite connectivity has played a vital role in aviation for many years now and its importance has only grown since the global pandemic. For airline and business aviation passengers, connectivity is keeping them connected with friends, family and colleagues, allowing them to catch up on work or keep entertained with streaming, social media and more, while also supporting a touchless journey onboard the aircraft. It’s also vital for enhancing operations and safety to become more efficient and cost effective. However, to achieve all of this, you need to work with a forward-thinking and innovative satellite operator. Inmarsat has a successful track record of delivering for its customers and we congratulate them on once again winning our Satellite Operator Excellence Award for 2022.” 

INMARSAT AND DEUTSCHE TELEKOM CELEBRATE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF EUROPEAN AVIATION NETWORK BEING OFFERED COMMERCIALLY BY AIRLINES

Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom are celebrating the third anniversary of their award-winning European Aviation Network (EAN) inflight broadband being offered commercially by airline customers. To date, more than 50 million passengers have enjoyed access to the advanced, high-speed connectivity solution on over 420,000 flights across the continent with British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and AEGEAN.

As Europe’s fastest inflight broadband service, EAN allows passengers to seamlessly browse the internet, stream videos, check social media, enjoy real-time interactive applications such as gaming, and more. It has marked a paradigm shift in the airline experience, with incomparable speeds, uninterrupted coverage and significantly lower latency than any other inflight Wi-Fi network in the continent.

EAN has now been activated on more than 265 aircraft, including the entire British Airways short-haul fleet. These numbers will continue to grow in the coming years, as final roll-out progresses with Iberia and Vueling – both members of the International Airlines Group (IAG) alongside British Airways – in addition to all of Greek national carrier AEGEAN’s existing and new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.

EAN’s popularity reached new heights last year, with record usage as passengers returned to the skies. This aligns with Inmarsat’s latest Passenger Confidence Tracker, the largest global survey of its kind, which found that 41% of the 10,000 respondents believed inflight Wi-Fi had further increased in importance post pandemic. The results also indicated digital solutions that keep passengers connected and minimize their contact with cabin crew and fellow travelers are helping to boost travel confidence.

Philippe Carette, President of Inmarsat Aviation, said: “Back in March 2019, British Airways became the first airline to make our EAN inflight broadband service commercially available to passengers. It has since been joined by Iberia, Vueling and most recently AEGEAN, which have all been able to delight passengers with the highest standard of connectivity on short and medium haul flights. EAN has played an important role in enhancing their onboard experience, unlocking new revenue opportunities for airlines and instilling greater confidence in air travel following the pandemic. We’re delighted to celebrate this anniversary with our partners and customers, especially at a time when passenger usage of EAN is now higher than ever before, showing an increased desire to stay connected post Covid-19.”

Rolf Nafziger, Senior Vice President, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier and Global Business, said: “EAN is Europe’s leading inflight connectivity service for good reason, offering reliable, uninterrupted, high-speed broadband on par with services on the ground. Now, airlines are fighting hard to win back customers, and EAN is the best solution available to meet the needs of their passengers, who want to be connected and entertained onboard. Our joint EAN service with Inmarsat means we can continue to help airlines put their passengers first, by providing the fastest and most reliable connectivity available.”

As the world’s first inflight broadband solution that combines dedicated satellite coverage with a complementary LTE-based ground network, EAN has been developed by Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, and Deutsche Telekom, in partnership with leading European companies such as Thales, Nokia, Airbus, Cobham and Eclipse Technics. Specifically designed to meet the needs of European aviation, it delivers the fastest speeds over one of the world’s most congested airspaces, plus the quickest installation times and easy scalability to meet growing demand in the future.

THALES ALENIA SPACE WITH HELP FROM MICROSOFT DEMONSTRATE ON-ORBIT COMPUTE TECHNOLOGIES ONBOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TO GATHER UNMATCHED EARTH OBSERVATION INSIGHTS

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%),  announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to explore the enablement of new capabilities in the Space Edge Computing (SEC), Artificial Intelligence Space Observation tools (DeeperVision) and Digital Ground Segment.

In particular, Thales Alenia Space plans to deliver advanced connectivity, analytics and compute in space with Space Edge Computing (SEC) with Microsoft. To this end, the companies will demonstrate and validate on-orbit computing technologies and potentialities onboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023. Thales Alenia Space will deploy a powerful on-orbit computer, an on-orbit application framework, and high-performance Earth Observation sensors to unlock new on-orbit climate data processing applications for the benefits of our planet sustainability. Thales Alenia Space will work with Microsoft Research in remote sensing, computer vision and climate science to demonstrate the potential of next-generation on-orbit compute for Earth observation. This space edge computing capacity will allow gathering faster, to-the-point Earth observation insights immediately applicable for our planet’s surveillance, understanding and protection.

PLATTSBURG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYS ANALOGIC’S ConneCT™  CHECKPOINT SECURITY SCREENING SOLUTION

Analogic Corporation announced it has successfully deployed its ConneCT™ Computed Tomography (CT) checkpoint security screening system at a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint in Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG) in New York. The deployment is part of the TSA’s new Checkpoint Property Screening Systems (CPSS) program which will have Analogic deploy over 300 Mid-size CPSS Systems into airport security checkpoints across the country. Analogic Corporation expects the new CT screening technology to significantly improve both aviation security as well as the passenger experience by providing enhanced 3D images to security officers and by limiting divesture and increasing throughput, all in a touch-free environment.

Tom Ripp, CEO of Analogic said, “This is an important milestone for Analogic because it demonstrates our commitment to advanced technology, to operational efficiency, and to the satisfaction of the traveling public. This is the first true step on the journey toward implementation of totally friction-less security processing.” Mr. Ripp continued: “Coming only months after our contract award, this deployment is a tribute to the hard work of the TSA, the team at Plattsburgh, our airport partners, and Analogic’s dedicated employees.”

ASL ORDERS UP TO 20 ADDITIONAL B737-800 CONVERTED FREIGHTERS TO DRIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Dublin-headquartered ASL Aviation Holdings (ASL) and Boeing announced an order for up to 20 additional 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF). The agreement is for 10 firm orders and 10 purchase rights.

“This new order is an important element of our fleet renewal program, and we are delighted to expand our partnership with Boeing on the 737-800BCF,” said Dave Andrew, Chief Executive, ASL Aviation Holdings. “The 737-800BCF offers increased reliability and performance, and equally its lower fuel burn reduces our environmental footprint. This is very important to ASL as an aviation group committed to environmental sustainability in aviation.”

This is ASL’s second order for the 737-800BCF and including options, will bring the organization’s total 737-800BCF orders and commitments with Boeing to 40 aircraft. The aircraft will be converted by Boeing at approved MRO sites including STAECO in Jinan, China and at Boeing’s London Gatwick MRO facility in the United Kingdom.

“We are honored to play a crucial role in the fleet renewal underway across ASL Aviation Holdings’ operation,” said Jens Steinhagen, director of Boeing Converted Freighters. “Boeing Converted Freighters support progress towards sustainability goals by providing operators like those under the ASL Group umbrella an economical way to replace less efficient, older-generation freighters.”

The 737-800BCF carries more payload – up to 23.9 tonnes (52,800 lbs.) – and flies farther – 2,025 nautical miles (3,750 km) compared to 737 Classic freighters.