Colombia’s largest airline, Avianca, and British telecommunications giant Inmarsat announced they signing an agreement that will allow travelers access to the next generation of airborne broadband on-board its aircraft.
The GX Aviation satellite broadband system, which boasts downloads speeds of 30MB per second (fast enough for a Facebook Live stream, for example) will initially be available to all Avianca passengers on approximately 125 Airbus A320, A330 and Boeing 787 aircraft.
Avianca’s GX-equipped aircraft are currently expected to be rolled out starting at the end of this year.
“Today, technology is one of Avianca’s fundamental pillars. Therefore, and to allow our travelers to be always connected, we have signed an agreement that will enable us to continue advancing in our digital transformation with the support of Inmarsat,” said Avianca CEO Hernan Rincon in a statement.
Avianca joins other leading airlines like Lufthansa Group, International Airlines Group (IAG), Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Norwegian Air and Air Asia. That brings the total theoretical capacity of the system to 1000 aircraft.
Avianca understands that its passengers and cabin crew today expect a consistent, reliable and fast in-flight broadband service wherever they fly. GX Aviation is also scalable with the high growth expected in Latin America over the next decade.
Inmarsat Aviation President Leo Mondale
In 2016 Avianca transported 29.4 million passengers and currently runs a fleet of 176 short, medium and long-range aircraft.