Airbus and SES work towards first agnostic connectivity offer

Inflight connectivity company, SES, has signed a letter of agreement (LoA) with Airbus that sets out a path for SES to become the second Managed Service Provider (MSP) to join the Airspace Link HBCplus catalogue offering for airlines. HBCplus grants airlines flexibility as it decouples the bandwidth provider from the antenna and the IFE systems. According to SES, the agnostic SFE antenna ‘de-risks’ the airlines’ far-reaching bandwidth supplier decisions and comes with Airbus support, warranties and seamless aircraft integration.

Moreover, following a contract signature with Airbus, SES will bring its combined MEO and GEO Ka-band network through the Airbus ecosystem for the first time.
Andre Schneider, VP of cabin and cargo programmes at Airbus said, “We look forward to adding SES to our HBCplus MSP catalogue, and continue our journey of offering best-in-class aircraft technology combined with industry-leading service providers. Additionally, SES’s innovative use of GEO and MEO satellites to seamlessly offer a multi-orbit solution fits the disruptive nature of the Airspace Link open ecosystem to provide an end-to-end solution.”

The growing Airspace Link open ecosystem provides airlines with a multifunctional onboard aircraft platform for IoT services and apps, with HBCplus being the offboard connectivity link.

JP Hemingway, chief strategy and product officer at SES added, “SES along with its global partners are building a truly differentiated multi-orbit network, which is capable of providing the best IFC service in the air for both short-haul and long-haul commercial aviation markets. We look forward to concluding our partnership with Airbus and working together to bring these innovative multi-orbit global capabilities to the Airspace Link HBCplus ecosystem.”