Untapped In-Flight Connectivity Market Represents Huge Potential for Satellite Industry
NSR Projects Commercial Aircraft Connectivity Retail Revenues to Reach $3.2 Billion by 2024
Wilmington, DE & London, UK – April 9, 2015 – Released today, NSR’s Aeronautical Satcom Markets, 3rd Edition report, forecasts commercial aircraft connectivity markets to reach retail revenues of US $3.2 billion by 2024. In-flight connectivity (IFC) FSS Ku-band and HTS installs on wide-body and narrow-body airplanes will drive the market growth.
“Today’s passengers expect IFC. It is no longer a “Luxury Item” for their journey. It’s place in the journey has become almost as expected as the emergency card in the seat pocket in front of them”, states report author, Claude Rousseau. “This expectation fuels airlines’ investment projects in IFC. They see take-up rates of satcom and air-to-ground services grow faster, as more terminals are installed on aircrafts worldwide.” For the more than 100,000+ airframes in the addressable market, NSR projects that today’s business is a fraction of the potential for satcom connectivity with only 47,500 in-service satcom units deployed. As more satellite flavors are available to link aircraft with the ground for popular social media applications or bandwidth-hungry video applications, every indications points to a surge in capacity demand that could shake-up the market and extend connectivity to more airlines for both long and medium-haul.
“The past year as seen some airlines diversify their satellite solutions to adapt services to the demand from passengers and crew alike on regional and trans-oceanic routes,” Rousseau adds, “and this has meant more bandwidth has been consumed in more aircrafts at cruising altitude to satisfy the growing base of passengers that want always-on connectivity, anywhere.”
Building on passengers’ thirst for connectivity, the market is expanding globally. The applications will reach further into the operations of aircraft fleets, and bring more safety during flight. Mostly an L-band market today, customer requirements are moving airlines to adopt more FSS Ku-band and GEO/Non-GEO HTS satellite bandwidth. By 2024, NSR forecasts the market for Aeronautical SATCOM connectivity will reach 160 transponder equivalents for FSS Capacity, and 81 Gbps of bandwidth across GEO/Non-GEO systems.
About the Report
The ASM 3rd Edition study continues a decade-long, in-depth and highly detailed analysis and forecasts of aeronautical satellite demand for enterprise and commercial markets. It also introduces a demand assessment of commercial and business aviation air-to-ground (ATG) aeronautical services and covers emerging High Throughput Satellite capacity in GEO (Ku-band and Ka-band) and non-GEO. It provides an assessment of in-flight connectivity take-up rates and pricing.
About NSR
NSR is a leading international market research and consulting firm with a core focus on the satellite sector and related industries. Founded in 2000 and with an experienced group of analysts located in all regions, NSR specializes in analysis of growth opportunities across four core sectors: Satellite Communications, Broadcasting & Digital Media, Hybrid & Emerging Applications and Commercial Space.
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