Inmarsat’s GX5 Delivers Massive Capacity Boost to Europe and Middle East

(31 Oct 2021) Inmarsat is celebrating the commercial service introduction (CSI) of its most advanced satellite to date, the GX5.

The satellite is now delivering unprecedented capacity to Europe and the Middle East as part of the Global Xpress (GX) network, which powers GX Aviation and Jet ConneX (JX) inflight Wi-Fi services.

Conceived, designed and procured principally to meet the needs of airline and business aviation customers, GX5 delivers approximately twice the capacity of the entire existing GX satellite fleet (GX1-GX4) combined.

Together with a significantly expanded ground station network and enhanced cloud-based processing, the powerful satellite is essential to support rapidly growing demand for aviation connectivity in Europe and the Middle East.

GX5 will transform Inmarsat’s offering to aviation customers, bringing significant layered capacity and network redundancy over Europe and the Middle East, which form one of the world’s busiest travel corridors.

GX Aviation customers set to benefit from the regional capacity boost include leading airlines such as Qatar Airways, Eurowings, Lufthansa, Air France, SAS and Singapore Airlines, alongside more than 800 business jets enabled with JX.

GX5 is the 14th satellite currently in service with Inmarsat. Seven further launches are scheduled by 2024: five in geostationary orbit - adding speed, capacity and resilience - and two in highly elliptical orbit., which will enable the world’s only commercial mobile broadband service in the commercially and strategically critical Arctic region.

Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation, said, “GX Aviation and Jet ConneX are firmly established as the world’s leading inflight connectivity solutions and we have now embarked on a major, fully-funded development programme to ensure they remain at the very forefront of this industry.

“We are delighted to take the next step in this ambitious roadmap with GX5’s entry into commercial service. This is our most powerful satellite to date, delivering more capacity over Europe and the Middle East than the four existing GX satellites combined. In addition to transforming the quality of aviation connectivity today, it will ensure that our customers remain at the cutting-edge of technology innovation as their needs evolve and air traffic recovers in 2021 and beyond.”

Inmarsat’s Passenger Confidence Tracker recently revealed that the pandemic has further accelerated demand for inflight connectivity. According to the research, four in ten commercial airline passengers globally (39%) say onboard Wi-Fi is more important to them since the pandemic.

The research also highlighted growing demand for connected services that reduce interaction and increase passenger autonomy, with inflight contactless payments, real time destination alerts and inflight immigration clearance cited amongst the most effective ways to boost passenger confidence in light of COVID19.

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