Dubai 2015: Jazeera signs with Rockwell Collins for Inmarsat GX

The airline has agreed to equip its fleet of seven Airbus A320 aircraft with the high-speed satellite system, as well as Rockwell Collins’ PAVES in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC). The contract was signed on Monday at the Dubai Airshow.

Rockwell Collins says the new service will launch on Jazeera in December 2016, bringing broadband-like speeds to passengers via a Honeywell-supplied Ka-band fuselage-mounted antenna and terminal.

The system will allow passengers to watch videos, browse the internet and download files while in flight. The PAVES open-software architecture will support a wide array of applications and services including entertainment, news, paid-for services and shopping.

Claude Albar, Rockwell Collins’ vice president and managing director for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, said: “For passengers, this means a wealth of new possibilities for entertainment, wherever they fly in the world.”

Inmarsat’s GX system promises download speeds of up to 40-50Mbps to a commercial aircraft via the three geostationary Ka-band satellites in orbit. These are in their final positions and testing is taking place prior to a global system launch in early 2016.

Honeywell is building the two antennas for GX – a tail-mount for small business jets and a fuselage-mount for commercial airliners.

It has been a good week for Rockwell Collins and Inmarsat GX. A few days ago it announced that VistaJet was to become its first business aviation customer to adopt Jet ConneX – the business aviation variant of Inmarsat’s new connectivity solution.