With the Airbus HBCplus (High Bandwidth Capacity) programme launched two years ago, the company is edging towards offering to customers.
The supplier launched Airspace Link at AIX in 2022 with its Ka offer and at AIX 2023 announced its Ku solution.
Since then the manfure has started certification work on both the Ka and Ku products preceded by in-flight evaluations of the Ku and Ka antenna solutions respectively.
To this end, the GetSat Ku-band antenna is being flight-tested on an A310 MRTT; meanwhile, the Thinkom Ka-band antenna recently commenced flight testing on Airbus’ A350-900 MSN2 “Airspace Explorer”.
The Ka Antenna installed on MSN002 test aircraft.
The Ka-band solution will be the first HBCplus solution to be delivered, in Emirates’ new A350s towards the end of this year, and will feature Viasat as the chosen Managed Service Provider.
Hughes joined the party
Airbus has added another Managed Service provider to its HBCplus programme. Hughes has recently signed a memorandum of understanding to join Airbus’ network of MSPs for the Ka-band solution providing significant flexibility to airlines.
Besides this MoU, Airbus and Hugues continue to explore partnership opportunities for other connectivity architectures & services (including Ku-band).
Subject to the final contract, Hughes would join Airbus’ four other MSPs in its HBCplus catalogue: Viasat; SES; Panasonic and Intelsat.
Airlines continue to sign up
With Airbus pushing this programme as part of its offerings, Philippine Airlines is the latest airline to select HBCplus to equip the nine A350-1000s which it ordered from Airbus in 2023.
In addition, an undisclosed airline has also selected HBCplus for its A320 Family aircraft – representing not only the first Single-Aisle commitment for HBCplus integration but also the first selection of SES from the HBCplus offering.
They join the previously announced HBCplus orders (from Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines; Air Algerie and Air India),
Additional deals are in various stages of negotiation with airlines and will be revealed in due course.
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