Ask Justin Vena, senior avionics installations sales rep at Duncan Ais immediate: “It seems like all I’m doing right now is writing quotes for LEO internet,” he said. “We’re all getting hammered with requests.”
Vena’s installation pipeline now stretches four to six months, fueled by sustained demand unlike anything he has seen since the Gogo L5 rollout or the ADS-B mandate. “The hot topic – what everybody is asking for – is Starlink,” Vena said. “We’ve had a couple of years of Elon Musk talking to owners, installations going on and other owners talking to other owners with a lot of positive feedback.”
Starlink’s arrival has accelerated interest across the business a
Summer Staninski, market research analyst at Valour Consultancy, points to the company’s brand recognition. “As an at-home consumer, you don’t really care what provider your Wi-Fi is from, as long as it works and the price is right. It was like this in as asking for Starlink by name,” she said
The GEO Counterargument
Not everyone thinks LEO alone is the long-term answer. “We don’t believe one orbital slot is better than another. They just have different characteristics and trade-offs,” said Claudio D’Amico, vice president of strategic market engagement, business a
D’Amico argues GEO satellites can concentrate capacity where demand is greatest, while LEO constellations require additional satellites. “Even if it is the Seychelles or somewhere in the South Pacific, you have to add satellites to up capacity in that one high-demand area,” he said. “That’s a very capital-intensive business in the long term.” “Latency sensitive applications are benefited by LEO links if the network is not congested.”
O and HEO service. “The benefit is that you can have a simultaneous link – LEO and GEO working at the same time,” D’Amico said. “You get not just the capabilities of each network, but full redundancy under one competitive service offering.”
Latency and Integration
LEO’s lower orbit dramatically reduces latency, improving video calls, cloud collaboration and VPN performance.
“Latency is a huge factor in how you feel about the quality of your internet service,” Vena explained. “You could have a 30 [MB] pipe with latency half of what GEO is doing, and it will be perceived as faster. I pushed a button on my phone – how long did it take for a reaction to happen?”
Electronically steered antennas also simplify installations because they have no moving parts.
Integration remains a hurdle because Starlink was designed as a standalone system.
“They pretty much said: don’t wire into our WAP [wireless access point] in the aeroplane,” Vena said. “Not the end of the world, but kind of clunky.”
Vena also notes early installation issues. “I think you could say they’re normal teething issues, but I’ll say they’re a lot more pronounced with LEO,” he said.
Regulatory Divide
International operators must also navigate differing regulatory requirements.
“India is very selective about transmitting inside their airspace. It takes a long time to get approval – probably more than any other,” Vena said.
“We could see clear regional distinctions emerge which complicates the landscape for aircraft flying internationally.”
Summer Staninski Market Research Analyst, Valour Consultancy
“I think there’ll be a bit of an East-West divide,” Staninski predicted. “Will you be able to get LEO everywhere? I would imagine yes, but it might be siloed geographically. SpaceSail is already partnering with countries like Brazil while Starlink and OneWeb are both yet to attain regulatory approval in China. We could see clear regional distinctions emerge which complicates the landscape for aircraft flying internationally.”
That uncertainty is driving interest in redundant, multi-orbit solutions. “The ones most concerned with redundancy are businesses that cannot afford downtime,” Vena said. “For an owner-operator, being without internet for a few minutes isn’t the end of the world. For a business, that could be a big deal.”
“Moving towards a single offering with simultaneous links eliminates the need for different subscriptions,” D’Amico added. “Operators want a more simplistic, flexible approach to meet their needs for stronger performance and full redundancy – a shift we have seen reflected in the early demand and strong market response to our JetXP multi-orbit proposition.”
While Starlink has captured attention, Eutelsat is also gaining traction through its partnership with Gogo. “They’ve leaned into what other network operators have done and are working with an established service provider that has built rapport with customers and OEMs alike which has helped the solution grow quickly,” said Staninski.
Looking Ahead
“I don’t think it’s going to be LEO-only,” D’Amico said. “I think what people will expect is connectivity that is consistent and reliable, independent of the technology. They want the system to work no matter where they are – China, North America, wherever – no excuses.”
Vena believes LEO will become “the first pick for most aircraft with legs going internationally” while air-to-ground solutions will continue serving domestic operators.
“I think we are moving towards a more innovative market, partially because technology has advanced and in part because incumbents need to differentiate from Starlink,” Staninski added. “This has sparked new types of connectivity such as multi-orbit and multi-network which enhances the user experience as coverage is more consistent and reliable across the globe.”
For airplane owners, that competition has delivered genuine choice. In the end, the specific technology may not be important to business aircraft passengers, but the expectation of connectivity always is.
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