Eutelsat/ViaSat win El Al connectivity contracts
September 7, 2017
By Chris Forrester
California-based ViaSat and Eutelsat have secured a contract with Israeli airline EL AL to equip their aircraft fleet with satellite WiFi connectivity for passengers and crew.
EL AL Israel Airlines recently announced the purchase of 16 new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft as part of its focus on customer service and innovation. The airline is committed to provide its passengers with a high quality of service experience and a ‘Home Away from Home’ feeling. EL AL starts to roll out its Dreamliner services on planes early in 2018.
The ViaSat portion of the agreement uses ViaSat-2, claimed to be ‘the highest capacity communications capacity in the world’, and giving EL AL passengers a high-speed, high-quality internet connection from across North America and the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. ViaSat-2 will offer the most Ka-band capacity across the TransAtlantic bridge, allowing EL AL passengers to stream more internet content – faster, as well as keep flight crews connected for enhanced passenger service.
Eutelsat’s high-capacity KA-SAT satellite will take care of European flights as it is already doing for EL AL’s Boeing 737 aircraft already flying within Europe.