Viasat serves 1,800 aircraft with SuperBowl
February 14, 2024
By Chris Forrester
More than 1,800 Viasat-enabled flights around the world took to the skies on February 11th, and passengers on board had the best seats in the house – streaming the SuperBowl LVIII game live to their seats at 35,000 feet in the air.
While the total number of passengers might only be measured as a few thousands, and not add that much to what was the most-watched US TV broadcast since the 1969 Moon landing, Viasat suggests the satellite supply of the CBS coverage made clients very happy.
Viasat’s satellites cover almost all of North America and much of Central and South America, all of Europe and the Middle East and Australia. Their coverage includes the key North Atlantic air corridor between the US and Europe.
Viasat stresses that good as its global coverage is now it will get better when it launches its two remaining ViaSat-3 craft now completing their build and which are equipped with 1 Tb/s capacity for each satellite.
Currently Intelsat serves United Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America. American Airlines tap into Viasat on their Boeing 737, Airbus 321s and Airbus 319 aircraft. Delta has access to Viasat on more than 1000 aircraft. Malaysia Airlines use Viasat on their long-haul MAX routes. Other airlines use Viasat but buy satellite access from third-party suppliers such as Panasonic Aviation.