Inmarsat crowned ‘World’s Leading Inflight Internet Service Provider’

The prestigious accolade was announced at a gala ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal last weekend, following a vote by travel and tourism executives across the world, who were impressed by Inmarsat’s continued success in transforming the airline passenger experience with game-changing inflight broadband solutions.

Inmarsat has pioneered a major step-change in inflight connectivity with its next-generation offerings, including its GX Aviation solution with seamless, high-speed global coverage, and the European Aviation Network (EAN), which offers unprecedented performance over Europe’s congested skies by combining satellite coverage with a complementary ground network. Both solutions enable passengers to seamlessly browse the internet, stream videos, check social media and more, with onboard connectivity comparable to what they receive on the ground.

More than 1,400 aircraft are currently expected under signed contracts for GX Aviation and EAN, with a new business pipeline of approximately 3,000 aircraft worldwide. Airline customers include Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Air New Zealand, British Airways, AirAsia, Singapore Airlines, Norwegian, Avianca, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings.

Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation, said: “Airline passengers, more than ever, want access to fast, reliable wi-fi onboard their flights. Our cutting-edge GX Aviation and EAN solutions can successfully meet that demand and we are delighted the travel and tourism industry have endorsed them as the gold standard once again at the World Travel Awards.

“This award is perfectly timed as we have experienced another milestone year and laid the foundation for the next chapter in our growth. Inmarsat works with the best-of-the-best to develop and market our solutions to airlines, including Collins Aerospace, Deutsche Telekom, Honeywell, Panasonic Avionics, SITAONAIR and Thales. We look forward to building on this momentum together in the future.”

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the World Travel Awards are considered the global hallmark of industry excellence, rewarding and celebrating excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors.

As well retaining the World Travel Award for ‘World’s Leading Inflight Internet Service Provider’, Inmarsat has received a number of other significant accolades for its inflight Wi-Fi services this year. These include the Inflight Middle East ‘Connectivity Enablement’ Award for GX Aviation and the prestigious German Innovation Award for EAN. In addition, EAN was a finalist in the Crystal Cabin Awards at Aircraft Interiors Exhibition (AIX) earlier this year.