Airbus and Amazon have announced that they are working together to enhance Airbus’s High Bandwidth Connectivity Plus (HBCplus) programme offerings with a high speed, low-latency low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite inflight connectivity service (IFC) from Project Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite internet network with a planned constellation of more than 3,200 LEO satellites.
Following a recently signed MoU, Airbus and Amazon plan to integrate Project Kuiper’s connectivity solution as an option in the Airbus line-fit and retrofit aircraft catalogue of managed service providers.
“Providing inflight connectivity rivalling that available on the ground is the type of complex challenge well-suited for Amazon and Project Kuiper,” said Chris Weber, VP of sales and marketing for Project Kuiper. “By building on our relationship with Airbus, we’ll enable more airlines to offer richer onboard passenger experiences and access critical flight operations information, keeping them at the forefront of the transformation in commercial aviation.”
Designed and built by Amazon, Project Kuiper says its IFC services will offer downlink speeds of up to one gigabit per second (Gbps) in the cabin, for fast browsing, HD streaming, and productivity tools.
