Gulfstream Aerospace has received a Supplemental Type Certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency, enabling the company’s Luton Service Centre to install the Honeywell AIRSAT1 satellite telephone on its GIV and GIV-SP business jet aircraft.

Using the 66-satellite Iridium network, AIRSAT1 enables telephone communication, direct internet connections and dial-up data while in-flight, via its iridium transceiver unit and an antenna.

This is the first STC issued by EASA to Gulfstream’s Luton service centre. Located at the London Luton Airport, the centre became the company’s first to be operated outside the US following its acquisition in April 2003, and in May this year it was announced that the facility would be doubled in size. In January, it became the first facility outside the US to receive the Federal Aviation Administration’s Diamond Award of Excellence for aircraft maintenance technician training.