Inmarsat is celebrating the commercial service introduction of its newest and most advanced satellite to date. GX5 is now delivering capacity to Europe and the Middle East as part of the Global Xpress (GX) network, which powers the GX Aviation and Jet ConneX inflight Wi-Fi services.

Conceived, designed and procured principally to meet the needs of airline and business aviation customers, GX5 delivers approximately twice the capacity of the entire existing GX satellite fleet (GX1-GX4) combined. Together with a significantly expanded ground station network and enhanced cloud-based processing, the powerful satellite will support rapidly growing demand for aviation connectivity.

GX5 will transform Inmarsat's offering to aviation customers, bringing significant layered capacity and network redundancy over Europe and the Middle East, which form one of the world's busiest travel corridors. Launched in November 2019, GX5 underpins the growth plans for Inmarsat's aviation unit in the region, as part of the company's wider commitment to drive innovation and support digital transformation within the airline and business aviation industries.

Inmarsat's Passenger Confidence Tracker recently revealed that the pandemic has further accelerated demand for inflight connectivity. According to the research, four in ten commercial airline passengers globally (39 per cent) say onboard Wi-Fi is more important to them since the pandemic. The research also highlighted growing demand for connected services that reduce interaction and increase passenger autonomy, with inflight contactless payments, real time destination alerts and inflight immigration clearance cited amongst the most effective ways to boost passenger confidence in light of COVID-19.

Philip Balaam, president of Inmarsat Aviation, says: “GX Aviation and Jet ConneX are firmly established as the world's leading inflight connectivity solutions, and we have now embarked on a major, fully-funded development programme to ensure they remain at the very forefront of this industry. We are delighted to take the next step in this ambitious roadmap with GX5's entry into commercial service. This is our most powerful satellite to date, delivering more capacity over Europe and the Middle East than the four existing GX satellites combined. In addition to transforming the quality of aviation connectivity today, it will ensure that our customers remain at the cutting-edge of technology innovation as their needs evolve and air traffic recovers in 2021 and beyond.”

GX5's entry into service underscores the strategic vision of Inmarsat as it looks past the COVID-19 pandemic to the future needs of commercial airline and business aviation customers, whose data-hungry passengers require reliable and seamless connectivity. The satellite's orbital position, at 11 degrees east, provides an optimal position for European connectivity services and has been designed specifically for regional demand and air traffic patterns over Europe and the Middle East's busiest airspaces. GX5 is designed to provide connectivity services to existing GX terminals, whilst providing a step change in connectivity for next generation terminals being introduced in the near future.

Building upon its 40-year heritage in global mobile connectivity, GX5 is the 14th satellite currently in service with Inmarsat, and heralds the start of a major development programme to enhance the GX network's capacity and capabilities. Inmarsat's technology roadmap will see seven further launches by 2024: five in geostationary orbit, adding speed, capacity and resilience, and two in highly elliptical orbit, which will enable the world's only commercial mobile broadband service in the commercially and strategically critical Arctic region.