Kansas City-based Airshare has entered into a multi-year inflight connectivity agreement with Gogo Business Aviation. The deal provides Airshare aircraft management clients an option to install Gogo Avance, Gogo 5G and Gogo Galileo, the company's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite service.
“We are focused on delivering a best-in-class experience for everyone who flies with us, whether it be for business or leisure,” says John Owen, president and CEO of Airshare. “Secure, dependable connectivity has never been more essential for those flying private with us. We continuously explore opportunities to enhance Wi-Fi performance for both our managed and fractional fleets, and we're excited to be offering these new upgrade options from Gogo,” Owen adds. “Having worked together for several years, we're extremely confident in its technology and customer support.”
Airshare operates a nationwide fleet approaching 150 aircraft, ranging from turboprops to ultra long-range jets. Its fractional programme offers fractional shares and jet cards for the popular Challenger 3500 and Phenom 300 aircraft, both of which are covered by Gogo's extensive supplemental type certificate portfolio.
The agreement continues a long-standing partnership between Gogo and Airshare, in which 65 percent of its Phenom 300 aircraft have already been upgraded to Gogo Avance with plans to upgrade the remaining fleet in the next 12 months.
“This partnership is a commitment by Airshare and Gogo to bring an even better experience to our mutual customers in North America and beyond with our family of connectivity services,” notes Sergio Aguirre, Gogo's president and chief operating officer. “Avance delivers improved performance compared to the currently installed legacy ATG systems and was designed to provide an easy upgrade path to new technologies like Gogo 5G and Gogo Galileo.”
For Gogo Galileo specifically, any size aircraft with an Avance system (L3, L5 or SCS) installed can add the new global LEO service with a single fuselage-mounted antenna, available in two options (HDX or FDX) to address the specific needs of the customer and aircraft operator.
With its compact size, the HDX brings upgraded connectivity delivering fast, low latency performance across the full breadth of business aviation aircraft worldwide from light jets and turboprops to the largest business jets. The FDX antenna, designed in a larger form factor, offers even greater performance and three times the speeds of the HDX.