“In January 2018, around 90 airlines had either installed or committed to install in-flight connectivity (IFC) solutions,” said Pacôme Revillon, CEO of Euroconsult. “Offering connectivity was first seen as a differentiating factor, however as more and more airlines provide connectivity, offering in-flight wifi starts to become a must-have in order to keep a competitive positioning in the extremely challenging airline market.”
“In the current take-up phase, we have witnessed an evolution of the pricing models applied by airlines to their passengers, from free access to a premium applied by the hour, by flight or on a monthly basis, as airlines try to find the ideal business model to lighten the burden of connectivity solution provision,” added Revillon. “For airline connectivity suppliers, we estimate that revenues from IFC topped US$1.2 billion in 2017 and should reach US$8.7 billion by 2027 for commercial aviation alone.”
Euroconsult has also found that the ability of airlines to support video streaming on a large scale will be a ‘game changer’ in the industry, with revenue per aircraft per year rising steadily in the coming years, matching growing demand for bandwidth.
