The Aviation Market Comes into Focus

Welcome to the June edition of Via Satellite. It is exciting to say that the trade show season is in full swing as we return to seeing our community. We are looking forward to our Connected Aviation Intelligence (CAI) event in Reston, Virginia, in early June where we bring airlines, satellite operators, antenna companies, service providers, and others to talk about the future of connected aviation. I am looking forward to being back in Washington again and seeing what the new dynamics are for this market. Aviation is a tremendously important market for satellite, and while it suffered due to the pandemic, it will be interesting to see what role connectivity will play for airlines in the 2020s.

Things are changing in this area, with Starlink’s recent deal with Hawaiian. SpaceX will be speaking at CAI alongside Telesat and OneWeb, so it will be interesting to hear what impact the big LEO players will have in this market.

This edition of Via Satellite is one of my favorites this year. Via Satellite’s managing editor Rachel Jewett and I sat down with Eutelsat’s new CEO Eva Berneke to talk about her hopes and aspirations for Eutelsat. Berneke took over from Rodolphe Belmer at a very interesting time in Eutelsat’s history and it will be fascinating to see how she leads the company in this era.

In addition, I spoke with many high-profile Ukrainian space professionals, both in and outside of Ukraine to talk about how their lives have changed since late February, and what the war means for the nation’s vibrant space economy that was taking off. I was privileged to talk to many great people for this story, and it is so sad to hear what the impact of war has been on their lives, as well as how it relates to space.

It continues to be such an exciting year for our community. There is big news every week and more investment and more ambition than we have ever seen before. We as always appreciate your support and hope you have had a productive first half of this year.