Delta Exec: Available, Scalable In-Flight Connectivity is No Longer Optional

In-flight connectivity (IFC) is no longer just an option for commercial airlines. It has to be available and scalable and apply the latest technology in order to meet an ever-growing demand for seamless internet connection just like any internet connection on the ground.

That was part of the bottom line of the discussion between Delta Air Lines exec Glenn Latta, managing director of Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity, and Paul Gaske, COO of Hughes, on March 19 at the SATELLITE 2024 Conference.

In November, Hughes and Delta Air Lines announced an in-flight connectivity agreement for IFC services on more than 400 Delta Boeing 717 and regional jets serving North America.

Latta said that Delta looks at in-flight connectivity from three dimensions. “There's the passenger piece, which we must deliver on. And then from an airline perspective, it's very difficult to do this at 30,000 feet, flying 500 miles an hour pointing at a satellite. If you're off half a degree, nobody gets internet. So we have to insulate that from the customer to make sure that we can do that and do that well. That requires picking the right technology for today's internet expectation and predicting what that's going to look like over time.”

Delta studies network dynamics, he said. “We have a predictive model in collaboration with our partners and we look at average usage on a per aircraft basis. You also have to look at the peak demand,” Latta said.

A new dynamic for Delta is working with partners like Paramount Plus, where the airline has to look in advance to see many people are going to take advantage of those partnerships, use that extra bandwidth, and make sure that Delta can meet demand.

Gaske addressed growing demand for broadband on planes.

“The broadband space started as kilobits,” Gaske said. “Now it's many, many megabits in aircraft for passengers. So demand has just been growing and growing. I think the big driver more recently is video. If you go forward, you can just see that's going to continue as more and more people actually avail themselves of that capability in aircraft. Thinking generationally, younger people tend to want to be more connected.”

Gaske and Latta began discussions about the partnership two years ago during the SATELLITE conference. The two companies had previously worked together on live TV on commercial aircraft, Gaske said. “We provided the video decoders. We've had many good partners since then that we support with our broadband technology. We thought we might have just the right assets for what Delta was asking about for these regional jets.”

Regional aircraft today have an air-to-ground system with very limited bandwidth, Latta said. “So you only get connectivity at altitude, you're not able to stream or use it like you would a traditional internet at home. So we expect this experience in rural aircraft to be just like the experience we offer on our mainline aircraft, in a smaller package to support the constraints of our regional assemblies.”

What should Delta ultimately make available to passengers in the future? “We want our apps to show up and we want our streaming partners to be there,” Latta said. “Our challenge is to create that by integrating the in-flight entertainment platform with the connectivity platform so that we can truly deliver that personalized experience. The desire for internet and capacity is virtually insatiable over time. So we expect to need more bandwidth as we go forward.” VS