Azul, the largest airline in Brazil by number of departures and cities served, and Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today announced that seven aircraft in Azul’s new Airbus A330-900neo fleet will be equipped with Viasat’s trusted Ka-band in-flight connectivity (IFC) solution, with the first aircraft scheduled to enter service next year.
Consistent with the in-flight Wi-Fi offering on Azul’s other aircraft types equipped with Viasat’s solution, Azul passengers traveling on the new, linefit, Airbus A330-900neos will be able to enjoy onboard internet from gate to gate. Customers will be able to acquire packages for streaming audio and video, web browsing, and messaging.
In addition to expanding their Wi-Fi enabled fleet, Azul is working with Viasat to enhance their passenger Wi-Fi experience by adding ad-supported streaming sessions using the Viasat Advertising platform. Azul is the latest airline to adopt the Viasat Advertising platform.
Viasat is focused on serving the aviation market by combining high throughout satellite capacity with the ability to flex that capacity, so that it can continuously and reliably meet demand where and when it is most concentrated, including over the busiest airport hubs in Brazil and everywhere else these Airbus A330neos will fly.
Azul and Viasat are expanding upon a collaboration that began providing in-flight connectivity in Brazil in 2021. Azul was the first South American airline to select Viasat’s in-flight internet service and the first airline to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi service to passengers in South America, leveraging the capacity on Viasat’s Ka-band network, including its partner satellite, SGDC-1 (Geostationary Satellite for Defense and Strategic Communications), owned by Telebras.
“Part of what differentiates Azul in the Brazilian market is the best-in-class connectivity experience we offer on select aircraft,” said Jason Ward, Azul’s Chief People and Customer Officer. “From Brazilians’ thirst for real time sports scores to their desire to stay connected to loved ones on the ground while flying, our hypothesis that this feature would be critical to customer satisfaction is playing out in the market. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Viasat as we continue to build on our current in-flight Wi-Fi experience in the future.”
“After several successful years of serving Azul passengers in Brazil, we are excited to work with Azul to expand our connectivity onboard even more aircraft,” said Don Buchman, VP and GM, Commercial Aviation at Viasat. “It remains Viasat’s mission to continue delivering high quality and consistent in-flight Wi-Fi, so that passengers can enjoy online activities while in the air as they do on the ground, even as the demand for data grows and passenger expectations accelerate rapidly.”