An Analyst’s Opinion of PTE 2026: “A Shift in Mindset – From Innovation to Implementation”

Passenger Terminal World Expo felt as busy and productive as ever this year – a packed schedule of meetings, catch-ups and plenty of candid conversations across the ecosystem. What stood out wasn’t a single breakthrough, but a shift in mindset. For a sector that has traditionally operated in siloes – with border control, passenger processing,…

Key Headlines from Valour Consultancy’s Report on The Future of Autonomous Maritime Vessels – 2026 Edition (Preliminary Data)

With Valour Consultancy’s Future of Autonomous Maritime Vessels – 2026 Edition nearing release, preliminary findings have been shared with early purchasers and programme participants. The updated data provides valuable insight into the evolving maritime autonomy landscape.  The study examines vessel volumes across the International Maritime Organization’s IMO four degrees of autonomy, alongside key enabling subsystems. Valour Consultancy categorises autonomous maritime technologies…

Can JD.com Succeed Where Others Have Struggled? A Look at Its European Expansion and the Future of Drone Delivery

While writing Valour Consultancy’s inaugural report on The Future of AAM, we have collected a great detail of data, insight and competitive analysis on the future of drone delivery. The report includes a fleet forecast broken down by Food, Medical and Convenience use cases and region. A more detailed competitive analysis covering companies such as…

How Many Commercial Aircraft has Starlink Actually Connected?

In its Progress Report 2025, Starlink states that: “In 2025, more than 1,400 commercial aircraft were equipped with Starlink.” The figure seemingly underscores the rapid momentum the satellite operator has achieved in the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market and reflects the growing appetite among airlines for low-latency, high-throughput broadband. Within the aviation connectivity industry, however, the…

Amazon Leo & Starlink: Q1 2026 Maritime Market Update on LEO VSAT Services

Latest News of Amazon Leo Amazon’s LEO programme has been known to the market for years as “Project Kuiper”. That era is over. In November 2025, Amazon formally rebranded the initiative as Amazon Leo, framing it as a shift from development milestones towards commercial operations and, crucially, enterprise contracting. The rebrand wasn’t just a “badge…

Starlink Into the Abyss

Introduction The title of this article is a (bad) reference to a translation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote “And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. An article in The Maritime Executive reminded me that China has been actively seeking to research ways of blocking Starlink, in particular, and…

EU-EES: Inside the €915 Million Border Overhaul — What Comes Next for Europe’s Entry/Exit System?

Introduction   In Part I, we examined what the EU Entry/Exit System (EU-EES) is, how it differs to legacy border control processes and the challenges that caused its delayed launch. In this follow-up, we move beyond this to explore the unexpected opportunities the system creates for both vendors and government agencies, the impact of remote enrolment,…

What Exactly is the EU-EES?

Biometrics captured…entry granted…exit recorded! The European Union Entry–Exit System (EU-EES) was first proposed as a concept in 2008 as part of a communication focused around preparing the next steps for border management in the European Union (EU) by the European Commission (EC).  Essentially, the EU-EES is a digitally leveraged system that aims to capture and…

The Evolution of Inmarsat Maritime: NexusWave Surpasses 1,000 Ships and Beyond

Introduction In 2024, Inmarsat Maritime announced the launch of a new bonded hybrid connectivity service, NexusWave. The rapid uptake of LEO broadband services within the commercial maritime certainly caught many people by surprise. However, Inmarsat Maritime views its arrival as complementary – a catalyst for accelerating hybrid, multi-orbit solutions. As the summer solstice started in…