Introduction Commercial shipping has already embraced Starlink. The next challenge is convincing the world’s largest fleet operators that bandwidth alone is no longer enough. Wall Street spent last week analysing SpaceX’s latest quarterly earnings. Investors focused on revenues of $7.8 billion, 12 million Starlink subscribers and Elon Musk’s ambitious target of generating $100 billion in…
For years, the low-cost carrier (LCC) market has represented one of the aviation industry’s greatest untapped opportunities for in-flight connectivity (IFC). While full-service airlines steadily invested in onboard Wi-Fi to enhance the passenger experience, many LCCs remained unconvinced. High installation costs, uncertain monetisation and an absence of competitive pressure meant that connectivity was often viewed…
Introduction One of the beauties of our work as market intelligence analysts is the opportunity to interview fascinating people and companies. Better still is speaking to the same companies over many years and seeing how their businesses evolve as technology, competition, and customer requirements change. In the autumn of 2022, Valour Consultancy interviewed MarPoint, then…
Introduction Recently, I was listening to Morgan Housel, the renowned financial self-help author of The Psychology of Money. Morgan’s podcasts are information-packed, last 15 minutes, and leave you pondering the assumptions for hours afterwards. The podcast I was digesting was The Art and Science of Investing. Housel argues that successful investing is only partly about…
To say Starlink increased its connectivity prices in business aviation is an understatement. Starlink, without any warning, doubled the cost of connectivity to all business aviation users, new and old, effective immediately. What does this mean for the market as we know it today? When Starlink entered the market in 2022, it was more than…
A new battle for the future of in-flight connectivity (IFC) is taking shape – and this time, one of the world’s most powerful technology companies is entering the arena. Valour Consultancy’s lead IFEC analyst, David Whelan, is set to begin work on our forthcoming “Amazon Leo: Aviation Deep Dive – 2026” report this May, offering…
In its Progress Report 2025, Starlink states that: “In 2025, around 6,500 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 figure…
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…
Introduction In 2025, Starlink made an unexpected move. The company began offering an unlimited data plan to commercial, merchant vessels registered with the IMO, a segment previously served almost exclusively by its capped data packages. Until now, unlimited consumption had been largely confined to the ocean cruise market, where bandwidth demand and pricing tolerance are…
The 2025 edition of the Dubai Air Show kicked off with a bang, as Emirates announced a fleetwide contract with Starlink, giving the U.S satellite operator another major customer in the region alongside Qatar Airways. This was immediately followed by news that Starlink had secured a 100+ aircraft deal with flydubai. In this article, Valour…
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…
With Valour’s report on The Future of Maritime Connectivity – 2025 Edition nearing release, preliminary findings have been shared with early purchasers and members of our participant programme. The updated statistics make interesting reading.; here are the key headlines. Key Takeaways The global maritime connectivity retail market was worth $2.4 billion in 2024, an increase…
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