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…
Introduction Connectivity in the global ferry market has been a topic on our radar for some time. Ferries are rarely discussed in the wider passenger commercial maritime market, as attention tends to be drawn to the lucrative ocean-going cruise sector. This is hardly surprising, given that companies such as Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal…
Craig Foster & Summer Staninski (published Oct 2024) In a recent blog, we examined the collapse of SmartSky Networks and speculated on how other aviation players might react to the fast-advancing Starlink. Now, just weeks later, long-time SmartSky adversary, Gogo, has announced its acquisition of Satcom Direct, confirming predictions of further industry consolidation. In this…
Aside from frequent discussion as to whether I’d visited Sphere, the latest striking addition to the Las Vegas skyline, a common thread ran through many of my meetings at NBAA-BACE last week: who will prevail in the hotly-contested battle for business jet connectivity supremacy? Fittingly, given its location amongst the largest concentration of gaming tables…
In previous blogs and in several of our reports, we’ve covered the “three C’s of in-flight connectivity” (which should really be four when you consider the costs involved). Latency is another important, but often overlooked, part of the business aviation connectivity experience and is defined as the total time it takes a data packet to…
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