Runway Girl

Gogo estimates that its Eutelsat OneWeb satellite-powered Galileo inflight connectivity product has achieved a remarkable 35% to 40% share of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satcom market in business aviation.

As of November 6, 2026, “cumulative shipments have surpassed 760 units, which we believe gives us between 35% to 40% market share of the LEO business aviation connectivity less than 12 months after introduction — making Galileo the most successful LEO product launch in business aviation,” CEO Chris Moore revealed during Gogo’s third quarter earnings conference call. Gogo achieved 690 Galileo shipments by the end of Q3.

That’s no small feat, given that the Broomfield, Colorado-based firm is competing on the LEO front with SpaceX’s popular Starlink IFC service.

An electronically steerable antenna-based IFC system, Galileo is based on Hughes Network Systems’ ESA technology, and offered in two flavors: a half-duplex (HDX) solution for smaller aircraft, which currently provides download speeds of 60 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps; and a full-duplex (FDX) configuration, supporting speeds of 195 Mbps down and 32 Mbps up.

Shipments of Galileo are pacing “well above our expectations,” Moore noted, with the company achieving “a record quarter of shipments for Galileo of 172 units” for the three months ended September 30, 2026, representing a 59% increase from the second quarter and a 95% increase year over year.

Gogo ended the third quarter with 297 Galileo aircraft online, up 61% from the prior quarter, demonstrating its ability “to convert shipments into aircraft online quickly,” Moore said. Each aircraft that activates “represents a seven to 10-year recurring revenue relationship,” he added.

With Eutelsat in the process of replenishing its OneWeb LEO network with higher-capacity satellites, Gogo recently outlined a long-term Galileo technology roadmap that calls for performance enhancements to be implemented roughly every 24 months over six years.

The company’s continued investment in hardware and satcom will see Galileo HDX pivot to a 300 Mbps down/100 Mbps up service by 2032, while FDX is earmarked for 1.5 gig down and 350 Mbps up over the same period.

It remains to be seen if Gogo will ultimately tap into Europe’s future IRIS² multi-orbit network, but the company appears well positioned to avail of opportunities given that Eutelsat OneWeb is the LEO lead on the project. 

runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/11/gogo-g…

Frontier Airlines’ new domestic First Class recliners are finally being fitted to the carrier’s Airbus A320 family aircraft as part of a package of enhancements that will also see additional extra-legroom seats installed, plus USB-C power ports up front.

“Installation of First Class and extra-legroom seats has begun, with completion expected March 5, 2027,” confirms the U.S. ultra-low-cost carrier, which originally planned to launch First Class in 2025.

The First Class recliners are based on Geven’s popular Comoda product, and feature a CMF (color, materials and finish) that reflects Frontier’s brand transformation.

Frontier’s new seating configuration will enable the Denver-based carrier to offer more legroom throughout the first eight rows of the aircraft: two rows of 2-2-configured recliners offering a seat pitch of up to 37”, and six rows of economy class seats with up to 34” of pitch.

Its EuroBiz-styled UpFront Plus seating option will be offered in select rows of the extra-legroom section, “guaranteeing an empty adjacent middle seat,” Frontier says.

USB-C power ports will also be available at every seat in the first eight rows; these in-seat power installs are set to begin next year and progress throughout the year.

As previously announced, Frontier is also bringing SpaceX’s Starlink Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-powered inflight connectivity to its fleet in 2027.

runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/11/fronti…

After attending Aviation Week’s Routes conference in Frankfurt, @airchive was supposed to reunite with Lufthansa’s venerable Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, which he last flew in 2012 on its inaugural flight.

But a family emergency required him to return home to Miami immediately, and Lufthansa was sold out to every gateway.

Fortunately, the amazing Lufthansa team worked some magic, rerouting him from Frankfurt to Miami via Zurich (ZRH) on sister carrier SWISS.

It was an unexpected opportunity to revisit SWISS business class, which he first experienced in 2016 aboard an Airbus A330 when the product was new.

A decade later, @airchive was curious to see how it had aged, so he gave SWISS’s flagship Boeing 777-300ER the full Runway Girl Network nose-to-tail treatment.

Trip Report: runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/11/swiss-…

#avgeek #paxex #nosetotail

Singapore Airlines’ decision to select a conservative color palette for its bespoke new business class seat has elicited no shortage of opinions from passengers and media alike. Lost in the noise, however, is the fact that the grey tones will act almost like a blank canvas, reflecting virtually any LED cabin lighting cast upon them.

That’s especially meaningful to a carrier like Singapore Airlines, which has long utilized the highly controllable and programmable LEDs on modern aircraft to visually signal different phases of flight, in turn accommodating the body’s circadian rhythm and improving inflight wellness.

As a neutral color, grey gives the Star Alliance member’s next-generation product nearly endless possibilities to shine aboard the twinjets that are earmarked for equipage: 41 existing Airbus A350-900 long-haul and -900 ULR aircraft, and the carrier’s forthcoming new Boeing 777-9 fleet.

Clad in full-grain premium leather, the 1-2-1-configured seats are primed to undergo a continual visual transformation during boarding, mealtimes, bedtime, and landing — and during simulated sunrises and sunsets. Ambient lighting within each mini-suite and custom embroidery on both the seat bottom and seatback will add further depth.

Indeed, when we asked Google Gemini to overlay a sunrise mood-lighting setting on Singapore Airlines’ rendering of a honeymoon-configurable center pair, the effect on the largely monochromatic image was nothing short of spectacular.

With LED lighting playing an important role in setting the vibe, the baseline 50″-pitched seat will stand on its own hard product merits.

runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/11/the-br…

Telesat’s timeframe for offering global Lightspeed coverage has again shifted to the right — from the end of Q1 2028 to the end of Q2 2028. But according to Viasat, which last year contracted Telesat for Lightspeed capacity, the three-month delay does not change its plan for utilizing the service as part of its new multi-orbit Amara inflight connectivity offering.

“It doesn’t change our plans,” Don Buchman, president of Viasat Aviation, told Runway Girl Network. “We talk with Telesat regularly, so this didn’t come as a surprise, and we’d already built the timing into how we plan. Our arrangement with Telesat is a long-term partnership, and the schedule is something we manage together as it evolves.”

Viasat recently completed the build-out of its three-satellite ViaSat-3 network, and will in time integrate LEO with its wider network as Amara is forward compatible with Lightspeed. It has already secured JetBlue as a customer for Amara, with new aircraft earmarked for the kit. JetBlue has also selected Amazon Leo’s Ka-band Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-powered IFC solution for a portion of its fleet.

“[A]mazon Leo remains on track for our 2027 induction to the fleet,” JetBlue told RGN on October 28.

Viasat and Amazon are the focus of much speculation at present. On the back of a Satellite Innovation Conference, industry consultant Tim Farrar recently suggested that there is an expectation amongst industry players that Amazon will acquire Viasat mainly for its international spectrum but also ‘to strengthen Amazon’s position in government and aviation’.

The speculation is so rife that an analyst on Telesat’s Q3 earnings conference call pressed management for clarity on whether, in the event of such a transaction, Telesat would still get paid under its Lightspeed services agreement with Viasat.

“The contract is a take or pay commitment,” Goldberg assured. “So long as we meet our obligations, they need to meet their obligations, which is to say, you know, pay us. And we intend to meet our obligations. And you know, certainly today for Viasat, having access to Lightspeed, I think is an important strategic focus of of theirs, so yeah, that kind of how we think about it.” runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/11/viasat…