“The Future of Inflight Connectivity: Emirates Embraces Airbus’ HBCplus Solution”

Following its line-fit decision to outfit its 50 brand-new A350-900 aircraft with the service, Emirates will establish itself as the first airline to utilize Airbus’ HBCplus agnostic satcom connectivity solution. Airbus is gearing up to increase the number of HBCplus-equipped aircraft, with Emirates’ first A350 aircraft scheduled to arrive in 2024 and additional HBCplus airline clients expected to follow across various aircraft families.

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It is possible to retrofit or line-fit Airspace Link HBCplus, which offers satcom-based off-board connectivity for the Airspace Link open ecosystem. It will give airlines access to a variety of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) through a new certified terminal and radome designed as part of the aircraft, which will first cover Ka-band services.

Emirates’ Chief Operating Officer, Adel Al Redha, stated: “We continue to strive for improvements and make excellent use of the developing technologies to complement our product offering. By utilising the most recent connectivity and antenna technology, HBCplus, an Airbus offering, will improve performance and integration for our fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft. Next year, when the first of our 50 new aircraft joins Emirates’ fleet, we look forward to offering our customers the most recent standard of constant high bandwidth inflight connectivity so they may have a better experience.

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At the Aircraft Interiors Expo in 2022, HBCplus has introduced in collaboration with connection experts Inmarsat as the first managed service provider and SPI as the Ka terminal and antenna vendor. HBCplus will eventually be expanded to offer more MSP options with Ka- and Ku-band services.