American Airlines intends to give more customers a consistent and connected inflight experience through the introduction of high-speed Wi-Fi on the dual-class regional aircraft operated on its behalf.

American is working to extend its relationship with Intelsat with the plan to install new high-speed Wi-Fi capability on nearly 500 regional aircraft beginning next year.

American currently makes high-speed Wi-Fi available on more than 900 mainline aircraft, with the objective to bring the total number of satellite-connected aircraft to more than 1,400 once the planned updates to regional aircraft are complete.

Inflight Wi-Fi

Inflight connectivity technology continues to evolve rapidly across the airline industry. Intelsat’s Electronically Steered Array (ESA) antennae is unique because it is multi-orbit, interoperating on both Intelsat’s family of geo-stationary satellites and on a constellation of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, providing low latency high-speed internet connection to American’s customers.

This new technology will allow these regional aircraft to match fast Wi-Fi speeds that are currently available on American’s mainline aircraft. With the planned purchase of this new technology, American is reinforcing its commitment to provide a consistent and connected experience for customers on all of American’s connectivity-equipped flights with the ability to stream, browse, check email and even log onto VPN while inflight.
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