Launching new satellites to improve inflight connectivity coverage and capacity is typically a multi-year process with a massive price tag. Fortunately that was not necessary for Viasat as it faced some routes delivering less-than-stellar performance for Aegean Airlines on its European Aviation Network (EAN). Instead, Viasat worked with partner Deutsche Telekom to expand the ground infrastructure in a much faster and less expensive project to boost the network coverage in the Mediterranean Sea.
Building more towers on land is relatively easy. Building towers to serve overwater markets is much more challenging. Previously Deutsche Telekom took advantage of oil rigs in the North Sea to improve service for British Airways. For Aegean the network design to cover flights between Greece and Cyprus presented a different set of challenges.
Technically the EAN inflight connectivity service is a hybrid solution. The S-band satellite guarantees coverage across the service area, but it remains incredibly limited in terms of total capacity for the market. Airlines depend on the ground network to ensure they can deliver the performance passengers expect. With Aegean’s implementation of EAN well underway travel between Greece and Cyprus lacked full route coverage via the ground network. Viasat and Deutsche Telekom got creative, bringing three additional towers online to ensure capacity was in place for flights to Cyprus.
The companies declined to share the exact locations of the new tower installations, but noted use of “an additional antenna on a smaller island between Rhodes and Cyprus” to deliver the increased coverage footprint. Based on flight paths and Greek geography, Kastellorizo or one of its smaller neighbor islands seems the likely location for that additional antenna.
Not surprisingly, Aegean is very pleased with the updated infrastructure. CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis offered a strong endorsement of the work, “[W]e can now offer the same seamless in-flight connectivity offered in all our network flights, also for the flights to and from Cyprus, that occasionally have faced some slower speeds. Offering high-speed connectivity to every passenger, on each of our flights, fulfils our promise to all passengers traveling with AEGEAN and I am really pleased that through our partnership with Viasat and Deutsche Telekom, we are able to keep you all connected in the air.”
The additional tower in Cyprus is the first in that country, while Greece already had several in service. The initial network buildout map shows at least 19 in the country, including several on smaller islands across the Aegean sea.
The new towers fully support Aegean’s operations between Athens and Larnaca. Coverage is also likely available for flights from Thessaloniki, via other towers in the Greek Islands. Those flights typically pass through Turkish airspace, however, where EAN is not authorized to operate.
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