In a welcome pre-Christmas announcement, Air Canada revealed it is preparing to bring Bell-sponsored free, fast inflight Wi-Fi to passengers flying within North American and Sun markets from May 2025, and will expand the offering to long-haul international routes in 2026.
In support of this goal, the Star Alliance member is updating the Intelsat 2Ku inflight connectivity system installed on the majority of its mainline fleet, as powered by Intelsat’s geostationary (GEO) satellite network. And it is installing Intelsat’s new multi-orbit electronically steered antenna (ESA)-based solution to its regional jets, as powered by both GEO and Eutelsat OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) service. In fact, a cluster of CRJ900s are now flying with the ESA kit, with equipage of the ERJ175s next in line.
The carrier’s Q400 turboprops will also be fitted with an as-yet-undisclosed IFC system in the coming months, representing a world first. And so, RGN sat down with Air Canada director in-flight digital entertainment, Wi-Fi, media sales and analytics Norman Haughton to learn more. He dropped some interesting nuggets during our Zoom call. Notably, he reveals that Air Canada’s free, fast Wi-Fi , a sponsored by Bell, is “fully funded” and will not impact passenger fares at all.
RGN: A large portion of the fleet is fitted with the 2Ku solution and you’re bringing on this new multi-orbit solution from Intelsat. Can you give us a timeline for rolling out multi-orbit IFC on the ERJ175s and CRJ900s?
Haughton: We are live on a handful of CRJs. They’re flying today with the multi-orbit solution. The ERJs, you know, you can expect the first commercial flight early 2025 as we’re waiting on the final paperwork to come through on the certification side.
RGN: With respect to the multi-orbit solution being available on a handful of the CRJs, are you using both GEO and LEO service in those instances or are you using just GEO now until a go-live date for the Eutelsat Oneweb LEO? Or is LEO available to you right now?
Haughton: So what I’ll say is stay tuned. We have a big announcement to come early in 2025 to go in-depth about the rollout and strategy behind how we’re building our product.
RGN: During a recent Via Satellite webinar, Air Canada’s manager inflight Wi-Fi and analytics, André Patrick — so presumably a close colleague of yours or works on your team? — said some interesting things and one of them was that the 2Ku hardware installedon a large portion of the fleet could be augmented in time and Air Canada could, quote “strap something else on top of that”, which I presume that to be potentially a LEO-focused ESA to support Eutelsat Oneweb or SpaceX Starlink or indeed in the future Telesat Lightspeed, which of course is a Canadian offering as well. So does Air Canada see LEO as a necessary component to its IFC offering in the future, including potentially for the 2Ku installs?
Haughton: I’ve done a couple of these interviews and the one thing I think that stood out is that question, and it’s an important one, right? And there is no specific answer to what the solution is. I mean, we all thought ATG was the solution until 2Ku showed up, right? And we all thought 2Ku was the solution until Starlink and the other products showed up. In the end, Air Canada selects the right tools for the right mission. We’re about ensuring that we are ready for day one without just signing up for something well into the future before we can realize it. I think for what you’re going to see us even go further in-depth with come early 2025, these are things that are practiced that are real, right? So that’s the way we like to treat it. Are we looking at further technological advancements that could improve the overall experience for our passengers? Of course… There’s a plethora of options out there and we’re taking every single one of them seriously. And when the time is right, we’ll announce what the selection is.
RGN: Do you think we are going to get to a point where a really solid streaming class of service will be supported for every single passenger onboard? Are we barreling towards that reality? What should we be thinking about when we think free Wi-Fi passenger experience? Is this a browsing level experience? Is this a streaming level for every passenger? How should we be thinking about that?
Haughton: So if you look at our press release, we made a statement and a very bold one about fast and free. The 2Ku that we’re releasing come May 1st is a different 2Ku, right? It’s one that we’ve been building together with our partner. But imagine, fast, free Internet is not just an antenna and 2Ku is an antenna. It’s the entire recipe, it’s the entire network. It’s modularly upgrading the aircraft to support what we believe is a quality of service that our customers will come to love and appreciate.
A 16-year veteran at Air Canada, Norman Haughton serves as the carrier’s director in-flight digital entertainment, Wi-Fi, media sales and analytics
RGN: Obviously, Air Canada has long been a user of and proponent of seatback IFE… But I’m curious, do you see it really evolving over time to be a more connected experience? Do you envisage that passengers will be able to cast their OTT subscription services onto the seatback screen in time? Should we be thinking about that for Air Canada?
Haughton: I think you should be thinking about that for all airlines with seatback, right? You know, Air Canada’s been the airline that held steadfast in its seatback strategy. We’ve gone through the times with our product and we’ve maintained that; we think it’s incredibly important to the customer. We think Wi-Fi is equally important, if not more important to the customer. But in the end they’re complementary to each other.
You’ve seen in past releases where we’ve trialled fast, free Internet for everybody with the latest and greatest technology in terms of Wi-Fi as well as the best of inflight entertainment. And what I’ll say is consumption on both were pretty high and very consistent and compelling that both strategies are still right, they’re still winning strategies.
Now, as it pertains to how inflight entertainment will evolve over time, I mean if you watch what’s happening in the consumer world, there’s no reason why airlines that have made the right decision to put seatback fore and center for our customers, why we wouldn’t evolve in the same direction as the broader consumer market. As the technologies become more nimble, more adaptable and more integrable, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be thinking down the line of, hey, let’s make this the best experience possible. And if that means essentially integrating to two experiences that customers and consumers are used to on the ground, well, that’s what will happen.
Air Canada’s ERJ175s will soon be flying with Intelsat’s new multi-orbit IFC solution. Air Canada is eyeing true IFE + C integration for its aircraft in the future. Image: Jason Rabinowitz
RGN: What were the key drivers that made Air Canada decide now is the right time for free Wi-Fi? Was the movement afoot for a while. What were the triggers for Air Canada to say, okay, we’re going to make this happen next year for our passengers?
Haughton: I mean outside of having a very innovative team, Air Canada is a big innovator; we’ve always been. I’d remind [you] that we were the first airline in Canada to introduce inflight Wi-Fi. Back in 2014, we commercially launched air-to-ground; so 2014 was with AirCell, 2015 we launched Gogo’s ATG product, where we launched ATG-4; and then we got into 2Ku. So we’ve always been an innovator in this space. We’ve always believed that Wi-Fi is a crucial part of our commercial strategy and also a very important part of the whole overall customer experience. Now you ask why is 2025 so important. Well, we’ve been building. We are a large airline. It takes time to get product out there. Everybody in this industry knows Wi-Fi is probably one of the harder things to get installed in the aircraft. But in the end, it’s one of the faster innovative products so the cycles are, are getting shorter. We were at the point where we believe that the technology was right to go mass in terms of free. But as I said, over the last couple of years we’ve been working with our partner and we’ve done some upgrades and we can’t wait to let the broader public feel what it feels like to fly to Air Canada with free Wi-Fi.
RGN: Does Air Canada require service level agreements with its providers? Is that something that’s important to Air Canada? Do you believe in SLAs?
Haughton: Yes, we 100% believe in SLAs and a part of our announcement next year, we’ll talk about how we’re holding each other accountable for the passenger. In the end, the passenger is the center of the universe and we believe that we need to measure, measure, measure and fix, fix, fix and ensure that some of those problems never come back. So analytics and reporting and holding our partners to a service level that we believe are just to our customers are absolutely top of mind and incredibly important.
RGN: Just on the point of analytics partners, is Air Canada largely doing that analytics work in-house, which of course it’s capable of doing. Is it partnering with any companies? There’s now a few on the market that are offering bespoke services in that regard to even be able to compare different solutions. How are you managing the analytics side of your job?
Haughton: Yeah, so, you know, it’s funny you brought that up. As any airline, we have to be good at analytics. That’s a very core part of operating an airline is measuring. And what I’ll say is come 2025, when we give a bit more about the road to May and what it will take to maintain service quality from May onwards, what you’ll see is there’s a bit of both. There’s a bit of almost everything. There’s a bit of some partnerships out in the broader ecosystem. There is a lot more capability internal as we think we’re right to develop this side of the business. And obviously we have our partners that we will lean into to ensure that we get a 360 reporting on how the product is performing and how our customers are engaging and enjoying the product.
RGN: Bell is obviously a sponsor of this free fast Wi-Fi model that you’re adopting (it already sponsors Air Canada’s free messaging service). But are you also then augmenting with a level of advertising? Will there also be a slight price increase in fares to accommodate this? And do you expect Bell to be a long-term sponsor of this model?
Haughton: So, Bell is a long-term sponsor for Air Canada’s Wi-Fi. What I’ll say is the product lives independent. This product is fully funded and it would not impact passenger fares at all. And we’re looking at a plethora of options to ensure that our customers are well served and they get access to the highest quality Internet that’s out there.
RGN: I would be remiss if I didn’t press you one more time on the Q400 inflight connectivity provider. When can we expect color around that? There’s great excitement to know what you’re doing there.
Haughton: Of course. I’m excited for customers flying out of Billy Bishop like myself when I fly out of Billy Bishop. It’s a great product improvement for the aircraft platform. It’s the first in industry, first in the world. But who better to do it, Canada’s largest airline and de Havilland, a Canadian built company that builds a great aircraft platform. So you know, we’re going to do this together and look out for more. You’ll hear a lot more detail really soon, but expect it to be in line with our fast, free message that look, it will be a very compelling product and our customers should be incredibly excited about what we have to offer there.
RGN: The market right now seems to be going in kind of slightly different directions where some carriers are willing to go completely portal free. Does Air Canada believe in the portal to a certain degree? Is that necessary part of the experience or could you envisage a future where there would be no portal and you just connect?
Haughton: I think if you could envision a world where both are viable options. I think you also have to lean in on regulations and privacy. Those are top of mind, especially in the Canadian ecosystem. We do have regulations that we have to follow and privacy rules that we have to follow. So in the end, what is a portal? Is a portal somewhere we accept terms and conditions or is a portal something that delivers more and deeper experiences. I think you know there’s a time and place for either option. And we’re looking at all of the above. But essentially we have to maintain a path where we maintain and adhere to our regulations.
RGN: Is there anything that I did not highlight or underscore that you would like to highlight about this big announcement?
Haughton: Hey look, it’s a huge announcement. It’s, a huge announcement for Canadians. It’s a huge announcement any customer flying on Air Canada. You’ve seen a plethora of announcements recently in Canada, we are the largest airline. Day one when we activate our fast, free product, we’ll have more Canadians and travelers on Air Canada accessing free Internet than anybody else in Canada. So we’re super proud of that announcement. We’re all drums beating towards that May timeframe.
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