SES’s mobility business saw revenue jump 7.1% year-over-year for the full year 2024, driven in part by “double-digit growth” in aviation connectivity and complemented by growing revenue in cruise connectivity. A longtime operator of geostationary (GEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites, SES’s nextgen O3b mPOWER MEO constellation entered commercial service in 2024.
The multi-orbit satellite operator’s mobility business is part of its broader Networks unit which also includes government and fixed data. Networks achieved an overall 2.9% increase in revenue for the full year ended 31 December 2024, representing its third consecutive year of growth.
During an earnings conference call to discuss the figures, company CEO Adel Al-Saleh pointed to a strong commercial pipeline in 2024, including new wins with Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines — each leveraging SES’s Open Orbits Ka-band global network for aviation — as well as new cruise contracts including with Virgin Voyages. Neo Space Group (NSG), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and a partner in Open Orbits, will serve as aero ISP for both the Thai and Turkish contracts, supporting inflight connectivity for passengers.
A slide shared by SES during the call indicated that the Thai agreement is a five-year pact covering more than 40 aircraft (both A321LR linefits and 777 retrofits), whilst the Turkish arrangement is a five-year contract covering linefit A350s. Al-Saleh suggested that Open Orbits can support “speeds of up to 300 Mbps”.
Notably, and seemingly pertinent to aero, he revealed on the call that Luxembourg-based SES’s wholesale offering continues to grow: “I am delighted to say we have recently secured a major strategic capacity agreement just a couple of days ago for SES-17 worth over EUR 100 million in contract value.” (He did not divulge the name of the partner. SES-17 is known to be playing an important role in Viasat’s high-capacity Ka satellite-powered IFC over the Americas. It also supports Thales’ FlytLIVE IFC offering aboard Spirit Airlines’ fleet.)
On the maritime front, SES is now supporting connectivity on 100 ocean ships, including ships operated by Carnival, MSC Cruises and Virgin. The latter, Virgin, is using SES’s joint offering, SES Cruise mPOWERED + Starlink, a seamlessly integrated solution that combines MEO and LEO orbits. This rollout, said Al-Saleh, “signals we have truly entered a new era for multi-orbit connectivity”.
He said it’s very clear that SES can “coexist” with its competitors such as Starlink on ships, as underscored by the fact that business and capacity needs continue to grow on these vessels. With nice momentum in both aero and cruise, SES feels confident that its ability to deliver a managed multi-orbit solution will remain a source of strength “anchoring our right to win even in a competitive segment”.
Meanwhile, SES is on track to complete its acquisition of Intelsat in the second half of 2025 “with all previously communicated combined financial objectives reaffirmed”.
Featured image of Thai 777 credited to Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
