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Faster internet isn't necessarily what matters when it comes to in-flight connectivity.
During a panel titled "The Academic and Commercial Reality of In-Flight Connectivity" at last week's Corporate Jet Investor Miami conference, James Person, head of OEM sales and business development at Viasat, and Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT, called on the business aviation industry to redefine how the quality of connectivity is measured and delivered.
"Speed is important, but it's only one part of what really makes the great quality of experience," Person said. "Perhaps even more importantly, the experience we have on our cell phones today is not enough for what we should be delivering for connectivity, for the expectations of people who fly privately really have."
In-flight connectivity should match the reliability and customer support standards expected from any premium aviation service, Person said.
"It needs to work for you and for the aircraft every time you get on, 99% reliability," he said. "If we're not delivering that, we're letting your customers down."
Schrage added to that sentiment that calls, texts, or Zooms while in flight are no longer good enough.
"If you're not doing ChatGPT stuff, if your children aren't able to do Twitch on a flight, something is wrong," he said. "You need to fundamentally rethink the use of connectivity that you want in flight; you have to have just as good an experience in flight as you do on the ground. Frankly, that's a pretty low expectation."
Person also emphasized that coverage and legal access are critical, as 35% of business aviation flights operate outside North America. If your network does not have legal landing or overflight rights in those regions, passengers will notice.
As for speed itself, Schrage said measuring in-flight connectivity by megabits per second is an outdated practice.
"Speed is one proxy metric, but it is not inherently or necessarily translated to better customer experience," he said. "Changing your metrics changes your perception of value. Everybody in this room is involved in marketing, sales, and delivery of value. You'd better be picking the right metrics for that. That same kind of opportunity exists with connectivity today."
He argued the new benchmarks for connectivity should reflect quality of experience rather than quality of service, comparing the evolution of connectivity to the evolution of the meaning of horsepower during the Industrial Revolution.
"As important as network design is, as important as network innovation is, user experience is more important," Schrage said. "That's the crawl walk. That's where running is, right? And that's an inceptual and technical gap."
To address the gap between performance and experience, Person expanded on ViaSat's new benchmark called iQe (Inflight Quality of Experience), which will roll out next year in the form of an app.
"As we introduce this, for whatever connectivity solution you choose for your aircraft, you should be demanding a service level agreement that lives up to this," Person said. "Because if someone is offering a peak speed test that they can do a certain time of the day over the ocean, that's not going to deliver the experience that your customers, your passengers demand?"
iQe will provide a standardized way to measure real-world passenger satisfaction using machine learning and predictive analytics from ViaSat's fleet of business jets.
"You have to design it, you have to measure it, and you have to really use those measurements as an opportunity to prove the quality and the reliability of customer experience and the value that people get in that experience," Schrage said.
Passengers will be able to see their iQe scores through the app or through ViaSat's partners like Collins Aerospace, Honeywell and Gogo. Person said it's one way to hold the company accountable:
"It allows us to put our money where our mouth is through our service bars, as you can imagine, that if they didn't have a good experience, we'll be held accountable for that."
Both panelists urged business aviation leaders to hold providers accountable and demand more for in-flight connectivity.
"We really need to be demanding more from our connectivity on aviation, and one way to hold us accountable is to demand an SLA from your provider," Person said. "Make sure that they're living up to what they say they can do."
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