While Gogo was founded more than 25 years ago to provide cellular service to business aircraft, the brand didn’t become a household name until the late 2000s and early 2010s when it earned attention for supplying inflight internet service to millions of airline passengers. Early on, commercial aircraft used Gogo’s revolutionary air-to-ground (ATG) network, which originally provided internet connectivity at 2G speeds in the continental U.S., Canada, and Alaska. While the network received continual upgrades to increase speed and capability to 3G/4G—and in 2021 will include a 5G service—the exponential growth in usage among airline passengers led to decreases in available bandwidth and slower performance for individual users.

Converting Commercial Customers to Satellite

Because passenger use jumped so dramatically in those initial years, to address that issue, in 2012 Gogo began partnering with satellite equipment companies to provide Ku-band service to airline customers. Once agreements were in place and equipment had been developed, Gogo began enticing its commercial airline partners to switch from ATG to its 2Ku satellite network. This allowed the company to provide internet access to airliners traveling outside the ATG network and increased the bandwidth and performance on both networks.

“One of our large airline partners had over a thousand of its aircraft on the Gogo ATG network,” said Sergio Aguirre, president of Gogo Business Aviation. “Our 2Ku network proved to be a much more capable system for the larger commercial aircraft, so over the past 18 months, we’ve been working with airline partners to replace ATG equipment with the 2Ku system that Gogo developed and has exclusive rights to. That has taken a lot of demand from the ATG system and freed up capacity.”

Between July 2017 and May 2019, approximately 40 percent of Gogo’s commercial customers switched to the Ku-band satellite service. ATG network daily usage decreased from about nine terabytes to 5.2 terabytes by December 2019, freeing up a tremendous amount of  bandwidth and increasing usability for the remaining commercial and business aviation ATG customers. In fact, so much bandwidth has been freed up on Gogo’s ATG network that Gogo was able to lower the service level for its business aviation customers from above 10,000 feet above ground level (AGL) to above 3,000 feet AGL.

“Lowering the service level to 3,000 feet is opening a new segment of business aviation customers for us,” said Aguirre. “It adds about 20 minutes of additional connectivity to most flights and increases the viability of the Gogo service for small jets or large turboprops that may not fly above 10,000 feet for much of their flight. All of a sudden, connectivity is now an option worth considering.”

Sale of Commercial Aviation Division

In August 2020, Gogo announced an agreement to sell its commercial aviation business to global satellite operator Intelsat for $400 million in cash. The transaction, expected to close in first-quarter 2021, includes both the U.S. and international commercial aviation sales divisions, leaving Gogo and its business aviation division as the new standalone company.

“We will now have a singular focus on products and services for our business aviation customers,” said Aguirre. “Our long-term financial position is significantly stronger than when we were holding the commercial aviation business.”

As part of the transaction, Gogo will enter into a 10-year network services agreement under which Intelsat will have exclusive access to Gogo ATG services for the commercial aviation market in North America, subject to minimum revenue guarantees of $177.5 million.

Intelsat intends to operate the commercial aviation business as an independent unit led by current Gogo Commercial Aviation president John Wade.

“Gogo’s 2Ku satellite system currently includes Ku capacity from several satellite providers,” said Aguirre. “Gogo 2Ku customers will be glad to know that Intelsat is not talking about removing Gogo equipment and installing Intelsat equipment, but rather intends to maximize their distribution of satellite capacity across the 17 airline customers currently on the Gogo 2Ku network.”

No Effect on Gogo 5G Launch in 2021

Like many aviation companies in 2020, Gogo struggled through some financial challenges during the Covid-19 shutdown. But the sale to Intelsat—which itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 and has completed a financial restructuring—was part of Gogo’s long-term strategic plan and had been in the works for years.

“The sale is a positive development for Gogo Business Aviation because it’s going to allow us to invest more heavily in technologies like 5G for our business aviation customers,” said Aguirre. Unimpeded by Covid-19 or the Commercial Aviation sale, Gogo is still on track to launch its 5G ATG network in 2021.

 “5G is an enhancement to a multi-year strategy to improve connectivity in business aviation through our AVANCE platform,” said Aguirre. “Gogo 5G is deliberately built on top of our existing 3G/4G network so customers who have invested in AVANCE or upgraded from our classic system to AVANCE L5 can add 5G without ripping out and replacing equipment. Not one cent of their investment in an L5 system will have been wasted when they add Gogo 5G.”

 The combination of additional bandwidth due to fewer commercial customers on the ATG network and the upgrade to 5G will make the AVANCE L5 and future platforms even more powerful inflight entertainment (IFE) systems. While today AVANCE L5 provides multiple IFE features—such as streaming video, digital magazines, moving maps, and communication options—5G will take the experience to a new level. Everyone on board will enjoy network speeds similar to those at their home or office, so passengers on multiple devices will be able to stream video, participate in online meetings, and transfer large files at the same time.

“We’re really looking at bringing everything that’s possible digitally on the ground into the air,” Aguirre said. “Especially during Covid-19, our customers are using the connectivity available in their business jets to attend virtual meetings and connect remotely during travel. And we are using remote diagnostics to ensure people are connected and consistently receive good performance from their system while flying. We have not missed any deliveries or had any disruptions to our supply chain due to Covid, and I feel we’ve learned how to continue to do business in this Covid environment.”

In October 2020, flights of aircraft with active Gogo systems were exceeding 3,000 per day, just short of the pre-Covid levels of 3,500 to 4,000, with charter and large-fleet bizav operators already back to pre-Covid levels.

“We’re seeing longer flights and higher Gogo system utilization, indicating more people are chartering aircraft,” said Aguirre. “Business aviation is back, and we’re well poised to keep passengers connected in 2021 and beyond.”