Viasat personalizes connected passenger experience with scalable IFC solutions
Viasat's Laney Hind (left) and Don Buchman at AIX 2025
Viasat announced its next-generation solution for commercial aviation, Viasat Amara, at AIX earlier this month. Powering the IFC solution are innovations in core satellite network design, hardware advancements and a suite of digital products. Viasat Amara is designed with powerful scalability so airlines can curate a future-proof onboard passenger experience.
PAX Tech sat down with Laney Hind, Director of Airline Programs and Don Buchman, Senior Vice President and GM, Commercial Mobility, to learn more about the IFC solution and how it is furthering Viasat’s connectivity solutions.
Beyond the buzzwords
“It is setting the tone for our next generation of multi-orbit,” says Buchman. “We have been doing this for 12 years – advancing inflight connectivity with full, fast, free streaming. With the acquisition of Inmarsat a few years ago, we have got all these new assets, so this is the time to move forward, and Viasat Amara is setting that benchmark.”
Hind adds that Viasat Amara combines Viasat’s best assets, noting that no additional hardware is needed at the moment to access LEO and GEO.
As multi-orbit takes center stage, Buchman says it is becoming the latest buzzword. Customers want the best possible experience, which comes down to bandwidth.
“A low cost, great experience is really what is being requested, even though customers use buzzwords like ‘flat antenna’ or ‘multi-orbit,’” Buchman continues. “With Viasat Amara, it is not multi-orbit first, it is customer experience first.”
Looking at current trends in the IFC market, he says more and more airlines are realizing they need sufficient amounts of bandwidth to provide a free inflight connectivity experience to passengers.
“We have sort of crossed that threshold of acceptance and so that is the problem we are solving globally. We have already solved it regionally,” he adds, noting that Viasat has been providing full, fast, free IFC in North America for more than a decade to JetBlue, Delta and, now, Porter. “Now the rest of the world is waking up to that.”
Personalization and partnerships
Hind points to personalization as another leading trend in the IFC space.
“We are seeing an increased desire from airlines to offer personalized experiences for passengers, especially with the younger generations coming up, there is an expectation,” she explains. “With our digital products, we are able to help with that increased personalization.”
One such product is the Connected Partner Platform, which allows an airline to choose from a suite of Viasat’s applications, as well as applications from its partners. The Connected Partner Platform provides advanced application hosting and an ecosystem of partners so that airlines can integrate and manage connected solutions. Current partners include FlightPath3D, Omnevo, Mozio, Discover Cars.com, Gladi8ter and Bluebox Aviation Systems.
Hind compares the ease of use to the App Store; “The airline has the platform onboard and they can load Viasat’s house apps and then we have a marketplace out there where others can develop and they can be automatically hosted by the airline via the platform, just like your phone does.”
Customization opportunities using the Connected Partner Platform also help monetization. Hind notes that while some airlines might want to provide classic free connectivity experiences, others are looking for help with monetization.
“Through the Connected Partner Platform and through our ads, Viasat can assist with monetization in a number of ways,” she says.
Just as onboard retail and ancillary revenue options are becoming deeply intertwined with IFC offerings, Buchman notes that IFC and seatback screens are trending toward deeper integration.
“Before those two worlds were kind of separate on the aircraft, you have an IFC experience and IFE,” he explains. “But over the last two years, we have seen a lot more integration.”
With this integration comes an opportunity to further connect with passengers through the use of QR codes on the seatback screens, dynamic advertising and live sports streaming to personal devices onboard.
When it comes to walking the line between personalizing versus interrupting the passenger experience through dynamic advertising, Buchman says, “We are brand safe and we work with the airlines on the experience they are trying to deliver to ensure it is not intrusive.”
Hind adds that the level of personalization onboard is largely up to the airline, with each carrier being totally unique. Whatever the airline determines, Viasat is there to support those goals to ensure the connectivity experience aligns with the brand through its flexibility and scalability.
“It is all about customer centricity,” concludes Hind. “It is all about the passenger experience and helping the airline extract what that experience should be for their customer. With all of the customizations we provide, that is what we are here for.”
