Hughes and Delta Air Lines strengthen connectivity offering through Fusion IFC
This is a special feature from the May 2026 Post-AIX/PAX Awards issue of PAX Tech, on page 86.
Hughes and Delta Air Lines accept the 2026 PAX Readership award for Best IFE & Connectivity, North America in Hamburg, Germany
A year after Hughes announced that Delta Air Lines selected the Fusion Simultaneous Multi-Orbit Inflight Connectivity Solution (Fusion) for its fleet, the partnership has won the 2026 PAX Readership award for Best IFE & Connectivity, North America.
As Reza Rasoulian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Aviation Business Unit at Hughes tells PAX Tech, Hughes developed Fusion into an ESA, KA- and KU-band solution, with Fusion blending the capacity of multiple constellations. By blending multiple satellite networks, the provider delivers a new standard for consistent and reliable inflight connectivity.
“In this model, we are effectively taking OneWeb capacity and Telesat lightspeed capacity or any other NGSO, KU-band or KA-band and blending it for the passenger experience,” he explains. “Ultimately, it is gigabits and gigabits of throughput to the aircraft and the passengers.”
He says this capacity also gives airlines agency over connectivity decisions.
“We are not locking them into a certain constellation. We are bringing the best of both worlds,” Rasoulian emphasizes. “As things evolve in the industry, the antenna equipment stays the same. We can replace modems very simply and really create choice for the airlines.”
An end-to-end ecosystem
Reza Rasoulian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Aviation Business Unit, Hughes, at AIX 2026
With Hughes’ Fusion, Rasoulian says the provider has created an end-to-end experience that does not rely on many third parties to support the ecosystem.
“Delta has very high expectations when it comes to connectivity and is looking for a flexible platform that can deliver a lot of capacity and the best possible experience to passengers,” Rasoulian says of the carrier’s choice to bring Hughes’ Fusion onboard. “Fusion delivers. You effectively have two antennas operating at the same time, always. As things fail, and things do fail from time to time, there is always a backup system.”
He adds that Hughes is using artificial intelligence (AI) to do predictive maintenance. This means anticipating when a line replaceable unit (LRU) is going to fail and creating a situation where Hughes is proactively recommending that a certain component or LRU is replaced, so it does not impact the passenger experience.
“There are multiple layers of redundancy as well as telemetry coming from each of these LRUs to help keep a high passenger experience in that promoter score,” he explains.
As the year progresses, Rasoulian says that Hughes Fusion’s rollout for Delta Air Lines will continue, starting with the airline’s 717 fleet.
“We are also working towards the certification process for the other parts of the Delta fleet, so updates around that,” Rasoulian previews. “As these products come to market, it means great performance and great connectivity for passengers.”
