Aircraft communication system market has witnessed a remarkable expansion, over the recent years, synonymous to the burgeoning global aviation sector. As per the World Transport Statistics, the 2017 yearbook published by International Air Transport Association, airlines worldwide carried approximately 3.8 billion passengers in 2016 - representing an additional 242 million air trips and a humongous increase of 7% in the global air travel compared to 2015. Moreover, the rise in civil aviation has been complemented with surging military spending by numerous governments which has only added to the existing fleet of defense aircrafts. As a consequence of the aforementioned factors, the aircraft communication system industry has been accumulating lucrative proceeds in the recent years.
China Aircraft Communication System Market, By Component, 2018 & 2025, (USD Million)
The rising popularity of SATCOM to drive aircraft communication system market share expansion
A rather crucial component of the air traffic management, SATCOM has emerged as the most popular product of the aircraft communication system industry in the recent past. As the global air traffic is expected to increase at an unprecedented pace every year, prominent airlines across the world would undoubtedly be upgrading their SATCOM systems to enhance passenger experience and upgrade operational efficiency. Furthermore, SATCOM is being deployed extensively in military aircrafts - a factor that has further boosted the growth prospects of aircraft communication system market.
Elaborating further on the rising prominence of this product segment, numerous industry players have been competing fiercely to develop top notch SATCOM systems to cater the increasing demand from aviation sector. Enumerated below are a few instances which highlight the growing influence of the latest SATCOM products on the overall aircraft communication system industry landscape:
One of the most well-known firm partaking in aircraft communication system market, Viasat has recently declared the availability of its ViaSat 2 satellite communications service for military and government applications. The California headquartered company had conducted a Viasat 2 SATCOM system demonstration in the early 2018. Apparently, the latest service leverages the capacities of the upgraded SATCOM supplemented with new technologies in ground networking systems. It would be prudent to mention that the speed of the latest system is said to have surpassed 100 Mbps during the demonstration, something which is being termed as exceptional by aircraft communication system industry experts. Furthermore, it has to be noted that functioning of the system at such high speeds would allow users to transmit media-rich and band-width intensive cloud applications such as HD and 4K video streaming to hundreds of electronic devices at a single time.
Concurrently, an upcoming aircraft communication system industry player ThinKom Solutions, has released its next-gen aeronautical antenna systems to serve the American government's E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft. The latest SATCOM would reportedly enable more cost-efficient data, voice, and video connectivity with higher-bandwidth. It has been also said to provide enhanced transponder bandwidth efficiency and higher throughput and supports data speeds up to 400 Mbps forward link and 100 Mbps backward link.
In a bid to improve satellite communication technology, a major aircraft communication system market participant Inmarsat has recently inked a contract with European Space Agency. The firm is aiming to launch an integrated satellite and 4G network, named as European Aviation Network, to offer more viable in-flight connectivity to Europe's airlines and a 4D trajectory air traffic management SATCOM service. The deal is in line with the Single European Skies ATM Research plan that aims to build an advanced aerospace management system to transform European aviation sector. Needless to mention, such bold initiatives would propel the growth potential of the overall aircraft communication system industry in the forthcoming years.
Apart from rapid technological advancements in product development, one of pivotal factors to have contributed toward the exponential growth of aircraft communication system market is the swiftly expanding commercial aircraft space. One of the forerunners of the aerospace industry, Airbus for instance had set an ambitious target of tripling its services revenue from its commercial aircraft business to USD 10 billion within the ensuing seven.
The firm further aimed to target measures worth USD 555 million to enhance productivity in 2018. With such massive investments being poured in by chief market players, it is quite undeniable that aircraft communication system industry would witness drastic transformation over the estimated time frame. All in all, the aircraft communication market is overt to stand as a major beneficiary of the next-gen technology incorporation in modern airplanes. In terms of remuneration portfolio, the fraternity is slated to surpass USD 2.9 billion by 2024.