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At the height of COVID-19, business aviation experienced a boom. Interest was higher than it had been in several years, maybe ever. People still wanted to fly, but now, they wanted to fly privately. With a huge pool of new buyers and a limited number of new aircraft being manufactured, the demand, and therefore price, of these aircraft skyrocketed. Now, according to a recent AINsight article, the prices of pre-owned business planes have stabilized.

Right now, in business aviation, what everybody wants for their aircraft is a ‘one-stop’ shop. On its surface, the idea of the one-stop shop is quite appealing. It’s biggest draw for aircraft owners is the luxury of leaving your airplane in one location to have all the necessary work done in the available downtime window. While price is certainly a determining factor, downtime truly is the number one consideration in business aviation. The idea of leaving the aircraft at a single location to complete the work only sweetens the pot. Oftentimes, the work includes (but is not limited to): maintenance, records research, specialized inspections, avionics upgrades, in-flight connectivity installations, interior refurbishment, paint, aircraft detailing and cleaning.

Back in April of 2023, I expressed some potential issues about the future of Starlink’s business model for Business aviation. In the months that have followed, however, Starlink has gone out of their way to address many of these issues. Some of these updates were noted by Pro Star at the 2023 NBAA BACE, held in Las Vegas. Now, nearly a year later, Starlink’s future in Business Aviation looks very promising, and they are poised to change the face of In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) as we know it.

Throughout the three-day course of the 2023 NBAA BACE, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Pro Star played a role in some significant updates for business aviation. While I was not personally present this year, Pro Star had both of its regional sales managers, as well as the general manager, in attendance. Despite the smaller than normal attendance contingency in Las Vegas, it still had one of its most, if not the most, productive conventions yet.

In April of this year, I discussed the reservations I had with certain unanswered questions relating to the Starlink system designed for Business Aviation. In the months following, we have seen updates that have clarified some of my concerns. No update, however, has been quite as massive as the announcement made earlier this month. Both Starlink Aviation and Nextant Aerospace have been approved by the FAA to install their connectivity solution on all Gulfstream G650 aircraft.

On business aircraft, there are three things that must be functional before you can begin your flight. The internet, the engines, and the pilots…and the last two are optional. Of course, this is a comedic exaggeration, really there are many more things that are necessities. The joke here being, however, that in-flight connectivity is truly becoming the most important element of business aviation. If it were possible for an aircraft owner to fly a plane without a pilot, they probably would do that rather than attempt to fly without the internet. It is particularly important for airplane owners today to be aware of where their connectivity is coming from, as the world of In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) is in a state of major flux.