In-Flight Wifi Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Rising Penetration of Smartphones – Smartphones are the important part of everyone’s life as we are depended to perform lots of tasks via smartphones. From internet surfing to simple calculations, and interacting on various social media platforms, we do all these activities by a smartphone. So, their rising penetration is one of the main growth driver to leading growth of the global in-flight wifi (entertainment) market during the forecast period. For instance, world's smartphone user base is expected to reach 6.650 billion by August 2022, representing 84% of the global population owing a smartphone.
• Growing Number of Airline Passengers – The growing prevalence of air travel in people is influencing the various services provided by an airline. For instance, total air traffic in June 2022 was up 76.5% from June 2021 (measured in RPKs), out of which, domestic traffic increased by 5.5% and international traffic increased by 230% comparing the same period last year to this year.
• Rising Surge in Internet Use – With the time, internet has become an important key player in our day-to-day life. Now a major portion of global population is using the internet to get the most information on their fingertips. As of April 2022, there were about 6 billion internet users worldwide, accounting for approximately 64% of the global population.
• Escalating Trend of Streaming Services - Most of the today’s modern entertainment, such as movies, TV series, sporting events, concerts, and music, is delivered to us via streaming services. Now people prefer to watch shows and listen to music on an on-demand basis. For instance, between 2019 and 2020, the live streaming industry witnessed 98% growth in hours watched.

Challenges

• Higher Costs of In-Flight Wifi
• Security Threat Regarding Data Privacy
• Lack of Requisite Technology

The global in-flight wifi (entertainment) market is segmented and analyzed for demand and supply by technology into satellite, air-to-ground, Ka-band, Ku-band, and SBB, out of which, Ka-band segment is expected to grow at a rapid pace in the forecast period owing to its higher frequencies in the spectrum, which range from 27.5 to 31 GHz. that perform much better in communications demanding higher bandwidth. For instance, more than 500 Delta Airlines aircrafts are scheduled to have fast-streaming Viasat Ka-Band Wi-Fi by the end of 2022, up from the current figure of more than 300 aircrafts.