ThinKom Solutions, Inc. announced its flagship ThinAir® Ku3030 antenna—branded as 2Ku by Intelsat—has logged more than 30 million hours of operational time on commercial aircraft. The 2Ku antenna solution reliably carries passenger internet traffic, business communications and aircraft maintenance data across the globe.

“The 2Ku program really changed what was possible to deliver to an aircraft,” said Bill Milroy, ThinKom’s chief technology officer. “We were really the first team to enable a streaming experience via a high-efficiency phased array antenna system. That was a game changer. And now, operating the third generation of the system, 2Ku is still acknowledged as being the most efficient, most reliable and most capable system available.”

Intelsat’s 2Ku offering continues to attract new installations, including a recent commitment from Air Canada to convert its A321 fleet to this high speed solution.

Jeff Sare, president of commercial aviation at Intelsat joined in celebrating the milestone, noting, “2Ku is the lowest-profile and highest performing antenna in the market. Our team has worked hard with airline partners and ThinKom to reach this critical milestone and deliver phenomenal inflight reliability. It’s the most dependable product in the market, and airlines like that.”

ThinKom's ultra-efficient phased arrays, as part of Intelsat’s 2Ku solution, have delivered consistent connectivity to more than 100 million passengers on more than 6 million flights since inception. It is currently in use by 19 major airlines on more than 1300 aircraft, consistently supporting over 98 percent total end-to-end system availability with industry-leading connectivity and throughput rates.

The 2Ku system continues to be the benchmark for inflight connectivity, maintaining high availability and a premium passenger experience.