Aircraft Interiors industry development summary: Jul/Aug-2026 - History of IFC in North America
2026 marked the end of an era for North American commercial inflight connectivity (IFC) when in May-2026, North American airlines stopped offering air-to-ground connectivity (ATG).
Having connected over 2,000 passenger aircraft at its peak in 2017, the historical significance of ATG cannot be overstated.
Aircell (later Gogo, Intelsat, and SES) debuted ATG in 2008. Wide ATG adoption by North American airlines led to IFC becoming an integral part of flying globally.
This popularisation led to demand for improvements, and North American airlines started migrating to the faster new ATG-4 solution around 2014, before shifting larger aircraft to GEO Ku-/Ka-band solutions.
The most recent fleet wide transition to LEO set off a global pivot at an unprecedented scale.
Time and time again, North America has sat at the forefront of IFC innovation.
With the end of ATG's 18 year history amongst North American airlines, CAPA - Centre for Aviation looks back at the history of IFC in North America and discuss what is to come.
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