CONNECTIVITY
Personalizing the connected passenger experience Viasat’s Don Buchman and Laney Hind discuss Amara, the Connected Partner Platform and personalization the connected passenger experience by ROBYNNE TRUEMAN Viasat Amara launched at AIX 2025
V Don Buchman, Senior Vice President and GM, Commercial Mobility, Viasat
iasat announced its nextgeneration solution for commercial aviation, Viasat Amara, at AIX earlier this month. Powering the IFC solution are innovations in core satellite network design, hardware advancements and a suite of digital products. Viasat Amara is designed with powerful scalability so airlines can curate a future-proof onboard passenger experience. PAX Tech sat down with Laney Hind, Director of Airline Programs and Don Buchman, Senior Vice President and GM, Commercial Mobility, to learn more about the IFC solution and how it is furthering Viasat’s connectivity solutions.
Beyond the buzzwords
Laney Hind, Director of Airline Programs, Viasat
76 MAY 2025
“It is setting the tone for our next generation of multi-orbit,” says Buchman. “We have been doing this for 12 years – advancing inflight connectivity with full, fast, free streaming. With the
acquisition of Inmarsat a few years ago, we have got all these new assets, so this is the time to move forward, and Viasat Amara is setting that benchmark.” Hind adds that Viasat Amara combines Viasat’s best assets, noting that no additional hardware is needed at the moment to access LEO and GEO. As multi-orbit takes center stage, Buchman says it is becoming the latest buzzword. Customers want the best possible experience, which comes down to bandwidth. “A low cost, great experience is really what is being requested, even though customers use buzzwords like ‘flat antenna’ or ‘multi-orbit,’” Buchman continues. “With Viasat Amara, it is not multi-orbit first, it is customer experience first.” Looking at current trends in the IFC market, he says more and more airlines are realizing they need sufficient amounts of bandwidth to provide a free inflight connec-