Empire is first UAE operator with SD’s Plane Simple Ku-band

(L to R) Paras Dhamecha, founder and MD at Empire Aviation and David Falberg, SD vice president, International announce the deal at this week's Dubai Airshow 2023.

Satcom Direct has announced Empire Aviation Group as the first operator in the UAE to deploy the Plane Simple Ku-band terminal. 

Since the commercial introduction of the terminal just over a year ago it has clocked up over 10,000 flight hours. The two unit line-replaceable system consisting of a tail-mount antenna and Satcom Direct (SD) modem unit is being equipped initially on a Bombardier Global XRS. The Global XRS will be re-delivered to Empire Aviation in late November.

The announcement was made the Dubai Air Show. 

Paras Dhamecha, founder and MD at Empire Aviation Group, said: “As a leading management company, our clients entrust and empower us to deploy solutions that deliver reliability, commercial value and, of course, passenger satisfaction. For us, the SD Plane Simple option just made sense.

“SD offers a highly attractive single resource for all our connectivity needs. From cockpit to cabin, the system provides leading-edge technology backed by a network of top MRO partners and access to expert support 24/7/365 to keep us connected. This approach gives us peace of mind, minimising the risk and pain of deploying new technology,” he added.

The SD terminal, purpose-built for business aviation, delivers high-speed connectivity via the Intelsat FlexExec service.

SD VP International, David Falberg said: “This deal is testimony to our continued success in delivering innovation to the market, particularly in the Middle East, and customers’ confidence that our solutions will protect their investment and ambitions. As a business, we value long-term working partnerships that allow us to deliver success to our customers and support their competitive advantage now and in the future.

Satcom Direct is at the Dubai Airshow this week in Booth #218.