Gogo business aviation fleet hits 4,678 aircraft

Some 4,678 business aircraft are now using Gogo air-to-ground connectivity according to the company’s 2017 financial results. It says this is up 12% on the year before.

The company is the only one to offer an air-to-ground service in the US with Gogo installing antennae on top of cell phone towers and even building towers in areas with little coverage. The service covers the contiguous US, much of Canada and Alaska as well as parts of Mexico.

Gogo said it saw a 19% increase in light jets and turboprop aircraft adding their service in the last three months of 2017. The average cost for each aircraft using air-to-ground communications is $2,953 a month.

Gogo’s business-aviation sales were $240.6 million in 2017 up from $199.6 million in 2016. The business aviation division is extremely profitable – with a segment profit margin of 41%. It generated a profit of $26.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2017.

The company is investing significantly in connecting aircraft using 2Ku satellite bandwidth. In 2017 it installed 2Ku on 470 aircraft – including 130 outside the US. Most of them were commercial aircraft.

This new investment and write-downs meant that Gogo reported a loss of $172 million for 2017. The company said it made an adjusted EBITDA of $63 million in 2017.

Michael Small, the president and CEO of Gogo, stepped down in March and has been replaced by Oakleigh Thorne, who was previously a non-executive board director.

Picture: A Citation X fitted with Gogo