Abra Group has selected SES’s multi-orbit inflight connectivity solution to equip more than 100 aircraft across its airline portfolio, setting up one of Latin America’s most ambitious onboard broadband upgrades. The program will tap both SES’s geostationary satellites and its O3b mPOWER medium Earth orbit constellation to deliver higher throughput and lower latency for passengers across the group’s network.
Abra Group’s Connectivity Deal and Fleet Scope
Abra Group is moving ahead with a plan to fit 100 aircraft with SES multi-orbit inflight connectivity across its airlines in Latin America, a step that aligns its fleet with the latest generation of satellite-based broadband services. According to the program details, the group is treating the 100-aircraft figure as a baseline, with the scope designed to cover a broad mix of routes and aircraft that serve key markets in the region, which positions the initiative as a fleet-wide transformation rather than a limited trial, as outlined in Abra Group to fit 100 aircraft with SES multi-orbit inflight connectivity. For passengers and corporate customers, that scale means the likelihood of consistent access to high-speed Wi-Fi across a significant share of the group’s operations, not just on a handful of flagship routes.
SES and Abra Group describe the program as bringing multi-orbit inflight connectivity to “more than 100 aircraft,” a formulation that underscores both the immediate scope and the growth potential built into the agreement. By framing the deal in this way, the partners are signaling that the initial deployment can be expanded as demand grows, aircraft are added, or older airframes are retrofitted, a flexibility that is particularly important in a region where traffic patterns and fleet plans are evolving quickly, as highlighted in SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. The agreement therefore positions Abra Group as an early large-scale adopter of SES’s O3b mPOWER-based inflight connectivity in Latin America, giving it a head start in offering broadband that can support data-heavy services while competitors are still scaling up their own solutions.
SES Multi-Orbit Architecture and O3b mPOWER
SES’s multi-orbit approach combines capacity from its geostationary satellites with the O3b mPOWER medium Earth orbit constellation, creating a layered architecture that can route traffic across different orbital regimes depending on coverage and performance needs. In practice, this means that aircraft equipped under the Abra Group program will be able to draw on GEO beams for broad regional coverage while tapping MEO resources for higher throughput and lower latency when required, a design that is central to the connectivity package described in SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. For airlines, that flexibility is critical, because it allows them to match network resources to specific routes, time-of-day demand peaks, and evolving passenger expectations without being locked into a single-orbit constraint.
The O3b mPOWER system is designed to deliver high-throughput, low-latency connectivity that is suitable for bandwidth-intensive inflight services such as video streaming, cloud-based productivity tools, and real-time communications. By integrating O3b mPOWER into the multi-orbit framework, SES can dynamically steer capacity to aircraft that need it most, which is particularly valuable on trunk routes where load factors are high and passengers expect to use applications like Netflix, Microsoft Teams, or corporate VPNs without noticeable lag, as detailed in the technical positioning of SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. Abra’s adoption of this multi-orbit inflight connectivity reflects a broader trend among airlines that are seeking resilient, globally available connectivity that can dynamically route traffic across orbits, a shift that reduces the risk of service degradation and helps carriers differentiate their onboard product in a crowded market.
Passenger Experience and Airline Strategy Shifts
The SES-powered multi-orbit inflight connectivity is intended to support streaming, VPN, and real-time applications for passengers on Abra Group airlines, moving the onboard experience closer to what travelers are accustomed to on the ground. According to the connectivity roadmap, the system is being specified to handle use cases such as high-definition video streaming, secure access to corporate networks, and interactive services like messaging and voice over IP, which require both ample bandwidth and stable latency, as noted in the service description within SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. For business travelers, that capability can turn flight time into productive work time, while leisure passengers gain the ability to watch platforms like YouTube or Disney+ and stay connected on social media without the frustration that has historically accompanied inflight Wi-Fi.
Abra Group’s decision to roll out connectivity on more than 100 aircraft signals a strategic shift toward treating high-speed inflight connectivity as a core part of its product offering rather than an optional add-on. The framing in Abra Group to fit 100 aircraft with SES multi-orbit inflight connectivity makes clear that the group views connectivity as integral to its competitive positioning, particularly as Latin American travelers increasingly compare airlines based on digital services as much as on fares or schedules. SES, for its part, has emphasized the importance of enabling a consistent passenger experience across an airline group’s diverse fleet and route network, a positioning that highlights how a unified multi-orbit platform can help groups like Abra harmonize their brand promise even when aircraft types and mission profiles vary significantly, as reflected in the partnership narrative in SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft.
Installation, Integration, and Aircraft Platforms
The installation plan for Abra Group involves a mix of retrofit and, where applicable, linefit approaches to integrate SES multi-orbit antennas and modems on the targeted aircraft, a strategy that allows the group to accelerate deployment while minimizing downtime. As referenced in the program overview in Abra Group to fit 100 aircraft with SES multi-orbit inflight connectivity, the retrofit work will focus on existing airframes that are already in service, while linefit options can be pursued on new deliveries when supported by the original equipment manufacturers. For airlines, the balance between retrofit and linefit is a key operational consideration, because it affects how quickly passengers will see the benefits of the new connectivity and how much maintenance capacity must be allocated to the program.
Within Abra Group’s fleet, the initial SES inflight connectivity deployment is expected to concentrate on aircraft types or families that operate high-demand routes and offer the greatest potential return on investment, based on the targeting described in SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. The reporting also notes that certification work, including supplemental type certificates and collaboration with OEMs or maintenance, repair, and overhaul providers, is part of the enablement process for the SES multi-orbit solution, as indicated in the integration details in Abra Group to fit 100 aircraft with SES multi-orbit inflight connectivity. Those regulatory and technical steps are essential, because they ensure that the antennas and cabin equipment meet safety standards while also allowing the airline group to standardize hardware and software across multiple fleets.
Competitive Landscape: LEO, HBCplus, and Airbus–Spacesail
The broader inflight connectivity market is moving toward multi-orbit and multi-network architectures, a trend illustrated by Airbus’s work to add low Earth orbit connectivity options to its HBCplus solution through a new partnership with Spacesail. Under that initiative, Airbus is integrating LEO capacity directly into its cabin connectivity platform, which will give airlines that select HBCplus access to additional satellite options that can complement or, in some cases, compete with GEO and MEO services, as described in Airbus Partners With Spacesail to Bring LEO Connectivity to HBCplus. For carriers, the emergence of OEM-backed connectivity ecosystems that bundle hardware, software, and satellite access into a single package raises the stakes for independent satellite operators and service providers, because it shifts more decision-making into the aircraft acquisition process.
SES’s GEO–MEO multi-orbit approach for airlines like Abra Group contrasts with Airbus’s integration of LEO capacity via Spacesail, yet both strategies point toward a convergence in which airlines expect to mix and match orbital resources to achieve the best combination of coverage, latency, and cost. In the SES and Abra Group collaboration, the emphasis is on leveraging GEO for wide-area coverage and O3b mPOWER MEO for high-throughput, low-latency performance, a configuration that is tailored to the needs of a large airline group operating across Latin America, as framed in SES and Abra Group to Bring Multi-Orbit IFC to More Than 100 Aircraft. By comparison, the Airbus–Spacesail effort shows how aircraft manufacturers are embedding LEO connectivity into their own platforms, which could influence how future fleets are equipped and how airlines negotiate connectivity contracts, reinforcing the importance for groups like Abra to secure flexible, scalable solutions that can evolve alongside rapid technological change.
