Leading travel and tourism executives from around the world voted for the prestigious accolade, marking an impressive hat-trick for Inmarsat at the World Travel Awards

Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, has been named the ‘World’s Leading Inflight Service Provider’ for the third year in a row at the prestigious World Travel Awards, in recognition of the company’s pioneering GX Aviation and European Aviation Network (EAN) connectivity solutions for the airline industry.

The prestigious accolade was announced at a gala ceremony in Muscat, Oman last night, following a vote by travel and tourism executives from across the world.

Inmarsat was hailed for delivering a major step-change in inflight broadband capabilities with GX Aviation, powered by the world’s first and only globally available broadband network, and EAN, which offers unprecedented performance over Europe’s well-travelled skies. Both solutions enable airline passengers to seamlessly browse the internet, stream videos, check social media and more, with connectivity onboard at comparable speeds to land-based broadband.

Almost 1,800 aircraft are currently under signed contracts for GX Aviation and EAN, with a new business pipeline of approximately 3,000 aircraft worldwide.

Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation, said: “This has been another remarkable year for Inmarsat, as the rollout of our advanced new inflight broadband solutions continued to pick-up speed worldwide with both existing and new airlines. GX Aviation and EAN are now installed on aircraft with customers such as Qatar Airways, AirAsia, Air France, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, British Airways and many others.

“The feedback from airlines and their passengers remains extremely positive. The fact that the travel and tourism industry is also recognising our achievements for the third consecutive year at the World Travel Awards is another significant endorsement. This couldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the talented team at Inmarsat, in addition to our global network of partners and value-added resellers.”

Inmarsat is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year and has outlined an ambitious development roadmap for its Global Xpress (GX) network, which commenced this week with the launch of its fifth satellite, GX5, providing focused capacity for airlines and business aviation over Europe and the Middle East. Seven additional satellites are scheduled to launch in the coming four years, making GX the most agile and flexible constellation ever built.