Inmarsat wins 10-year inflight broadband deal with Lufthansa

Satellite group Inmarsat has formalised an agreement to provide high-speed inflight broadband to Lufthansa flights in Europe for a ten-year period.

Inmarsat will provide services from its new group of Global Xpress ultra-high-speed broadband satellites to an initial 150 Lufthansa aeroplanes, with the first to be tested next summer.

The broadband speeds are expected to allow passengers to browse the internet, watch videos, and for business passengers to connect to their company's virtual private network (VPN) and download files all with as reliable connection as they could expect when on the ground.

Leo Mondale, president of Inmarsat's aviation arm, said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that Lufthansa was signing up to the the best in-flight connectivity in the airline industry.

"As part of this agreement we will be working with Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Systems for the integration of our services onboard the aircraft, making the most of their state-of-the-art products, technology and know-how."

The contract follows an informal agreement between the two companies in September and, said Inmarsat, also provides a contract framework to extend the service to the other airline brands in the Lufthansa group.

Lufthansa will also be trialling Inmarsat's European Aviation Network in 2017.

Shares in FTSE 100-listed Inmarsat were up nearly 3% to 949.5p by 1520 BST on Tuesday.