The disconnect in business aviation connectivity
The annual Viasat and Corporate Jet Investor connectivity survey is one of business aviation’s most closely watched benchmarks. The 2026 edition — the first to put the same questions to both principals and professionals — reveals a noticeable gap between what the industry assumes and what connectivity users actually experience.
10-08-2026
5-minute read
The Viasat and Corporate Jet Investor (CJI) connectivity survey has become one of business aviation’s most closely watched annual benchmarks, a year-on-year record of how expectations around in-flight connectivity are shifting. The 2026 edition marks a first: the same questions were put to both the principals who fly and the professionals who manage their aircraft. The results reveal a significant gap between what one group assumes and what the other actually experiences.
“We expanded this year’s research to capture both sides of the market: the principals who use connectivity in the air, and the professionals who support, operate, and manage it,” said Claudio D’Amico, VP for OEMs, Partners, and Fleets, Business Aviation, at Viasat. “This broader remit gives us a more complete and accurate picture of how expectations are shifting, and where perceptions between these two groups align or diverge.”
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Explore the 2026 Business Aviation In-Flight Connectivity Survey findings across both audiences.
Where principals and professionals align
Both groups rank reliability, coverage, and consistency as their top connectivity priorities. 66% of professionals ranked reliability as their number one priority. Principals did too, with 48% naming it their top factor. Coverage comes in second for both groups, with 80% of professionals and 70% of principals ranking it in their top three.
“Speed may dominate industry conversation, but it is not what matters most to passengers,” D’Amico said. “Three attributes form the core of what both groups expect: reliability, coverage, and performance consistency. These are exactly the areas where we’ve concentrated our efforts.”
The core three are non-negotiable for everyone on board.
The speed disconnect
Here’s where the gap opens up: 51% of professionals cite low speeds as their top frustration. Among principals, that figure is 13%, last on a list of eight frustrations.
That isn’t a rounding error. It’s a signal that has been building for years. Viasat has been making the case that speed alone misses the point, and the data backs it up. Principals ranked speed fifth out of six priority factors in the 2021 survey, and it has only slipped further since. The pattern hasn’t reversed; it’s deepened.
What does frustrate principals? Limited coverage, including approval to operate the system anywhere (48%) and inflexible plans (42%), top the list. Coverage is the striking one: it ranks among principals’ top three priorities and tops their frustrations — a reminder that “works wherever I fly” isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s the baseline expectation. Inflexible plans, meanwhile, have noticeably grown as a frustration year over year, suggesting that how connectivity is sold and structured is increasingly as important as the connection itself.
If operators are optimizing for a metric that principals have deprioritized, that’s worth examining.
A growing number of principals report that the performance they experience does not always match what was advertised. They’re evaluating their experience through a different lens: one defined by reliability, coverage, and performance consistency rather than theoretical maximum throughput without any context around when, where, and at what frequency.
– Claudio D’Amico, Viasat
What’s actually happening in the cabin
The most striking finding in this year’s survey isn’t about speed or coverage. It’s about what principals are actually doing on board and how well the industry understands it.
58%
of principals use AI tools often or almost always in flight
97%
use AI to some degree
16%
of professionals estimate principals use AI often or almost always
“Principals are clearly embracing more advanced, data-driven workflows at altitude, whether for business analysis, decision support, or personal productivity,” D’Amico said. “Yet professionals underestimate this dramatically, and that gap in perception has real consequences for how connectivity gets planned and delivered.”
AI-driven workflows demand a connection that holds: sustained, consistent performance across the length of a flight, not a burst of speed at a single moment. Email and messaging still lead (86% and 73% respectively), but AI has moved from a footnote to a top-five in-flight application within the last year.
Coverage confidence
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Who’s in the room now
Connectivity decisions in business aviation have traditionally been delegated. Operators, management companies, and aviation departments evaluated the options; principals flew. That dynamic has shifted.
99% of principals say they are at least somewhat involved in connectivity decisions today. 43% describe themselves as actively or decisively involved. The person in the cabin now has a direct role in what connects them, and increasingly, an informed opinion about whether it’s good enough.
For the industry, this changes the conversation entirely. Connectivity can no longer be sold, specified, or defended without the principal in mind. They’re not a passenger to be satisfied after the fact. They’re a buyer with expectations, and the data shows those expectations are rising.
Toward a common measure
The survey also asked both groups whether connectivity should be evaluated on speed alone, or on something broader. 82% of professionals and 78% of principals said speed alone isn’t sufficient. When asked specifically about a quality-of-experience (QoE) score, 92% of principals responded positively. Among professionals, 74% agreed.
Viasat’s forthcoming In-flight Quality of Experience (iQe) metric is built to answer exactly that. Designed specifically for business aviation, iQe uses AI and advanced analytics to monitor network performance in real time, translating complex data into a single, intuitive score that reflects how a connection is actually performing, not just what it’s theoretically capable of. For principals who want to hold their connectivity to account, and operators who want to demonstrate genuine service quality, it represents a meaningful shift in how performance is measured and communicated.
That level of consensus is rare. It signals a market ready for a new kind of clarity and accountability in connectivity performance: a single, intuitive indicator that reflects what passengers actually experience in the air, not just what appears on a spec sheet.
– Claudio D’Amico, Viasat
Built for what matters most
“What this survey shows is that expectations are rising, and the industry must rise with them,” D’Amico said. “For Viasat, that means staying anchored to a simple principle: delivering a high-performance, dependable connectivity experience, wherever and however our customers use it.”
Viasat’s JetXP service is built around exactly that: delivering the reliability, coverage, and consistency that both principals and professionals rank above everything else. With regulatory approvals across strategic markets including India and China, and 24/7 concierge support from distribution partners Collins Aerospace, Gogo, and Honeywell Aerospace, it’s the connectivity solution that works wherever business aviation takes you.
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Explore the 2026 Business Aviation In-Flight Connectivity Survey findings across both audiences.
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