In a move that shocked exactly-no-one-paying-attention, Airbus tool the AIX stage to soft-cancel Viasat from its HBCplus program, quietly scrubbing the Global Xpress (GX) network from its promotional slides like a bad Tinder date.

Instead, Airbus is now cozying up to Jeff’s not-yet-real Amazon Project Kuiper and Hughes, the human equivalent of a reliable-but-uninspiring date who brings snacks. Why? Because when your inflight connectivity dreams are crashing harder than Windows 98, you pivot to whoever promises “flexible, modular” anything.

Meanwhile, Viasat, true to form, insisted on doing its own thing with its bespoke gimbaled antennas and anti-social interoperability stance. And now? They’ve been shown the emergency exit while Airbus waves a Hughes flag and chants “LEO is the future” like it’s a Silicon Valley wellness mantra.

Amazon’s Kuiper constellation hasn’t launched a single commercial satellite, but Airbus is already counting chickens, and plotting cross-brand synergy like it’s 2012 again. Hughes, already embedded with Eutelsat OneWeb and eager for a Ku LEO encore, is playing ball like a team player who finally got invited to varsity.

And ThinKom Solutions, Inc.? They’re just quietly winning, again, by being the plug-and-play antenna everyone can agree on. Bless them.

In the end, this is about who’s willing to bend, blend, and keep the PR engine humming. Airbus is pivoting from legacy deals to future flexibility, because in-flight passengers might forgive bad coffee, but they’ll rage-tweet over buffering Netflix.

Airline connectivity wars:
less “sky’s the limit,”
more “which orbit has the least drama.”