Viasat and Corporate Jet Investor 2026 Survey Finds Wide Gap Between Professionals and Principals on In-Flight Connectivity

The 2026 Viasat and Corporate Jet Investor business aviation in-flight connectivity survey, the first edition to pose identical questions to both aircraft principals and aviation professionals, found a wide divergence in how the two groups view connectivity performance. Both groups agreed on top priorities: reliability, coverage, and consistency. Among professionals, 66% ranked reliability as their single top priority, compared with 48% of principals. Coverage ranked second for both groups, cited in the top three by 80% of professionals and 70% of principals.

On speed, the two groups diverged sharply: 51% of professionals named low speeds as their leading frustration, while only 13% of principals did, placing it last among eight listed frustrations for principals. Principals' top frustrations were limited coverage, including the ability to operate systems in any jurisdiction (48%), and inflexible service plans (42%). Speed ranked fifth out of six principal priorities in the 2021 survey edition and has continued to fall since.

The survey also found that 58% of principals report using AI tools often or almost always during flights, and 97% use them to some degree, while only 16% of professionals estimated that principals use AI tools that frequently. Email and messaging remained the leading in-flight applications at 86% and 73% respectively, though AI entered the top five in-flight applications within the past year. Principal involvement in connectivity decisions has grown, with 99% saying they are at least somewhat involved today and 43% describing themselves as actively or decisively involved.

On measurement, 82% of professionals and 78% of principals said speed alone is an insufficient metric, and 92% of principals responded positively to a quality-of-experience (QoE) scoring approach. Viasat said it is developing an In-flight Quality of Experience (iQe) metric using AI and real-time network analytics to produce a single performance score reflecting actual cabin experience rather than theoretical throughput. Claudio D'Amico, VP for OEMs, Partners, and Fleets, Business Aviation at Viasat, said: "Speed may dominate industry conversation, but it is not what matters most to passengers. Three attributes form the core of what both groups expect: reliability, coverage, and performance consistency." Viasat noted its JetXP service holds regulatory approvals in markets including India and China, and is supported around the clock through distribution partners Collins Aerospace, Gogo, and Honeywell Aerospace.

The disconnect between how professionals and principals rank frustrations points to a broader measurement problem in business aviation connectivity: the people buying and specifying service plans do not always share the priorities of the people actually sitting in the cabin. When 16% of professionals underestimate how often principals use AI tools versus the 58% principals report themselves, planning decisions built on the professional view risk missing what is actually driving cabin demand.

This segment has historically sold connectivity on speed and throughput because those are the figures easiest to advertise and compare, yet both groups in this survey said speed alone is an insufficient metric — 82% of professionals and 78% of principals. That alignment, even where other priorities diverge, suggests the industry's conversation is shifting toward experience-based scoring rather than raw bandwidth claims, which is why Viasat's proposed iQe metric and its 92% positive response from principals matters as a signal of where measurement standards could move.

What happens next depends on whether an experience-based metric like iQe gets adopted broadly enough to become a comparable standard across providers, or remains a single vendor's framework. The growth in principal involvement, with 43% now actively or decisively involved in connectivity decisions, means whichever metric gains traction will increasingly be chosen by the people flying, not just the teams managing the aircraft.