Gogo predicts record aircraft installations in 2015

Inflight Wi-Fi provider Gogo Inc. said Monday it expects to install its equipment on a record number of commercial aircraft in 2015.

The Itasca company anticipates installing equipment on 500 commercial aircraft this year. It started the year with a backlog of more than 1,000 installations.

“Between installing new service and upgrading [our original service], our installation team expects to touch 1,000 aircraft in various parts of the world in 2015,” president and CEO Michael Small said in a news release. “We are excited about where we are going in terms of bringing new aircraft online and adding significantly more capacity to the network.”

Gogo expects to launch satellite-based system in the second half of the year. The 2Ku system is designed to offer peak speeds of more than 70 Mbps to an aircraft, nearly 20 times the company’s original technology.

The company’s equipment is installed on more than 2,000 commercial aircraft and 6,000 business aircraft.

Gogo employs more than 800 people.