Wi-Fi provider · Air-to-ground towers · Low-orbit satellite · Geostationary satellite

Gogo Business Aviation Wi-Fi

Gogo serves business and other non-commercial aircraft over air-to-ground, low-orbit and geostationary satellite networks. It says Galileo FDX gives about 195 Mbps.

Runs it: Gogo Inc., a public company focused on business aviation since it sold its airline business to Intelsat in December 2020. It completed its acquisition of Satcom Direct in December 2024.
Also known as: Gogo, Gogo Galileo, Gogo 5G, Gogo AVANCE, Satcom Direct, Plane Simple
Link: Air-to-ground towers across North America (including Gogo 5G from 2026), Gogo Galileo on Eutelsat OneWeb low-orbit satellites, and Plane Simple on geostationary satellites.
Speed: Gogo says Galileo HDX gives 60 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up, and FDX 195 Mbps down and 32 Mbps up. Gogo 5G exceeded 80 Mbps down in flight tests.
Latency: The cited Gogo product pages call Galileo and air-to-ground low-latency without giving a figure. A geostationary satellite hop can add roughly 500 ms of round-trip propagation delay.
Sign-in page: Varies by aircraft and operator. Some Gogo systems show a login page or a custom portal.

Checked 1 November 2026.

How it works

Air-to-ground towers Low-orbit satellite Geostationary satellite

Gogo sells Wi-Fi for business jets, not airliners. It sold its commercial airline business to Intelsat in December 2020, and kept business aviation. It says more than 6,000 aircraft trust it.

Its oldest network is air-to-ground, or ATG. The aircraft talks to towers on the ground, much like a phone talks to a mobile mast. Gogo says ATG covers the whole of the United States and parts of Canada and Alaska.

Gogo 5G is the next generation of that tower network. Gogo said in December 2025 that flight testing was complete, with rollout from January 2026. It covers the contiguous United States and southern Canada.

Gogo Galileo uses Eutelsat OneWeb low-orbit satellites, and Gogo says it gives global coverage. It comes in two sizes, HDX and the larger FDX. Both use a flat electronically steered antenna about 2 inches tall.

Plane Simple uses geostationary satellites, with a small tail-mounted antenna in Ka-band or Ku-band. Gogo names SES FlexExec and Viasat Jet ConneX as the networks behind it.

Gogo bought Satcom Direct in December 2024 for $375 million in cash plus five million shares. Gogo’s range now includes Satcom Direct tools such as SD Pro and the FlightDeck Freedom datalink.

Speeds and latency

Gogo’s Galileo datasheet gives HDX at 60 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up. It gives FDX at 195 Mbps down and 32 Mbps up. Everyone on the aircraft shares that link.

Gogo says flight tests of its 5G network exceeded 80 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. The cited current ATG product page does not give a speed figure for older systems.

The cited Gogo product pages call Galileo and ATG low-latency without giving a numeric figure. Galileo’s satellites and the ground towers are both far closer than geostationary satellites.

Plane Simple links to geostationary satellites about 36,000 km above the equator. The ITU estimates roughly 500 ms of round-trip propagation delay for a geostationary satellite. Other network delays add to that.

Airlines that use it

Gogo serves business aircraft, not scheduled airlines. Its customers are owners, flight departments, charter and fleet operators, and government users.

Signing in

The aircraft operator sets up the cabin network and access. Gogo also offers customised portals for some services.

Ask the crew when the service will be available. Availability depends on the aircraft and equipment.
Turn on Wi-Fi and join the aircraft’s network. Ask the crew for its name if you can’t see it.
Ask the crew for the password if prompted. A login page may also appear.

Gogo’s FAQ gives 3,000 feet above ground for AVANCE and 10,000 feet for classic ATG. Its AVANCE guide says availability varies and some systems can connect on the ground. Gogo advises limiting connected devices and pausing cloud sync. US customer support is +1 888 286 9876.

Background

Gogo completed the sale of its Commercial Aviation business to a subsidiary of Intelsat on 1 December 2020, for $400 million in cash. That business is now part of SES.

At the Satcom Direct closing, Gogo said 7,016 business aircraft flew with its ATG systems, as of 30 September 2024.

On board with Kilobat

Kilobat is a Mac menu-bar app that shows what each app sends and holds back what can wait. On a plane:

The sign-in page. When it doesn’t open by itself, the menu bar says This Wi-Fi wants you to sign in, with Open sign-in page. Turn your VPN on after you’ve signed in.
Mark it metered. macOS treats plane Wi-Fi as unlimited. Mark it Metered in Kilobat’s Wi-Fi menu or with kilobat networks cost metered, and Kilobat skips its own speed tests. If automatic switching is enabled, it switches to Travel.
Updates wait. With Pro, paused updaters enabled and the network filter on, macOS Software Update, App Store downloads, Google Updater and Microsoft AutoUpdate wait for an unmetered network. The apps keep working.
See what’s using it. Every app’s upload and download, live in the menu bar, so a messaging-only plan isn’t spent on a sync you forgot.
Send later. A big upload, such as Dropbox syncing a folder, shows as a row with its speed. With Pro, Send later can hold it until you’re on unmetered Wi-Fi again, for up to eight hours while Kilobat is open.
Know what’s slow. Expect pings of 600 ms or more on a geostationary link. That is the distance to the satellite, not your Mac. Health shows latency and loss, and with Pro their history through the flight. When Slack or Zoom won’t load, Is it them or me? reads the service’s status page.

Questions

Is Gogo still the Wi-Fi on airlines?

No. Gogo sold its airline business to Intelsat in 2020, and SES bought Intelsat in 2025. Gogo now focuses on business aviation and also serves government users.

Does Gogo Wi-Fi work outside the US?

Gogo describes ATG coverage across the contiguous US and parts of Canada and Alaska. It markets Galileo and Plane Simple as global satellite services; check coverage and equipment for your route.

Sources

Checked on 1 November 2026.