At Airspace Asia Pacific, I had the opportunity to sit down with Don Thoma, Aireon’s CEO, to analyse the company’s latest news and forthcoming developments in the region. Traffic is growing and the region’s airspace is not fully covered by ground-based surveillance, making it an ideal market for Aireon’s space-based ADS-B services.
During the show, the company announced Malaysia as its latest customer. With the disappearance of flight MH370 still unsolved, surveillance is a sensitive topic. Don recalled that Aireon was not operational when the aircraft disappeared and that many people in the general public were surprised to learn that all aircraft are not tracked in real-time at all stages of flight.
Such incidents remain extremely rare and are not a driver of Malaysia’s Air Navigation Service Provider’s (ANSP) plans to integrate space-based ADS-B in its system. As Don explained, the reason behind this choice is capacity: “Without surveillance, Malaysia had to rely on time-based separation in parts of the Bay of Bengal. That limits capacity. Surveillance allows you to move to distance-based separation, which changes everything.”
Capacity increase requires international cooperation
The continuous surveillance that space-based ADS-B creates only increases capacity when ANSPs work together across borders. Its use over the North Atlantic was only possible because NAV CANADA and NATS adjusted at the same time. Technology is only a part of it. As Don puts it: “This is not a technology-driven solution. It’s a complete solution, affecting automation platforms, controller procedures, airspace design. And your neighbours have to adapt as well.”
Integrating Aireon’s data on both sides of the North Atlantic was a good step forward but bottlenecks remain. The use of CPDLC and HF radio communication are still limiting how air traffic controllers (ATCOs) and air crews can communicate with each other, therefore limiting capacity.
The next step is VHF-based communication via satellite. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) made this possible at the regulatory level in December 2023 and this is a logical development for Aireon. The best part is that it requires no new equipment on the aircraft, allowing for a fast adoption. As for ADS-B, the most demanding aspect will be certification. “Technically, space-based VHF is not new. What matters is doing it with the same safety pedigree as air traffic surveillance,” Don noted.
Iridium partnership enables greater focus
The next steps of Aireon’s development revolve around its partnership with Iridium. This has been a key feature since the company’s creation: Aireon does not operate the constellation by itself but rather piggybacks on Iridium’s satellites. This mode of operation allows each company to focus on what they do best: Iridium manages the constellation and offers its own communication services. Aireon’s equipment is onboard as a payload, with the company focused on operating ANSP-grade service provision.
Aireon already provides more than ADS-B surveillance and offers services including safety analysis, traffic flow analytics, efficiency and environmental studies, search-and-rescue support, and airspace performance benchmarking. The company’s approach is to build full partnerships with ANSPs and other organisations, with resilience and decision-support being the real added-value.
The new era of GNSS jamming and spoofing
Back when Aireon was created, the geopolitical situation was very different. GPS jamming and spoofing were rare but nowadays they are widespread in Ukraine, in the Baltics and in the Middle East. Thanks to the specifics of the Iridium constellation, multiple satellites can see each aircraft at the same time and this allows for triangulation. In a nutshell, this produces a real measured position, independent from the aircraft’s GNSS system.
Such a position is reliable and by comparing it with the position broadcasted in the ADS-B messages, it is possible to immediately identify flights being targeted by spoofing or jamming. While it may not solve the issue, it can at least provide a real-time indication of such situations. As Don explains: “Because our satellites use a timing source that is independent of GPS, and because we observe aircraft from multiple satellites, we can triangulate an aircraft’s actual position and compare it with the reported one, even when GPS is being jammed or spoofed.” He also confirmed that a new service sharing such information is in preparation and its launch is expected in 2026. This will enhance and extend the range of the AireonVECTOR family of products.
A resilient future
Our discussion showed how the mindset evolves from using satellites as ‘simple’ ADS-B receivers to offering full communication and surveillance capabilities, including anomaly detection. “Can you imagine a world without GPS? It’s not realistic. GPS is here to stay and the question is how you work with it and improve resilience,” said Don, adding that “technology is technology. You implement something like GPS, and people with malicious intent will always try to interfere with it. The focus has to be on making systems more reliable over time.”
Aireon’s objective is clear: to be positioned as a reliable partner, offering ANSPs certified communication and surveillance services, as well as derived data analysis.
