Satcom Direct has appointed Brian Roos as regional director for Asia Pacific. He will be tasked with developing the business in the region, as well as overseeing existing contracts. Having worked with SD for more than seven years in Africa and the Middle East, he is well positioned to grow the company's presence in the Asia Pacific region.

“We have been focused on supporting our existing clients over the last year to make sure that we are adapting or modifying their connectivity system needs in tandem with changing travel restrictions and quarantines across Asia,” he says. “The pandemic has delayed some of our ongoing projects, again because of travel restrictions, which have limited installation opportunities. However, as we see a return to the skies we are supporting configuration of a number of connectivity systems for Asian owners of large jets. Once installed the aircraft will benefit from powerful, secure connectivity globally, as well as regionally. We are proud that we have been able to deliver unbroken award winning customer support to our Asian customers in a reliable, responsive manner.  Where customers have had down time, we’ve helped upgrade systems so their aircraft connectivity is even more powerful when they return to the skies.

“We’ve also taken the opportunity to continue raising awareness of our developing ecosystem, which is expanding through the integration of a number of third party offerings. MySky, the spend management platform, and Polaris Aero's FlightRisk, the risk assessment software that supports flight planning, are now both accessible through the SD Pro digital flight operations platform to enhance budget management and to heighten safety.”

The MySky platform, says Roos, aims to demystify and simplify the often opaque nature of flight department and operator budget management and spending. The platform is straightforward to use, delivers information through comprehensive graphics, and provides powerful analysis of spending, budgeting and supports more informed decision making for operators. Roos anticipates this will be popular in the Asia Pacific region, as for cost conscious Asian operators and owners it could be an invaluable addition to their day to day fiscal management.

The Polaris FlightRisk application analyses flight planning data to provide an immediate, relevant, risk assessment for each flight. The high-level risk analysis is displayed to users in the SD PreFlight module, also accessed via SD Pro, to determine if any action or flight plan modifications are needed. A single click enables users to seamlessly switch to the Polaris FlightRisk interface for richer in-depth analysis about any hazards identified and recommendations for risk mitigation. In the Asian region where weather movements can be unpredictable, particularly in the typhoon season, this will be a valuable addition for Asian operators.

“SD’s Asian customers welcome the ability to access a variety of flight management tools through a single platform as it saves time, money and improves efficiency,” Roos continues. “We have an international clientele so while Asia was going through the strict lockdown other regions were still flying. We are also a diversified company. We support international government, military and emergency services so were, and are, still very active in these sectors.”

SD will support end-to-end connectivity ensuring a single point of contact to resolve any issues, make service changes or upgrade existing services. The first of the four antennas, the SD Plane Simple Ku-band tail mounted antenna, is on target for a June 2021 introduction. It will support Intelsat’s Ku-band FlexExec satellite service, for which SD holds master distributor status, and is ideally suited to those that are looking to upgrade their connectivity or simply add it to mid-size aircraft as installation is relatively simple and cost-effective.

In Australia smaller aircraft fly across great swathes of barren terrain so the SD Plane Simple Certus antenna, slated for launch in Q4, will bring them more security and safety in terms of staying connected. It is widening connectivity availability, which in turn heightens operational standards across the region, and for Asian operators this really adds value for the passengers and crew.

Roos concludes: “We are focused on maintaining and growing SD business in the region and are committed to continuing to develop an offering that is attractive for business aviation users and that continues to raise the standard of business aviation operations in the region and, of course, worldwide. The Asia Pacific area embraces the possibilities that the technology brings to business aviation and welcomes how it can improve the whole operator and ownership experience. We are continuously adding new features through the integration of third party suppliers, which also make owning and operating an aircraft straight forward. As we make the Plane Simple antenna series introduction we’ll also be highlighting the full suite of SD services, which when combined with our antennas present an extremely attractive package for Asian operators who seek out efficiency.

“We’ll continue to educate the region about the benefits of connectivity beyond communications, and we’ll also be demonstrating how using bespoke SD connectivity systems connects the ground, streamlines flight operations, supports improved flight operations and can even support maintenance management and budgeting. The APAC region appreciates affordable efficiency and that is what we are delivering in our connectivity systems.”