DUBAI AIRSHOW 2025: Joel Klooster of Viasat on The Importance of Connectivity To Support AAM Operations

At this year’s Dubai Air­show, eVTOL Insights’ Exec­u­tive Edi­tor Jason Pritchard sits down with Joel Kloost­er, SVP of Air­craft Oper­a­tions and Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty, at Viasat.

With all eyes set on the Mid­dle East, Joel tells us about the key pri­or­i­ties Viasat for the show, as well as the new few years. We ask how the region fits in with the com­pa­ny’s broad­er strat­e­gy and also hear from Joel how Viasat is dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing itself from oth­er con­nec­tiv­i­ty providers.

He goes into detail about how Viasat views Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty in terms of strate­gic oppor­tu­ni­ties and where he sees the biggest val­ue. With eVTOL air­craft, hybird air­craft and autonomous sys­tems all requir­ing secure and high­ly reli­able data links, we ask Joel how Viasat is help­ing to meet these oper­a­tional demands.

Joel also talks about satel­lite con­nec­tiv­i­ty and what role it will play in enable autonomous and semi-autonomous oper­a­tions in con­gest­ed urban envi­ron­ments, and share some key high­lights which the com­pa­ny has been work­ing on recent­ly.

And final­ly, we ask Joel if there has been any shifts in cus­tomer expec­ta­tions or oper­a­tor require­ments, which are influ­enc­ing Viasat’s future roadmap.