Call it a potential case of sibling rivalry. In this case, the rivalry could occur in what is opening up to be a potentially lucrative market: data connectivity for in-flight passengers. This application, at least from a media exposure perspective, is flooded by the marketing efforts of Connexion by Boeing, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

And that exposure suits the folks at EMS Technologies just fine, as the company is seeing “substantial growth” of its Enfusion product line in the aviation sector.

Enfusion is EMS’s product line that, among other things, allows aircraft operators to offer high-speed data services to its passengers.

“Where we see growth right now with the Enfusion product is in the corporate VIP aircraft and in commercial airlines,” Jean Menard, director of commercial sales at EMS told Satellite News. “A lot of that is because of a big brother called Connexion by Boeing. Connexion by Boeing has been beating its chest nice and loud and has gotten people to listen to them.”

But it is more than just Connexion’s marketing that is helping Enfusion achieve what Menard described as “substantial” growth rates (he declined to offer more specific details).

“What we are seeing is a newly invigorated corporate aviation market,” Menard said. “We are seeing more aircraft being purchased. We are seeing aircraft manufacturers with a backlog of aircraft sold until 2008. We are seeing a very strong economy.”

Middle East: A Growing Market

One key difference between the Connexion by Boeing service and Enfusion is the markets the two services would be servicing.

Connexion is targeting major international carriers and is building a growing portfolio of routes serving targeted, high tech destinations by international passenger airline operators such as Luftansa. For Connexion, the U.S. market remains untapped for the moment as the major airlines continue their economic struggles and the discount airlines pass on the technology in an effort to keep total ticket prices down.

However, for Enfusion, the United States, along with Canada and Mexico, is proving to be fertile ground for Enfusion deployment.

“The majority of the market that we work with is in the United States,” Menard said. “I would say about 80 percent of the business aviation market is in the United States, Canada and Mexico.”

Menard noted that the Enfusion product is ideally suited for airplanes with ranges of 3,000 to 5,000 nautical miles. “That could be anything from a Gulfstream G-5 to a Boeing business jet,” he said.

And while EMS is seeing the majority of its customers coming from North America, Menard noted other areas where Enfusion is beginning to gain traction.

“The remainder of the market is very strong in countries such as Switzerland, England, France and the Middle East,” Menard said. “The Middle East market is growing quite quickly and the European market has a steady but cautious growth.”

Most recently, the EMS Satcom division of EMS Technologies announced ASI Entertainment Inc.‘s wholly owned subsidiary, ASiQ Pty Ltd., singed a letter of intent under which EMS will supply its Enfusion HSD-128 for the ASiQnet Saudi Arabian Airlines program.

–Gregory Twachtman