Prince Aviation completes industry first retrofit of Iridium Certus satellite connectivity on a Cessna Citation XLS aircraft

Prince Aviation have modified their own Cessna Citation XLS jet with a Collins Aerospace IRT NX Satellite Communications system, providing high-speed cabin connectivity through the Iridium Certus® 700 satellite service.This modification represents a first ever installation of a Collins SATCOM solution on a Cessna XLS business jet, which is displayed during the AERO Friedrichshafen trade show. EASA certification and design approval was obtained by Q.C.M. Design GmbH with Prince Aviation installing the hardware onto the aircraft in their new expanded Belgrade MRO facility.

Iridium’s crosslinked, L-band satellites enable truly global connectivity for Collins’ advanced ARINCDirect℠ , generating weather-resilient network speeds up to 704 kbps. The compact and lightweight solution provides users with reliable, secure and cost-effective connectivity to browse the internet, make voice calls, text, access email and utilize social media applications.
 
Srdjan Kragojevic, Prince Aviation MRO director commented: "We are happy to have successfully completed and publicly unveiled our second Collins Aerospace SATCOM installation here at Friedrichshafen.Just several months after our pioneering effort to install this system on our Cessna 525 Citation Jet, we have completed another first, installing it on one of our own Cessna Citation XLS jets which we proudly present here at AERO. Having recently significantly upgraded our MRO capacity at our home Belgrade facility, we continue cooperating with avionics OEMs to offer new modification options with demonstrated short installation times and proven quality of work."    

Collins designed and manufactured IRT NX SATCOM system includes a data unit, configuration module and antenna – providing consistent, cohesive connectivity throughout the aircraft while using less power than legacy systems. Prince Aviation provides all hardware installations coupled with MRO services. Prince Aviation Cessna Citation XLS with the installed Collins hardware, antenna and ARINCDirect connectivity services are on display at the AERO Expo 2025 in Friedrichshafen at RTX static aircraft exhibit location SD-53.