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Iridium’s Aireon Takeover Could Unlock A Hidden Aviation Data Empire!

Iridium Communications has moved to take full control of Aireon, the aircraft-tracking joint venture it helped form in 2011, by agreeing to acquire the roughly 61% stake it does not already own for about $368 million while assuming approximately $155 million of debt. The transaction comes as Iridium’s shares have more than doubled over the past six months, driven partly by investor attention on L- and S-band spectrum value after satellite-related deals involving SpaceX, Amazon, and Globalstar. Aireon uses hosted payloads on Iridium’s low-earth-orbit satellite network to collect ADS-B aircraft location data and currently tracks an average of about 190,000 flights per day. The move also fits directly into management’s stated 2026 priorities, where aviation safety sits alongside IoT, assured PNT, and national security missions as a core growth vector for the company.