Iridium Communications has formed a Canadian joint venture to use its next generation satellite constellation NEXT to improve air traffic management.
The JV with Nav Canada, a private sector investment group that owns and operates Canada’s civil air…
Iridium Communications has formed a Canadian joint venture to use its next generation satellite constellation NEXT to improve air traffic management.
The JV with Nav Canada, a private sector investment group that owns and operates Canada’s civil air navigation service, will be called Aireon. It will also see Nav Canada effectively become Aireon’s first customer.
According to Iridium, the venture will increase the surveillance capability of air navigation service providers through the use of satellite technology, reducing their reliance on radar.
It has the support of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and suppliers Harris Corporation and ITT Exelis.
“I am excited that Iridium will once again be able to use its unique global satellite network to expand connectivity beyond the limitations of ground-based systems,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch.
“Just as we opened the world of personal communications far beyond the 10% of the Earth’s surface that is covered by terrestrial networks, we are now extending the reach of land-based aircraft tracking systems. This is a big milestone for commercially hosted payloads and it will be a ground-breaking use of Iridium NEXT.”
Iridium’s 66 NEXT satellites are due to be launched from 2015 to 2017, when it expects to operate full services. Each satellite will be equipped with ADS-B 1090 MHz Extended Squitter receivers for the venture’s purpose.
The company said it was also talking to the FAA to evaluate the capabilities of space-based ADS-B systems in the US, and is considering rolling the service out elsewhere.
An Iridium spokeswoman said: “We anticipate Aireon will continually sign up more air navigation service providers around the world, such as NATS in the UK, and pursue more opportunities, in the future.”
At the time of going to press, Iridium had yet to fully secure long-term service contracts with NAV Canada. But, assuming negotiations with it and other air navigation service providers are successful, the group expects Aireon to generate around US$200m in one-time hosting fees for the integration and launch of the payloads between 2014 and 2017.
The satellite operator also expects to receive annual data fee revenue from the venture.
Currently, Iridium is the largest shareholder in Aireon with an undisclosed stake, but the group said it expects to sell this down during the deployment of NEXT to between 40-50%.
Fieldstone Partners and NEXA Capital Partners are advising Iridium for the formation of Aireon.
