Satellite-based air traffic surveillance company Aireon has received the initial US$50m payment from its three new investors, air navigation service providers ENAV of Italy, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and the Danish Naviair.
The investment is…
Satellite-based air traffic surveillance company Aireon has received the initial US$50m payment from its three new investors, air navigation service providers ENAV of Italy, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and the Danish Naviair.
The investment is the first of four tranches totalling US$120m that are to be made by the ANSPs between 2014 and 2017.
Following the payment, the new investors collectively hold 7.5% of Aireon with the venture’s founders, MSS operator Iridium and Nav Canada, owning 75.2% and 17.3%, respectively.
Once the entire US$120m is paid by the ANSPs and Nav Canada invests the US$150m it has committed to, the ownership structure of Aireon will be as follows: Nav Canada (51%), Iridium (24.5%), ENAV (12.5%), IAA (6%) and Naviair (6%).
Don Thoma, president and CEO of Aireon, commented: “We are pleased to have ENAV, IAA and Naviair officially join Iridium and NAV Canada as partners in Aireon. By bringing together four major ANSPs as investors, partners and advisers, Aireon is poised to revolutionise air traffic management and the aviation industry as a whole.
“The expertise and value our new investors will bring to this project is unmatched, and we are excited to sign them on as future customers of the AireonSM service.”
In conjunction with the closing of the initial investment, the new investors signed long-term data services agreements to become customers of Aireon. They are also expected to participate in the deployment and marketing of Aireon’s space-based ADS-B offering globally.
Aireon will also add two representatives of the new investors to its 11 member board of directors. At present this means that Iridium can nominate 6 directors, Nav Canada three, Enav one and IAA and Naviair one between them.
Formed by Iridium and Nav Canada in June 2012, Aireon intends to track commercial aircraft and provide that information in near-real time to air traffic controllers for a fee. To do so, Harris is building a hosted payload for the Iridium NEXT constellation that would enable the satellites to receive the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) position signals from aircraft.
Aireon has agreed to pay US$200m in hosting fees to Iridium for the integration and launch of the hosted payloads, as well as ongoing data service fees of up to US$300m through to 2030.
The first Iridium NEXT satellite is scheduled to be launched in early 2015 with the entire 66 satellite constellation fully launched and operational by 2017.
