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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1750.PDF
BUSINESS ACQUISITION KIERAN DALY / LONDON Teledyne bags Spirent unit to plug data gaps Avionics company hopes move will propel it into burgeoning EFB market Teledyne Technologies is acquiring Spirent's Aviation Information Solutions (AIS) business to plug the gaps in its line of flight data acqui sition and processing products and launch it into the burgeoning elec tronic flight bag (EFB) market. For UK-based Spirent, the deal offloads a unit that has negligible connection with its primary com munications and network technol ogy business, but the $6.85 million price is less than half of AIS's 2002 sales of $16.8 million. Teledyne will integrate the busi ness into its Teledyne Controls unit and expects to retain the existing management, including Spirent Systems president Phil Benedict. Teledyne director of investor rela tions Jason Van Wees says: "The products for Teledyne Controls are really complementary. We have very, very similar customers and business models. "We buy flight servers but they v At Teledyne has grabbed Spirent's EFB have flight servers. We have a wire less ground link for GSM data, whereas they have 802.11 Gatelink and now we can sell both of those." Teledyne is particularly interested in Spirent's EFB, which already has a launch customer - Qantas - for the airline's Airbus A330 fleet. "It takes a lot of money and a lot of time to do that," says Van Wees. "So EFB was something that Spir ent had and we liked very much for it to go into our suite of offerings." Teledyne's commercial avionics programme has been built around the idea of transferring data to and from the cockpit, and making more powerful use of it for applications such as safety monitoring, diagnos tic maintenance and flight training. Its Magnastar in-flight telephone system is a market leader which fits well, in the air transport and busi ness and commuter aviation worlds, with Spirent's growing line of cabin management and display products. "It's the whole idea of getting more data and transferring it in real-time via wireless or Gatelink and using that data more proac- tively, for example for training and safety," says Van Wees. By selling data acquisition con cepts directly to airlines, Teledyne has dramatically grown its market share on Airbus aircraft, he says. "Two years ago on Airbus we had almost zero share and now we have 20-30%, and we think we can get to about 50% by gaining customers." PEOPLE • Former United Airlines execu tive Christopher Bowers is expected to be named the new trustee for troubled carrier Haw aiian Airlines after the resignation in June of John Monahan after only 22 days in the role. Monahan, a former Liberty House executive, was appointed on 30 May after a US bankruptcy court ruled that a trustee should be appointed to oversee Hawaiian's reorganisa tion. The move came after Boeing Capital filed a motion accusing Hawaiian chairman and chief executive John Adams of insider dealing. • William Swanson has been promoted to chief executive and president of Raytheon, replacing Daniel Burnham. Burnham will remain as company chairman. Swanson was formerly president of Rayth eon Electronic Systems. • John Young will succeed James San- ford as vice-president (VP) contracts and pricing at Northrop Grumman. Donald Winter, presi dent of Northrop Grumman Missile Systems, has taken the extra post of lead executive for missile defence. • Joint venture Bell/Agusta Aerospace has named Louis Bartolotta, for merly VP marketing for Agusta- Westland, as managing director CARGO MURDO MORRISON / MOSCOW Fast-growing East Line considers airline's future East Line Group, operator of Moscow's fast-expanding second air port, Domodedovo, is considering the future of its airline, East Line Airlines, as it focuses on ambitious plans for its airport services business. The largely cargo carrier operates 18 Ilyushin II-76s and 17 other CIS- built aircraft on Russian and CIS routes and is "profitable". However, it represents only about 15% of the group's $1 billion turnover and is "not core", says East Line Group chairman Dmitry Kamenschik. East Line Group began as a cargo forwarder in the early 1990s, but since taking over the operating lease of state-owned Domodedovo in 1995 it has been branching out into airport services, including maintenance, in-flight catering, refuelling, cargo handling and opening a 300-room airport hotel. "The airline has always been profitable," says Kamenschik. "But the board will be deciding on the fate of the airline from a strategic point of view in August. It was very useful at the beginning, but now it is not core." He will not say what the options are. The group is spinning off its cargo-handling operation from the airline into a separate business, East Line Logistics, to reflect the fact that most of the consignments it deals with are transported on other carri ers, many of which compete with East Line Airlines. East Line Group expects Domo dedovo - shortlisted in the infra structure and environment category in Flight International's recent Aero space Industry Awards - to overtake Aeroflot hub Sheremetyevo as Moscow's number one airport next Jl° C K East Line Group says its carrier is not a "core" part of its business year, with more than 10 million passengers. This follows a $600 mil lion refurbishment over five years. British Airways and Emirates are the latest airlines to fly there, with BA switching its twice-daily service from Sheremetyevo last week. East Line Technik, the group's maintenance operation, has won approval from Boeing and expects to receive European JAR 145 certifi cation at the end of the month to carry out B- and C-level checks on Western aircraft. 24 8-14 JULY 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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