Airways New Zealand to Set Up Major European Joint Venture

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13 October 2013

Airways New Zealand to Set Up Major European Joint Venture

State-Owned Enterprise Airways New Zealand has signed a Heads of Agreement to set up a new aeronautical information company to be called GroupEAD Asia Pacific.

The agreement has been signed with GroupEAD Europe S.L., a Spanish-based Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) provider whose area of expertise includes the management of the European AIS Database (EAD) on behalf of Eurocontrol.

The company will be a joint venture business delivering next-generation aeronautical information management services and procedure design services to the Asia Pacific region. The new business will be based in Wellington, and is expected to start operations early in 2014.

The joint venture will have initial revenues of around $4 million a year, with the majority secured by long-term contracts.

The 23 staff currently working at Airways head office in the aeronautical information management (AIM) and procedure design services teams will work for the new joint venture. Their current work includes managing New Zealand’s aerodrome, airspace, and route information as well as the design and maintenance of Instrument Flight Procedures.

Trent Clarke is Airways Manager Aeronautical Information Management. “Today’s generation of aeronautical information is still largely provided to the aviation sector in the form of hardcopy charts and publications. We’re looking to the next generation, the data generation. There is a global aviation roadmap and upgrade programme which outlines the way to the future.

“The implementation of this roadmap will require significant investment in new systems and new processes. Pacific and Asian nations, including New Zealand, can minimise their investment by utilising the services of the new business when it is up and running.

“Safety is always paramount in aviation, and ready access to high quality and up-to-date information is the key to safety in this business,” says Trent.

Airways chief executive Ed Sims said that Airways has a long and proud tradition of delivering services to many parts of the world.

“We are delighted to be teamed with GroupEAD to create a global brand with a consistent, high quality service offering. As countries work through the transformation towards System Wide Information Management (SWIM), we intend GroupEAD Asia- Pacific to be ready and able to assist wherever required.”

ENDS

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