AVTECH enters into an agreement with Etihad on Aventus NowCast

AVTECH Sweden AB today announces that the Company has entered into a commercial agreement with Etihad Airways P.J.S.C. related to the implementation of AVTECH’s Aventus NowCast Descent (“Aventus”) service, for Etihad's operations into London Heathrow (UK), Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Jakarta (Indonesia). The agreement is planned to run for two months, during which a thorough joint analysis will be executed within Etihad's operations at these three airports, in turn forming the basis for subsequent negotiations and agreement on delivery of the service to Etihad's full network, currently involving approximately 90 airports throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

The agreement has an undisclosed contract value due to contractual confidentiality and commercial reasons.

"We are very pleased to have signed this contract with Etihad", says Ryan Ellison VP Aventus Sales at AVTECH. "The contract is not only proof of concept of the change in overall market approach that we implemented in May 2014 when the Aventus Business Unit was reorganized, but it is also yet a potentially strategic Aventus contract with a highly renowned company in the airline industry. We are humble to now enter into this evaluation agreement and we are committed to do our utmost to deliver benefits according to mutual expectations", finishes Ryan Ellison.

"Receiving this contract with Etihad Airways I want to thank Ryan Ellison for his, as always, excellent work with Sales”, says Jonas Saric, Business Unit Director Aventus NowCast and CFO. “The contract is a stepping stone into a potentially great long term collaboration between AVTECH and Etihad. Having received yet another important contract following the first network wide and crucial contract with Southwest Airlines, it is our determination not to rest, but to continue our focused and aggressive efforts to achieve an increased market impact through a number of initiatives. I look forward to an exciting winter of 2014/2015", finishes Jonas Saric.

“We are happy to proceed with this evaluation and are looking forward to seeing the benefits that this tool will provide us with” says Sander de Moor, Etihad’s Senior Manager Fuel Efficiency. “When considering the current relative crudeness of generic atmospheric data on the one hand and the capabilities of on-board equipment on the other hand, we are impressed with the elegance of this tool in addressing these issues. If successful, apart from entering in a long-term agreement, Etihad will also consider expanding the agreement to cover the enroute capability offered by AVTECH’s Aventus Enroute product, covering accurate wind data for the entire flight. Longer term, we are expecting others in the field of aviation to catch up and make these enhanced capabilities and tools a standard, which will help the industry as a whole to become more efficient”, finishes Sander de Moor.

About Aventus NowCast

The Aventus NowCast™ system is a unique and patented system that enables accurate wind information and/or 4-Dimensional Trajectories for flights, making use of the very best in atmospheric modeling combined with weather information (AMDAR and/or TAMDAR) to create high resolution wind models and wind data packages for the different segments of a flight; a so called NowCast. Data packages are uplinked to aircraft to enable the onboard Flight Management Systems (FMS) to accurately calculate an optimized flight profile and the actual time when each waypoint of a flight will be reached. The immediate benefits of Aventus NowCast are airline fuel and CO2 savings, i.e. the solution is highly environmentally friendly. Aventus is also imperative for aviation wide Time-based operations, which is an area where the solution provides even larger overall financial and environmental benefits through the provision of increased efficiency and punctuality of individual flights and of the air transport system as a whole.