ARINC Direct SM will participate at EBACE in Geneva, Switzerland, in May (Stand No 575) having seen its customer base in Europe and the Middle East Region grow significantly during the past 12 months. The number of business aircraft it is now supporting has increased to 250, up 100 units from this time a year ago. In 2009 for the first time, more than 50 percent of new aircraft deliveries are occurring outside North America. As a result, ARINC Direct is looking to create a similar dedicated infrastructure to EMEA in the Asia Pacific Region later this year.
The message that ARINC Direct is taking to Geneva focuses on how it can help deliver value to customers with tools that can enable them to make the most cost effective use of their aircraft for business. The industry is facing big challenges and cost-cutting has become a regularly heard expression. ARINC Direct will meet customers at EBACE to help them deliver more value. There is already an increasing trend among established customers to expand the number of service solutions from the ARINC portfolio.
Interest is growing in ARINC's flight planning solutions, although growth is mainly being driven by its communications offerings, according to Business Manager James Hardie. In support of this, ARINC continues to co-operate with competitors on the provision of flight plan uplinks. During the show Gary Gambarini, Director of Operations, will talk up ARINC Direct's international trip planning solutions and hopefully taking orders from customers.
ARINC Direct continues to win business because of its overall value proposition to business jet operators – in three core areas: cockpit datalinks – which provide critical information for pilots to make well informed decisions and provide valuable point to point contact with their support on the ground; cabin voice and data that improves the passenger experience and utility of a business jet by maintaining connections that are commonplace on the ground and, an area that is becoming increasingly popular, flight planning. In the EMEA region, ARINC has bolstered its number of engineers to handle all aspects of aircraft activation, advice, troubleshooting, and application training.
