Canadian Aviation Leaders FLYHT and Avmax Partner to Improve Aircraft Tracking

FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd.  and Avmax Group Inc. (“Avmax”) today announced an agreement for the Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS™) 228 for the two airlines Avmax owns, as well as its current and future leased fleet, for a total fleet size of 146 aircraft over a seven-year term.

Avmax operates two airlines, R1 Airlines (“R1”) and Chad Airlines (“Chad”), with a total fleet of six aircraft and the remainder are part of their leasing program. AFIRS will be installed on Bombardier CRJ’s and DHC-8 aircraft. Avmax’s primary interest in AFIRS was to satisfy the demands of their oil and gas contracts. Avmax will benefit from FLYHT’s flight data monitoring, which provides real-time engine and airframe exceedance information to maintenance and operations teams to alert them of any issues and enable them to provide timely service to the aircraft. Avmax will also benefit from FLYHT’s global voice and two-way text messaging to communicate with the aircraft.

“Avmax did an extensive review of products in the market and AFIRS was selected because it met all of our business needs. FLYHT’s solution was superior to the other products we evaluated in the market,” remarked Al Young, VP of Avmax Canada and R1 Airlines. “We will be able to provide world-class solutions, not only to our own fleet, but also to those aircraft that are leased to other airlines and give us higher visibility and data on our assets. We anticipate high cost savings on engine repairs as well as the other advantages of the product for operations, communications and maintenance support.”

For the R1 and Chad fleet of aircraft, Avmax will utilize FLYHT’s next generation Aircraft Situation Display (“ASD”). This solution will provide real-time flight following, routine aircraft notifications, aircraft health exceedance alerts and the ability to call or send text messages to the aircraft. The alerting function is unique in the global aviation industry, and notifies the airline when there is an abnormal situation on board the aircraft so they can respond in a timely manner. Avmax will use three minute position reports for flight following, which exceeds the current proposed 15 minute position reports by the International Civil Aviation OrganizationGADSS (Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System).

“As two Calgary-based aviation companies, FLYHT is excited that Avmax chose us after a competitive evaluation process,” stated David Perez, VP of Sales and Marketing at FLYHT. “FLYHT continues to show the market the value of AFIRS and our next generation solutions. This partnership with Avmax will provide both companies with new capabilities that we can offer the market. Avmax is the world’s largest private owner/operator of Bombardier equipment and FLYHT is very excited to be part of their long term strategy to grow that position. Our ability to meet regularly will assist FLYHT in developing high value, high return applications on this global platform.”

FLYHT will provide equipment and services to the leasing company on a seven-year contract with automatic yearly renewals after the initial term. FLYHT already has the required supplemental type certificates (“STCs”) to install on the Bombardier CRJ aircraft and the DHC-8-100/200/300 certification will be completed by Avmax in Q4 of 2015. Avmax also holds Design Approval Organization status which means it meets Transport Canada’s standards and expedites the STC process. The first five to seven installations are anticipated to begin in the fall of 2015 with the schedule still to be determined for the remaining leased aircraft.

If FLYHT completes installation on all 146 contracted aircraft and provides recurring revenue services for the full term of the agreement, revenue to FLYHT will be approximately $4.3 million USD, excluding any optional services on the leased fleet (which, if added, could bring the total value of the agreement to $8.3 million USD).FLYHT will provide AFIRS 228 units and the services mentioned above, and Avmax will provide kits and installation services.