Honeywell has appealed to the European Court of First Instance at Luxembourg against the European Commission's approval of a Fr140 million ($24 million) state aid package to Sextant Avionique for the development of a new flight management system (FMS).
The US manufacturer says the decision violates the European provisions on state aid and has been taken on the basis of a "wrong factual assessment" without allowing opportunity for comment.
Sextant is developing the FMS with the UK's Smiths Industries, specifically for Airbus aircraft, which Honeywell says will give the "dominant avionics supplier" for Airbus "even more opportunity to control that market". Honeywell supplies the flight management function for Sextant Avionique's A320/A330/A340 flight guidance system, while Smiths is an FMS supplier to Boeing and Airbus.
The government money was awarded on a repayable basis, and some of it has already been provided to the European companies, say industry sources.
The legal point "revolves around the fact that this grant was for commercial benefit", says Honeywell, "so the argument about US companies benefiting from NASA backing does not hold because that is for non-commercial programmes".
Source: Flight International
