In a story to rank with the great survival sagas of history, aeronautical satellite communications provider Iridium has started making money just four years after the original company was bought out of administration, having spent more than $5 billion on a 66-spacecraft system.
"We went cashflow-positive earlier this year and are now in a position to self-fund our satellite replenishment and development of new capabilities," Iridium chief executive Carmen Lloyd said at Farnborough yesterday. "Contributing to that was a 20% growth in revenues in the first half of this year - a very good performance at a time when satellite services revenues are generally flat."
When the new Iridium launched its voice, low-rate data and messaging services in 2001, it was propped up by a multi-million-dollar contract from the US Defence Department. The deal was for an initial two years followed by three one-year options: Iridium is now discussing activation of the third.
"But," said Lloyd, "while military users continue to be very important to us, our commercial business recently exceeded the military in value."
Other milestones this year include the company's 100,000th subscriber - it says it has added customers at a rate of 2-3,000 a month since service launch in 2001 - and the installation of Iridium-based operational datalink equipment by Aloha Airlines, Iridium's second air transport customer after Frontier Airlines.
Aloha has equipped three Boeing 737-200s and nine -700s with the AFIRS data collection and transmission system from Canadian company Aero-Mechanical Services.
The carrier uses a combination of AFIRS and satellite connectivity through the low-Earth-orbit Iridium constellation to transmit operational data such as engine performance and OOOI (out, off, on, in) times to a ground control centre.
"The information allows Aloha to increase the efficiency of its maintenance operations and to calculate billing and flight pay more accurately," said Lloyd. "And the Iridium-supported flight-following facility allows the airline to track its aircraft when they fly across the Pacific between the US mainland and Hawaii."
Aloha reports a 3-4% improvement in time-reporting accuracy, with corresponding economies for the airline.
Other Aloha applications include ETOPS performance monitoring and reporting of cabin consumables. Frontier uses Iridium for passenger communications, with bulkhead-mounted phones in its cabins, and as a reliable long-range communications link in the event of passenger medical emergencies.
Rotary-wing users in North America include the US Forest Service, which uses the service to deliver the positions of its own and contractor aircraft to deliver position information to its central situation display, and medevac contractor Ballard Aviation.
"Medevac operators are paid on the basis of miles flown," pointed out Lloyd. "Ballard uses our system to provide an accurate record of mileage."
BRENDAN GALLAGHER
Source: Flight Daily News
