Cleared for take-off

21/05/2009 | By Alison Chambers

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Originally founded to provide reliable and efficient radio communications for airlines, ARINC is a broad engineering company headquartered in Annapolis USA, with regional offices in the UK and Singapore.  It provides mission-critical electronic solutions to five key industries – airports, aviation, defence, government and surface transportation – using systems integration, communications and IT capabilities. 

Airline passengers may not be aware, but the technology they use to check if their flight is on time or to check in is, usually, thanks to ARINC. More than 325 airlines and 350 million passengers use ARINC systems at 160 locations worldwide. This year the company, which pioneered air-to-ground VHF communications in 1934, will mark its 80th anniversary.  

ARINC is the world leader in air-to-ground communications with a 70 percent plus market share. It also boasts an installed base of over 30,000 airport systems. From off-site check in, Common Bag Drop, maximising passengers flown to terminal efficiency and comprehensive voice and data communications, ARINC is a premier partner to the world’s airports, working in sync with IATA and ACI initiatives.

Over the past decade ARINC revenues grew from $200m to $1bn. Originally owned by four major US carriers, expanded to some 20 airlines and other aviation-related companies, including Boeing, in October 2007 ARINC was purchased by the Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity companies. Today ARINC has a workforce of over 3,000 full time employees and a presence in 104 countries and 124 offices.

David Poltorak is ARINC’s Vice President and Managing Director for ARINC EMEA, based out of the company’s regional headquarters in Gatwick. He joined ARINC in 1990, initially to work on ARINC’s railroad projects and the adoption of ACARS – evaluating opportunities to share communication systems akin to the aviation industry. Five years later he moved to the aviation division to develop datalink systems in China and Thailand, at the same time helping to set up a new business aviation initiative, ARINC Direct. ARINC Direct was created after the shock of 9/11 when ARINC had to think quickly about supporting new sectors. Private jets were the darling of the industry for security-conscious executives and corporations. ARINC Direct is a web∞based virtual business centre for private business aircraft and today supports 2,500 business jets, including a growing number in Europe and the Middle East. 

David likes being based in the UK – personally and professionally. “Coming here has given me a good perspective on how the UK and Europe see America. Air transport links are good so I am close to our customers. Central Europe is only a two hour flight away. The Middle East is accessible too and the time zone makes for easy communication.” 

The New Economy caught up with him as the company hosted its annual Airport Systems Action Planning Meeting in Manchester, UK in October 2008 – a popular event for customers and suppliers – where ARINC shares progress on its innovations and invites customer feedback in a series of forums and presentations.  On the agenda in October – the month when IATA ruled the industry move to 100 percent electronic ticketing – were Fast Travel (e-ticketing, bar coded boarding passes and e-freight), remote and mobile check in solutions, and as passenger terminal space becomes more prohibitive, RFID technology, the successor to magnetic stripe boarding passes and tags, plus improved processes at airports, including self tagging. Limited terminal space at airports is driving popularity in remote off∞site check in options, ASAP heard, at car rental desks, hotels, etc. ARINC has garnered considerable experience there with Disney Hotels and Carnival cruise ships. 

 “Our customers understand ARINC’s roadmap,” says David. “They see us as the service provider of choice – we are not the cheapest or the most expensive – but we offer reliability, good value and we know our industry. Very few organisations have an 80 year legacy of diverse engineering and communications innovations combined with the financial muscle of our parent company.  “Customers put ideas to us and we to them. The pressure on airlines to reduce costs has never been so critical and this is driving a raft of innovations in the air transport industry, including a much wider acceptance of self-service applications,” he said. “We have a box of solutions they can turn to, plus new initiatives we will evaluate with them. We have visionary people in our organisation.”

At any one time, ARINC engineers will be working on up to 60 new innovations for their industries. David calls this the ‘Incubator’ – a set of company ideas that ARINC will share and plan with a small group of forward-thinking customers. Its philosophy is that it likes to explore how technology can help an airport, airline or government and come up with the solution before the customer actually asks for it. 

The conference heard that self tagging of baggage – being pioneered by Air Canada initially in Montreal and now Toronto, where passengers can self tag their luggage for US-bound flights is speeding up the travel process and is becoming increasingly popular. Montreal Airport Dorval has more than 70 self-service kiosks that dispense bag tags and now the system is being trialled at London Heathrow. Passenger self-tagging has the potential to not only provide more check-in choices and expedite the process, but also to greatly impact airport terminal space by increasing the capacity of existing facilities, delegates at ASAP heard. 

One recent innovation is ARINC’s Oi (Onboard Internet) – connectivity from a personal laptop from the aircraft seat that enables passengers to download and listen to podcasts, check sports results and access news headlines – all in live time. ARINC has teamed with satellite provider Inmarsat with its Swift satellite communication services to bring this to market. Passengers simply switch on their PCs and can connect instantly via a wired or wireless cabin link to the Oi Web Portal, which is fully customised to each airline’s requirements, supporting a combination of free-to-view or paid-for applications. One airline commences trials shortly and there are plans to make Oi available to business aviation customers, in response to demand. Oi will complement the range of service ARINC already offers inflight where ARINC technology enables passengers to send emails, SMS texts, and receive news flashes inflight via satellite communications.    

Talk at ASAP was also on mobile phone check in – now readily being adopted by airlines around the world. With 3.3 billion mobile phones in use, the device is set to play a big part in travel, ARINC believes. ARINC already offers a wide portfolio of flexible check-in solutions, which support IATA’s STB (Simplifying the Business) and FastTravel initiatives. These include self check in kiosks now increasingly commonplace and portable check in devices used by roving airline agents.    

“ARINC has been expert in passenger check in systems for decades and we
have a 75 percent market share of Common User Systems (CUSS) Kiosks at airports around the world. Now that IATA standards are in place mobile
check in is something we certainly are interested in supporting,” said David. However, he cautions, it will only succeed if airports cooperate, as paperless technology always represents a challenge at the security channels.  

Security too is a major part of ARINC’s business. ARINC’s passenger processing systems such as vMUSE enable airlines to share vital passenger and baggage information in real time – on high-speed multi-user networks. From traditional check in, common∞use kiosks and off-site locations ARINC assures airlines they can access the information when they need it. ARINC’s Identity Management System uses biographical and biometric information to authenticate passenger data; to screen employees and track workers throughout the airport more efficiently and securely.

Going east
In the Middle East ARINC is working with the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation to anticipate travel demands with a dozen mission-critical systems.  ARINC technology went live at Emirates’ new Dubai International Terminal 3 in October last year supporting air-to-ground communications and all systems worked from day one. ARINC is building an extensive network of VHF air-to-ground stations, having recently installed new VHF stations at Abu Dhabi and Dubai International. This supports the requirement for an ARINC Datalink service in the Middle East for which it has expanded its industry renowned AviNet core global network. In May 2007, together with Thales, ARINC was awarded a contract of almost $80m to provide Information Technology security and telecommunication systems at the New Doha International Airport in Qatar. ARINC is responsible for a wide range of services, including the flight information system, information kiosks, as well as a full airport operating database. 

Another priority is to bring over here the expertise and technology ARINC has in security to non-aviation platforms. For example, ARINC Inc’s newly launched AIM security system, offers improved safety on college and university campuses with a command, control and communications system that provides campus police and local public safety agencies with real-time awareness and video surveillance capabilities to enhance security. This technology has also been used successfully in protecting nuclear power plants in the US. ARINC is working with numerous governments and various stakeholder groups (ICAO, WCO, IATA) on global e-border security measures. “There is a huge amount of data that governments want to obtain from  airlines.  ARINC can act as a friendly broker, ingesting  information in airline-specific formats and delivering it in government-specified formats.” (ARINC supported the Spanish Ministry when it introduced its advanced passenger information blueprint last year).

ARINC is also committed to being green and EMEA was certified as carbon-neutral late last year, having been accredited with CarbonNeutral® operations status.  ARINC EMEA’s CO2 emissions have been reduced to net zero in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol. The move will see over 1,800 tonnes of CO2 removed from the atmosphere per year.

ARINC worked with The CarbonNeutral Company, whose independent technical advisers put ARINC EMEA through a year-long audit measuring its CO2 emissions in accordance with the WRI/WBCSD GHG protocol. This process took into account the impact of its six offices, ground station operations, deliveries, business travel, commuting and waste and instituting plans to reduce CO2 gradually through internal changes. ARINC EMEA immediately reduced its remaining CO2 emissions to zero through the purchase of equivalent carbon credits in two CO2-saving projects, the Sichuan Hydro power project in China and Sterksel Biogas in the Netherlands.  

The future
Eighty years on, ARINC is strongly positioned to make its contribution to the safety, security and efficiency of the 21st century. The company that brought the world the first air-ground communications, and the USA its first air traffic control system, continues to engineer the future, innovating  new products and services to serve the needs of its customers in aviation, airports, transportation, defence and security – and in doing so, serving their customers and passengers.

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