China has the world’s fastest growing aviation sector. Beijing Airport is second only to Atlanta in the number of total passengers per year. Boeing (BA-NYSE) forecasts that in the next 20 years China will buy 3,900 single-aisle aircraft.
The Chinese government-owned COMAC is about to begin commercial production of China’s first domestic jet, the 90-seat ARJ21 in Shanghai.
On December 3, 2013, FLYHT Aerospace Solution (FLY-TSX.V) announced that it has officially entered the Chinese aviation market by signing a contract to install the AFIRS(TM) 228 (Automated Flight Information Reporting System) into the Chinese made ARJ21.
"We are very pleased to be part of the role out of this major milestone in Chinese aviation history", stated Mr. Dong, General Manager of Datang Aviation, "our work with FLYHT has been very easy to come to a mutually beneficial solution for COMAC."FLYHT’s aviation technological products reduce costs and improve efficiencies:
AFIRS(TM)UpTime(TM) allows aircraft operators to manage and monitor aircraft operations anywhere, anytime, in real time. This technology has received regulatory certification for installation in approximately 31 widely used aircraft types. On March 9, 2012, the Company reached its one millionth flight hour with AFIRS onboard customer aircraft.
FLYHT Fuel Management System offers a powerful interactive tool for aircraft operators to achieve cost savings. With this technology operators can automatically identify fuel consumption trends and will not have to manually generate the required fuel management reports.
In January of 2013, The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced a new policy that states 50% of Chinese commercial transport aircraft must be equipped with Satellite Communications systems by 2015 - and 100% by the end of 2017.
The ARJ21 has undergone certification testing by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
"The performance of the AFIRS unit during our trials was superb,” stated Mr. Wu of AVIC “We are excited to be providing this state of the art capability to our customers as part of our standard delivery. We are also pleased that the AFIRS unit will provide an approved solution to the Satcom mandate in China."
FLYHT’s technology is currently in use in more than 40 aircraft operators globally, installed on more than 400 aircraft and currently operating on more than 300 in the field today.
"We are very excited about the prospects for this new generation product," stated Tempany in an exclusive interview with Technica Pro News, "We have an exciting growth opportunity because of the lead we have in the marketplace. We are a certified on about 60 different aircraft types. Those certifications take about 18 months to get depending on the jurisdiction. No other company has the number of certifications that we do, for our range of aircraft."
"For the last eight years we’ve been focused on entering the Chinese market. It has taken diligence and patience. But right now, everything is aligning. Our R&D is being significantly reduced as we move to the next phase, being a service provider. The Chinese government has mandated that every new aircraft must have Real-time data recording by 2017."
FLYHT grew revenues 41% from Q3, 2012 to Q3 2013. The year-to-date revenue is 42% ahead of the same period last year. Distribution and R&D expenses have decreased by 15.8% and 53.7% respectively. FLYHT anticipates on-going monthly recurring revenues under multi-year contracts. 2013 is the front end of an extended growth cycle.
"The ARJ21 installs are a major milestone for our company," confirms Tempany, "We told our investors that we were working to sign new commercial OEM's to our technology and this is a little ahead of schedule. We are very proud to be a part of the exciting future that COMAC and AVIC have embarked upon with this inaugural commercial aircraft launch in China."
FLY is currently trading at .43 with a market cap of $62 million.