ARINC aims for China's airspace

Aviation communications and system engineering company ARINC is targeting the Chinese market as the most strategically important part of its international expansion plans for the year, Thursday's China Daily reported.

"China is the fastest growing market for the global aviation industry and hopefully it will also become our fastest growing market," Randy Pizzi, managing director of ARINC's operations in the Asia Pacific, was quoted as saying by the English newspaper.

He said in a recent interview the Chinese market contributed about 10 percent to the United States-based firm's revenue for the Asia Pacific.

The Annapolis, Maryland-headquartered company aims to provide data link services to the Chinese aviation industry.

These services help airlines and ground control obtain flight information, increasing the efficiency and security of planes.

ARINC has teamed up with Aviation Data Communication Corp (ADCC) under the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. ADCC is the only firm authorized to deploy data link services to Chinese airlines.

Pizzi said his company saw its data link business in China grow by about 50 percent last year, compared with 20 percent growth in the Asia Pacific region as a whole.

He said that according to a number of forecasts, the domestic aviation industry will grow by 20 percent this year, and he hopes ARINC will grow at a similar rate.

Six major Chinese airlines including Air China and China Southern Airlines joined ARINC's GLOBALink data network through ADCC, but Pizzi aims to develop further.

The Chinese aviation administration requires all airlines to use the data link service during every flight.