Indra Australia wins DME/DVOR conrtract with Airways NZ

Today Airways New Zealand signed a three-year contract with Indra Australia to replace some of New Zealand’s ground-based air navigation equipment.

The upgrade of the Doppler VHF Omni-directional Ranging (DVOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) navigation network will ensure Airways can support its customer airline and aircraft operators in New Zealand with an up-to-date ground-based navigation system for at least another 15 years.

At the signing, Airways chief executive Ed Sims said that the upgrade will see increased reliability that a new system offers, and also offers a back-up system over this period as the aviation industry transitions to global navigation satellite systems.

Indra CEO Malcolm Monteiro said they have had a long relationship with Airways.  “Indra has worked with Airways for over a decade, providing local engineering expertise and support, and it’s a relationship that we really value.”

Airways has already undertaken two phased upgrades of the navigation network:

• The first phase in 2010 included replacement DME supporting Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) approaches at smaller secondary airfields in the North Island.
• The second and recent phase of navigation network upgrades included replacement of the remaining obsolescent DMEs in the North Island. 

The project covered by this contract replaces the remaining eleven DVORs - Hamilton, Gisborne, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Woodbourne, Nelson, Swampy in Dunedin, Slope Hill in Queenstown, and Invercargill and 7 DMEs Woodbourne, Nelson, Swampy, Slope Hill, Westport, Hokitika and Timaru. The replacement project will be completed by July 2016.

Indra Director of Sales and Marketing, Rod Miller, and CEO of Indra Australia, Malcolm Monteiro, came to Wellington for the signing.



From left: Indra CEO Malcolm Monteiro and Airways chief executive Ed Sims signing the contract.



From left: Indra Director of Sales and Marketing Rod Miller, Indra CEO Malcolm Monteiro, Airways chief executive Ed Sims and Airways Team Leader Navigation Systems Rudi van der Velden.