Iridium and Aireon signed binding agreements with three...

Iridium and Aireon signed binding agreements with three major air navigation service providers (ANSPs) for $120 million in new equity into Aireon, the planned satellite-based global air traffic surveillance system. The ANSPs are Italy-based ENAV, the Irish Aviation Authority and Denmark-based Naviair, Iridium said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1cWHHlW). Aireon is a joint venture between Iridium and NAV Canada (CD Nov 20/12 p14). Aireon LLC, the developer of the system, plans to pay $200 million in hosting fees to Iridium “for the integration and launch of Aireon’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) receiver payloads on each of its Iridium NEXT satellites,” it said.