Press Release

Issued by Thuraya.

October 9, 2017

Dutch aerospace services company, NL EASP Air has announced the selection of Thuraya Aero as its preferred airborne satellite communication platform on special missions operations. Along with Austrian company, smp aviation, the exclusive supplier of ThurayaAero, NL EASP Air has signed an agreement which defines the cooperation between both organizations. The mutually beneficial collaboration allows both the European SMEs to establish themselves in the European Economic market as providers of operational excellence for ISR and other surveillance-related missions.

Pieter Voeten, director of NL EASP Air, stated: “The combined knowledge of this Dutch-Austrian partnership will lead to an enormous efficiency increase for Maritime Search & Rescue as well as ISR operations. Owing to the pairing of excellent equipment with the know-how from both enterprises, this partnership will be highly beneficial to enhance future maritime surveil- lance operations for our European customers”.

Manfred Scheiring, CEO of smp aviation, remarked: “We are delighted that NL EASP AIR has chosen ThurayaAero as their satcom communications platform. This coope-ration is a powerful base between two innovative and ambitious SMEs to support operational excellence with a creative, cost-efficient airborne satellite communication system. In short, we are very excited about this alliance and are looking forward to many successful operations in the future”.

Licensed under EASA-PART Speci- alized Operations, NL EASP Air is a Schiphol-based service provider of integrated airborne surveillance missions. The company provides full-service airborne support on special-mission aircraft to governments and EU agencies that deal with maritime surveillance and ISR. In 2015, NL EASP AIR was awarded with a four-year framework contract for aerial maritime surveillance support for FRONTEX (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) missions and the UK DEFRA/Border Force.

smp aviation specializes in supporting operational excellence with real-time satellite communications services. The company, which is a member and also leader of the global consortium known as the Aero Group, has been chosen as the general contractor and exclusive partner of MSS operator, Thuraya Telecommunications, to create and launch its state-of-the-art Aero technology.

The Aero Group, a powerful consortium of well-known aerospace solution suppliers consisting of smp aviation, Cobham, Scotty Group Austria, SRT Wireless and Thuraya, are working together to provide first-class products and solutions to government agencies, NGOs and the aeronautical industry. One of the members, Scotty Group Austria, delivers the aeronautical mo-dem for this innovative airborne communications system and also supplies the highest quality products and solutions for maritime, vehicular and ground applications that exchange information between aircraft and ground crew.