Ukraine Pact Is Worth $800,000 to Hughes Unit
Ukraine’s government has awarded Hughes Aircraft Co. an $800,000 contract to create a plan to modernize four major airports in the former Soviet republic.
The venture--funded by U.S. and Canadian government loans--could help Hughes’ Fullerton-based Ground Systems Group gain more contracts to upgrade electronic and computer systems, as well as air traffic control in the country, Hughes officials said Friday.
The study, to be completed in six months, will outline the technology and infrastructure needed at airports in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv and Symferopol and will discuss ways to pay for renovations.
The projects could cost several hundred million dollars over the next 20 years, Hughes officials said. Modernizing the Kiev airport alone is expected to cost at least $100 million.
The Kiev airport, Ukraine’s major hub, “is certainly antiquated,” said Joe Capobianco, group vice president for the Fullerton division. The airport has just one runway and “needs to be expanded and upgraded. . . . This plan will look at what is needed over the next 20 years,” he said.
Hughes officials said the upgrade of Ukraine’s airports is needed if the country is to modernize its economy. Modernization will also help improve Ukraine’s access to markets across the former Soviet Union; reduce the cost of global air travel by opening routes across the country, and open the country to international commerce and tourism.
The Hughes study is expected to propose new computer systems that will make runway capacity more efficient; bring security systems to par with Federal Aviation Administration standards; conform to International Civil Aviation Organization guidelines, and make possible a single airport operations center to coordinate monitoring and management of all four facilities.
What Hughes wants Ukraine’s government to do is to start “replacing some of
what is done on paper with full automation,” Hughes Aircraft spokesman Dan Reeder said.
He added that airport technology in Ukraine is up to two decades behind that of the United States.
The study will also touch on construction of new runways and airport terminals, even though Hughes would not be involved in building those improvements.
“Airports have to be considered entire systems,” Reeder said. “You can’t just lay asphalt down for a runway and then build a terminal and have an airport. You have to look at the entire picture.”
Over the last year, Hughes has been developing ground systems at airports in eastern Germany. The company may apply the same technology to the Ukraine project, Reeder said.
Hughes Ground Systems executive George Rebella, former manager of the renovated John Wayne Airport, will work on the Ukraine project, Reeder said.
Hughes Ground Systems Group is developing a $370-million air traffic control system for Canada. The company is also part of an international consortium developing a $10-billion modernization of the air traffic system across much of the former Soviet states.
Ukraine will borrow $500,000 from the United States and $300,000 from Canada to pay for the study, Capobianco said.
