Skybus Airlines, an upcoming low-fare airline based in Columbus, OH, has selected Wingspeed Corporation's XLLink Flight Information Architecture (XFIA) to manage automated paperless operations, voice and messaging on its fleet of Airbus A319 aircraft.

Wingspeed's XFIA combines hardware and software in an integrated airborne network platform that enables each aircraft to stay connected to the airline's ground network through a range of sub-networks such as VHF, the Iridium Satellite Network, Wi-Fi and cellular. XFIA manages these sub-networks automatically to establish the most cost-effective means of data transmission.

"Wingspeed is an essential part of the Skybus team," said Skybus President Ken Gile. "Their XFIA system is cutting-edge technology that will keep each of our aircraft connected continuously to our operations center. Eliminating the need for traditional paper processes used by most airlines, this will enable Skybus to reliably maintain short gate times and high asset utilization. In addition, electronic distribution of every Skybus document via XFIA will allow intrinsically lower costs."

Dave Borkowski, Wingspeed's Vice President of Sales, noted "Skybus is a forward-thinking airline that understood from the beginning that high asset utilization was necessary to sustain their low costs. Our XFIA airborne network platform is perfectly suited for their needs, and will literally make every one of their aircraft a node on the Skybus network."

At Skybus, Wingspeed's XFIA platform will communicate with Rockwell Collins' eFlight ground messaging software through Wingspeed's XLLink global communications network. The XLLink network will provide full message assurance, data encryption and compression. In addition to the XLLink network, Wingspeed will provide Skybus with host processing facilities, integration services and help in building out its information technology infrastructure. Skybus is scheduled to launch in early 2007.

Wingspeed partner Aircraft Management Technologies (AMT) and its Flightman family of software enable the synchronization of data between the XFIA airborne server and the airline's various ground systems, providing XFIA with a common workflow-oriented user interface.

Wingspeed Corporation, headquartered in Concord, MA, is dedicated to providing automated, paperless operations and end-to-end communications solutions for commercial and corporate aircraft. Additional information on the XLLink Voice and Data Communication System and the XLLink Flight Information Architecture is available at

FMI: www.wingspeedcorp.com, www.skybus.com, www.flightman.com