Now into its 11th year of this partnership, Flyht has made a lot of money from licensing fees on product sold by L-3 (now L3H) to Airbus customers. And the future looks long.
License fees were initially included with parts sales. Not sure what the breakout was but parts sales back in 2011-2012 were only about $200k per year. If that is used as a basis, the license fees have totalled about $32 million by themselves, at the highest of margins.
By my reckoning, sales in this same time period have amounted to about $148 milllion making licensing revenue out to be about 22% of Flyht's business.
Be nice to know how many AFIRS SatCom units have been licensed, but I don't trust my memory on what each license was worth to reverse-estimate. (Did it start out at $12k for OEM and $6k for retrofit? Or the other way around?)
Since L3H does both OEM and retrofit installations, you can't go by the annual production output of Airbus (and not all new Airbus planes get these units anyway), and not every Airbus flying will be retrofitted.
The numbers in this table are from Flyht's financial reports.
| Year | Category | YTD | Notes |
| | | | |
| Dec. 31, 2022 | Parts sales/licensing | $ 8,870,762 | (Q3 YTD plus Q4 predicted by KRC) |
| Dec. 31, 2021 | Licensing | $ 1,551,000 | (parts probably still included) |
| Dec. 31, 2020 | Licensing | $ 3,630,874 | (parts probably still included) |
| Dec. 31, 2019 | Licensing | $ 3,241,285 | (parts probably still included) |
| Dec. 31, 2018 | Licensing | $ 2,265,262 | (parts probably still included) |
| Dec. 31, 2017 | Parts sales | $ 4,951,616 | (licensing included in this category) |
| Dec. 31, 2016 | Parts sales | $ 5,808,491 | (licensing included in this category) |
| Dec. 31, 2015 | Parts sales | $ 2,932,100 | (licensing included in this category) |
| Dec. 31, 2014 | Parts sales | $ 718,567 | (licensing included in this category) |
| Dec. 31, 2013 | Parts sales | $ 655,562 | (licensing beginning to be included in this category) |
| Dec. 31, 2012 | Parts sales | $ 202,420 | (no licensing of product) |
| Dec. 31, 2011 | Parts sales | $ 201,208 | (no licensing of product) |
| | | | |
| | | $ 35,029,147 | to date |
From airframer.com...
24 September 2012
L-3 Aviation Recorders signs agreement with Airbus for SATCOM solutions on A320 family of aircraft
L-3 Aviation Recorders announced today that it has signed an agreement with Airbus to certify and provide the FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd AFIRS 228S real-time data communications and SATCOM solution for installation on the Airbus A320 family of aircraft. The solution offers Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) capability and SATCOM voice connectivity anywhere in the world through the Iridium network. The AFIRS 228S will be offered under FLYHT's global Value Added Reseller agreement with Iridium.
The data communications and SATCOM solution is currently marketed under the FLYHT brand in conjunction with L-3's industry-leading line of Flight Data Recorders (FDRs). The products being sold will have the technical ability to support FLYHTStream™, FLYHT's triggered data streaming tool.
"L-3 is extremely pleased to work with a strong partner like FLYHT in offering its extensive worldwide airline and OEM customer base a solution for emerging ACARS and SATCOM requirements," said Mike Smith, president of L-3 Aviation Recorders. "In conjunction with an onboard L-3 flight recorder, FLYHT has already demonstrated FDR data and aircraft position streaming on in-service aircraft. The addition of the ACARS, using Iridium and communications services, makes this a very practical solution for our customers."
-- --
22 January
2014 news release – FLYHT is pleased to announce that all deliverables agreed to in the arrangement announced by FLYHT on May 22, 2012 have been delivered on time and L-3 is anticipating delivery of 12 AFIRS 228S units by the end of January 2014 to end-use customers of the product.
-- --
If 14,362 Airbus aircraft have been delivered out of 21,706 ordered, that leaves more than 7,000 future opportunities for OEM installations as of November 2022. (Not counting orders going forward.)
"On average, an Airbus A320 operates four flights a day and can last almost 35 years of operation, plus maintenance downtime." This should keep the retrofit opportunities coming for a while, too.
| November 2022 | A300/A310 | A220/A320 | A330/A340/A350 | A380 | Total |
| | | | | | |
| Total orders | 816 | 17579 | 3060 | 251 | 21706 |
| Total deliveries | 816 | 10854 | 2441 | 251 | 14362 |
| Aircraft in fleet | 283 | 10191 | 2174 | 239 | 12887 |
"Aircraft in fleet" I take as aircraft still flying. If true, only the A300/A310 are coming out of service notably. The A300 dates back to 1972, the A310 to 1982, the A320 to 1988.
Airbus market forecast, 2022-2041...
"Airbus forecasts that demand for passenger traffic will grow annually by 3.6% (2019-2041 CAGR - Compound Annual Growth Rate) over the next 20 years.
Airbus forecasts a demand for 39.490 new passenger and freighter aircraft over the next 20 years, of which 31.620 typically Single Aisle and 7.870 typically Widebody.
The demand for Freighters is expected to reach 2,440 aircraft over the next 20 years, with nearly 900 of these new-built.
Only 20% of the current in service fleet is the latest generation fuel efficient aircraft. Replacement of older generation aircraft is one of the most straightforward way to decarbonise the sector."