FLYHT Provides Fourth Quarter 2018 Update

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd. (TSX-V: FLY) (OTCQX: FLYLF) (the “Company” or “FLYHT”) is pleased to announce an aggregate US$21.1 million in new sales contracts, purchase orders and transition agreements during the fourth quarter of 2018, assuming the Company provides services over the full term of these contracts.

Previously unreported orders totaling US$1.1 million were received during the quarter, including:

• An initial order for a new Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) aircraft position along with an order for non-recurring engineering
• An Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRSTM) order from a previously established OEM
• Additional AFIRS orders from two existing Chinese airline customers
• New technical services orders

FLYHT reported the acquisition of Panasonic Weather Solutions (PWS) in October. With this acquisition came a transition agreement supplement of US$3.3 million, payable over an 18- month transition period. FLYHT was paid the first US$1.1 million at closing and will collect additional installments at the beginning of each quarter of 2019. FLYHT received the first quarter payment of US$742 thousand in late December. Depending whether the acquired contracts meet established income targets, the supplemental payment may increase to US$4.3 million (See Press Release dated October 10, 2018).

FLYHT has been actively integrating the operations from the assets of PWS as a part of its “OneFLYHT” program. Alana Forbes, FLYHT’s Chief Financial Officer stated, “FLYHT’s billing for October’s combined software as a service (SaaS) revenue for traditional FLYHT and PWS customers was accomplished on time and resulted in an immediate doubling of the monthly SaaS revenues when compared to the pre-acquisition September 2018 invoicing.”

In late December, FLYHT received Parts Manufacturing Approval (PMA) for its application to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This provides FLYHT the right to manufacture and ship the $20+ million in backlog FlightLinkTM and TAMDARTM hardware and services which were acquired with PWS. A significant component of this backlog is the contract amendment for an additional 100 aircraft hardware installations along with the monthly services for 190 AirAsia aircraft under contract (See Press Release dated December 10, 2018). This PMA approval was received more than a month earlier than expected.

Also completed as part of the “OneFLYHT” integration is the FAA reissuing the six (6) PWS Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) for FlightLink and TAMDAR products to FLYHT, Inc. FLYHT also received FAA approval to issue minor changes to FLYHT FAA STCs.

Associated with the PWS asset acquisition is the previously announced minimum US$15 million contract with Synoptic Data PBC assuming the Company delivers an annually increasing number of weather-related soundings over the term of the five-year contract by increasing the quantity of TAMDAR installations (See Press Release dated October 24, 2018). FLYHT is currently billing for weather observations on a work order associated with this contract.

FLYHT previously announced in November the signing of a US$1.1 million contract with a Chinese airline for FLYHTHealthTM SaaS (See Press Release dated November 5, 2018).  FLYHT also previously announced a contract with Jambojet in Africa for US$650 thousand for AFIRS hardware and SaaS products FLYHTLogTM, FLYHTASDTM and FLYHTHealth (See Press Release dated October 15, 2018).

Additional successes in the quarter included FLYHT being issued a validation of the Embraer E- 190 AFIRS 228 STC by the FAA and FLYHT receiving a $2.76 million interest-free Western Innovation Initiative (WINN) loan by Western Economic Diversification Canada (See Press Release dated November 27, 2018).

At quarter-end, the sales order backlog was valued at approximately $60.2 million1.

[1] The measure of sales order backlog has been modified in 2019 to include the sales value of purchase orders and contracts for all unrecognized technical services, licenses, and hardware added to the future value of contracted SaaS products. The value of these signed contracts has been previously announced in various press releases. Backlog value for contracts deemed unlikely to manifest has been removed. Twelve months of SaaS product value is included in backlog if a customer is currently paying for SaaS products under a contract that has exceeded its original term and is auto-renewing annually for subsequent one-year terms. This sales order backlog value assumes that FLYHT will provide hardware and services over the full scope and term of the constituent contracts.

About FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd.

FLYHT’s mission is to improve aviation safety, efficiency and profitability. Globally, for over 20 years, airlines, leasing companies, fractional owners and original equipment manufacturers have installed FLYHT’s aircraft and enterprise-based solutions to deliver real-time, flight-deck, satellite connectivity for tracking, health monitoring, and streaming of operational, maintenance and weather data. FLYHT is based in Calgary, Canada with an office in Littleton, Colorado and is an AS9100 Quality registered company. For more information visit www.flyht.com.

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