South Korea-based Asiana Airlines and its subsidiary Air Busan has selected Rockwell Collins to supply its Arinc MultiLink aircraft tracking service for their respective fleets.

Arinc MultiLink is designed to combine various data sources to provide the location of a commercial aircraft flying anywhere in the world.

The service uses Rockwell Collins’ proprietary high-frequency data link (HFDL) performance data, as well as other data sources, which include aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) reports.

It also uses automatic dependent surveillance-contract (ADS-C), automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), aircraft situation display to industry (ASDI) radar data, and Eurocontrol position information to track an aircraft.

“Proactively tracking our aircraft ensures we have the most up-to-date information to manage our complex flight operations."

Asiana Airlines operations control IT service manager Kyungsuk Jun said: “Proactively tracking our aircraft ensures we have the most up-to-date information to manage our complex flight operations.

“We are anticipating that the seamless integration of Rockwell Collins’ ARINC MultiLink data feeds into our current situational display system under development is going to enable us to track our aircraft anywhere in the world.”

Using Arinc MultiLink, the airline will be also able to meet the industry recommendations of providing position reports every 15min.

It also provides notifications when an aircraft makes an unexpected stop.

In July, Rockwell Collins announced that China Eastern Airlines had selected its Iridium Satcom aftermarket solution.

Installed on China Eastern Airlines' fleet of more than 100 Boeing 737 aircraft, the solution will provide reliable long-range global voice communications, flight tracking and ACARS data.

Image: Arinc MultiLink tracks aircraft using ACARS position reports and other data feeds. Photo: courtesy of Rockwell Collins.