Tuesday, March 9, 2010 DENVER & GENEVA — Intermap Technologies and Skyguide today announced the formation of a formal cooperation to deploy an advanced terrain and obstacle solution in support of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) Electronic Terrain and Obstacle Data (eTOD) mandated initiative. Intermap, a worldwide 3D digital mapping and geospatial solutions company, and Skyguide, the organization responsible for providing air navigation services within Swiss airspace and in the airspace of certain adjoining regions in neighboring countries, will provide ICAO-compliant and seamless terrain data for eTOD Areas 1 and 2 as well as any customer-supplied data in an industry-compatible database.
Under ICAO mandates, member states are required to provide more accurate terrain and obstacle data in the vicinity of aerodromes as part of a strategy to increase the safety while efficiently managing the growth in air traffic. Intermap's aviation data service will allow air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and civil aviation authorities (CAAs) to operationally plan more efficiently while providing an increased level of quality, all enabled by the unprecedented accuracy and consistency of Intermap's NEXTMap® elevation data and its multi-nation coverage.
"Intermap and Skyguide are able to bring an affordable solution to the marketplace at a time when there is a lot of pressure to reduce costs within the industry," stated Tony Brown, Intermap's vice president of data products. "We are pleased that we have formed this cooperation with Skyguide to help provide solutions for the new eTOD requirements. The availability of our uniform elevation datasets across Western Europe enables us to solve the needs of multiple organizations that are working to meet these requirements."
The NEXTMap dataset will enable ANSPs and other users to create more accurate planning of arrival and departure routes. Historical cross-border harmonization problems, such as lack of standardized data format and ease of use, are no longer issues, allowing users to concentrate on the operational use of the data. The seamless data can also be used by other applications like radio navigation coverage calculations, simulations, or terrain warning systems such as minimum altitude warning systems (MSAW) and others.
"High quality and timely data is becoming vital for the aviation industry," stated Jürg Brönnimann, Skyguide's head of Aeronautical Information Management (AIM). "Skyguide is pleased to have Intermap as a business partner to provide seamless high-quality terrain data and the capabilities to develop and deliver value-added services based on the terrain and obstacle data."
"Under this solution, customers will be freed from the daunting task of acquiring ICAO-compliant terrain data sets from different states, harmonizing, and transforming them into a seamless dataset that can be used for planning," continued Brown. "This uniform dataset allows ANSPs to easily perform procedure design and radio navigation coverage calculations, and supports other operational aspects of the industry. Ultimately, the data will save time and effort for every cross-border area for which an ANSP or airline company performs planning activities."
The service will include options to include the collection of terrain and obstacles in eTOD Areas 3 and 4, provisioning of a Web interface, and the creation of powerful analytical tools not typically present in ATM-industry-standard software. The process for collecting the NEXTMap dataset is currently undergoing certification by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
About Intermap Technologies
Intermap is a preeminent digital mapping and geospatial solutions provider that has set the industry standard for creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth's surface. The Company has proactively remapped entire countries and built uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, GPS maps, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, renewable energy, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation, and 3D visualization markets.
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap has offices in Australia, Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Ottawa, Prague, and Washington D.C.
For more information, visit www.Intermap.com, www.mobile.AccuTerra.com, or www.AccuTerra.com.
NEXTMap® and AccuTerra® are registered trademarks of Intermap Technologies Corporation.
About Skyguide
Skyguide is responsible for providing air navigation services within Swiss airspace and in the airspace of certain adjoining regions in neighbouring countries. The company guides the civil and military aircraft entrusted to its care — around 3 143 a day or 1.15 million a year — through some of the busiest and most complex airspace in Europe. Skyguide is a non-profit limited company which has its head office in Geneva. The majority of its shares are held by the Swiss Confederation. The company generates annual operating revenue of over CHF 372 million and employs some 1 400 people at 14 locations in Switzerland. Skyguide is also a member, together with its sister organisations in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, of the FABEC initiative to create a common functional airspace block that will bring greater efficiency to Central Europe's air traffic management services and activities.
Contacts
Intermap Technologies
Kevin Thomas, Vice President, Marketing
kthomas@intermap.com
+1 303-708-0955
Tony Brown, Vice President, Data Products
tbrown@intermap.com
+1 303-708-0955
Skyguide - swiss air navigation services ltd
Maude Riviere
Media Officer
presse@skyguide.ch
+41 22 417 40 08
Intermap Reader Advisory
Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of such risks and uncertainties in our Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.
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