How easy/difficult will it be to persuade airlines to invest in the new technology (financial incentives etc)?
In the current economical climate it is difficult, but we have adopted a three step approach; support to pioneers, incentives and a perhaps a mandate at the end of the decade. For the first 100/150 aircraft to be equipped we offer intensive testing support and a small fund for the required software upgrade of the communication systems, then we hope to have a system of route charge reductions for equipped flights and then we must re-evaluate the situation to know whether we need to mandate data link equipage or not. Everybody accepts that a 100% equipage is ideal, so let us see how far we get.
