RINC Incorporated today announced it has received a 42-month extension of its current IT contract at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), and will continue as the provider of common-use passenger check-in and departure systems at the airport’s Terminals 1 and 3. London Heathrow is the world’s busiest airport in terms of international traffic.

ARINC’s customer is the LHR Shared Systems Board, representing 62 international airlines. The new agreement is effective September 2010, and it is ARINC’s second contract extension since the company installed its original MUSE® common-use technology at LHR in 1999.  The new work is valued at $17 million USD.

Under the agreement, ARINC will continue to provide LHR Terminals 1 and 3 with its MUSE passenger technology, and will immediately upgrade or replace hardware at more than 900 check-in and departure desk workstations, including monitors, keyboards, scanners, and boarding gate readers.

ServiceTec, ARINC’s long-standing technology partner at LHR, will continue to support on-site systems for ARINC customer airlines. ARINC won the extension without competition, submitting an early comprehensive proposal that was accepted unanimously by the Shared Systems Board, representing the Heathrow Airline Operators Committee.

“The Board is pleased with ARINC’s technology and overall performance,” stated David Wilding, Shared Systems Board Chair. “After examining their latest proposal in full, we decided it offered the Heathrow community very good value, in addition to streamlining our procurement process during this period of transition for the airport.”

“We proposed some innovative ways to reduce the airlines’ overall costs and provide them with urgently needed hardware immediately,” stated Tony Chapman, ARINC Senior Director, Integrated Travel Solutions, EMEA. “In addition, the active participation of our partner ServiceTec has been a great plus, and we would not have succeeded without them.”

LHR Terminal 3 recently underwent major changes, and its Pier 6 now handles flights of the giant Airbus A380. LHR Terminal 2 has just been closed and is being demolished. Construction of a massive new Heathrow East complex, which began in 2009, will see is first phase open in 2014. A new satellite terminal, Terminal 2B, has been under construction since 2008 and commences operation this month.

ARINC Airport Systems is a leader in common-use passenger technology. Its MUSE family of passenger systems is found at more than 125 airports worldwide, and used by 300 airlines carrying more than 300 million passengers a year.

ARINC Incorporated, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, provides communications, engineering and integration solutions for commercial, defense and government customers worldwide. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland with regional headquarters in London and Singapore, ARINC is ISO 9001:2008 certified. For more information, visit the website at www.arinc.com.