NATION : Hughes Wins Canada Contract

Hughes Aircraft of Canada, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Co. of Fullerton, has been awarded a $315-million contract to modernize Canada’s air traffic control system, Canadian government officials said.

Benoit Bouchard, Canada’s transport minister, said Thursday that the Canadian automated air traffic system (CAATS) is the heart of a more than $4-billion plan begun in 1984 to upgrade the country’s air traffic system. The entire CAATS project is valued at $550 million.

“(Air traffic) controllers are being provided with the latest in display technology and automated tools to assist them in controlling air traffic,� Bouchard said.

The contract award came more than a year after the California-based Hughes Ground System Group was outbid by International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., for the $3.6-billion contract with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to remake the air traffic control system in the United States.