HELIOS, a consultancy firm specialising in transport and communications. Helios is well known within civil aviation and is Europe's leading independent consultancy in air traffic control and navigation.

Up to 80 per cent of Helios' work is for European and International organisations - in 2004 Helios won the 'Queen's Award for Enterprise' for its export of aviation services.

Helios help their clients in four broad areas;

• Business strategy - Helios produce business and strategic plans for the development and operation of transport infrastructure. They evaluate investments and carry out due diligence and market studies. They advise on performance assessment and improvement, as well as providing policy, regulatory support and impact assessment. They also consult with industry stakeholders to support their clients’ decision making.
• Solving problems - Helios can help with covering a wide range of analytical and management analyses, and develop bespoke software applications.
• Proving operations or technology - This includes: developing and validating operational concepts and new technologies; safety and security analysis; and developing new standards.
• Defining systems - Helios typically help their clients gather and specify requirements for system development and procurement.

Helios' expertise is illustrated by the volume of work they do for the European Commission and service providers around the world. Their clients include 16 European air navigation service providers. Their staff have also advised on the development of bi-lateral and common aviation area agreements.

Helios' presence in the UAE is a new venture and they have already been successful in providing a range of technical training courses for a Middle East civil aviation authority and, for another authority, advising on the separation of air navigation services from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Other example Helios assignments include:

• Safety analyses for airports and air traffic control
• Airport operational, performance and capacity analysis including benchmarking. They use a variety of techniques including advanced simulation tools
• Business economics - including developing and analysing policies for charging and allocating the costs of air navigation services
• Architecture and systems analysis and support to procurement of new or upgraded ATC systems
• Bespoke software solutions
• Training - Helios provide a wide variety of technical and management training for air traffic control and navigation.

For more information: www.askhelios.com