Cockpit Avionics

Garmin held on to its first-place position in AIN’s 2014 Avionics Product Support Survey, scoring an 8.3 rating from AIN readers, the same number as last year. L-3 Avionics moved up to second place this year, a half-point jump to 7.8 from last year’s fourth-place rating of 7.3 and tied with Universal Avionics, which also held the second-place spot last year. Rockwell Collins moved up a tenth of a point to 7.7 this year for third place, the same spot it held in last year’s survey.

Honeywell’s fourth-place ranking this year is one place higher on the list and the company also enjoyed a three-tenths-of-a-point climb in its rating to 7.4 from 7.1. In fifth place this year is Avidyne, which saw a ratings drop to 7.2, followed by Honeywell’s BendixKing subsidiary with a one-tenth-point climb to 7.1.

High scores in the rankings categories went across the board to Garmin for parts availability (8.5), cost of parts (7.6), AOG response (8.2), warranty fulfillment (8.5), technical manuals (8.1), technical reps (8.3) and overall product reliability (8.8).

Cabin Electronics

There was some confusion in the survey form design this year, and cabin electronics ratings suffered from diminished response as a result. The survey, however, did highlight four companies in the cabin electronics arena.

AIN readers ranked Aircell as the top provider of product support with an 8.2 rating, two-tenths higher than last year’s first-place ranking. Satcom Direct received enough ratings this year (the minimum is 20) to be listed in the results, and the company achieved a second-place ranking at 8.1.

Honeywell’s 7.3 rating is the same as last year’s, but the company moved to third place from fourth last year.

Rockwell Collins saw a ratings drop this year to 6.7 from 7.4, moving from third to fourth place.

In the cabin electronics segment, Aircell ranked top in parts availability (8.3), cost of parts (7.5) and overall product reliability (9.0). Second-place finisher Satcom Direct scored the highest number for AOG response at 8.4 and also the highest in warranty fulfillment (8.3) and technical reps (8.8).