Aircraft IT Ops V9.2, July-August 2020

AIRCRAFT IT Operations CASE STUDIES: SRILANKAN AIRLINES • JETSMART WHITE PAPERS: DGBIRDS • CLOSED LOOP VENDOR FLIGHT LOGS: AVIOBOOK • PACE

JULY-AUGUST 2020 • V9.2

Sri Lankan Airlines use their EFB as an Operations tool Digital transformation aids total optimization

Saving fuel at JetSmart

Involving pilots is the key

AircraftIT 2020 Survey: Covid-19

Its effects and how IT is responding

Trajectory Based Operations Doing everything better

• NEWS • OPERATIONS SOFTWARE DIRECTORY •

EFB: Enhanced Flight Bag – Part 1 Using technology to add value

Paperless Flight Bag™ The EFB software solution shaped by AIRLINES for AIRLINES

p For iPad and Windows EFB Units p Full range of Software Module types p Fully customized Workflows p Fully customized Modules and Reports p Full Flexibility, Agility and Scalability

About The future of flying is all about customization and increasing efficiency – constantly. We target individual commercial airline needs with Paperless Flight Bag™ modules, customized in beautiful functional design, easily adapted on IPADs and Windows Tablets. Experienced experts make integration into backend airline systems flawless. Our research and development team is always exploring new ways to optimize user experience, efficiency gains and automated data handling. After all - only the sky is the limit when you fly with Paperless Flight Bag™ solutions from IFS.

For more information and references, please contact: Our sales team at IFS – International Flight Support, has been a leading force in commercial aviation software systems for over two decades.

We understand your journey and what it takes to go from a traditional paper based or app based solution to a fully integrated and paperless EFB platform solution. We have worked with many commercial airlines always fulfilling the needs and customization requirements that every customer expects.

International Flight Support ApS | Copenhagen Airport Business Center | Petersdalvej 1A, DK-2770 Kastrup | Denmark www.ifs.aero | sales@ifs.aero | Company direct: +45 3346 4600 | Sales direct: +45 3346 4602

AIRCRAFT IT Operations: WELCOME

COMMENT Aircraft IT Operations: even in challenging times, IT developers and vendors continue to look to the future

AIRCRAFT IT Operations Publisher/Editor Ed Haskey E-mail: ed.haskey@aircraftit.com Telephone: +44 1273 454 235 Website: www.aircraftIT.com Chief Operating Officer Scott Leslie E-mail: scott.leslie@aircraftit.com Copy Editor/Contributor John Hancock E-mail: john@aircraftit.com Magazine Production Dean Cook E-mail: deancook@magazineproduction.com AircraftIT Operations is published bi-monthly and is an affiliate of Aircraft Commerce and part of the AviationNextGen Ltd group. The entire contents within this publication © Copyright 2020 AviationNextGen Ltd an independent publication and not affiliated with any of the IT vendors or suppliers. Content may not be reproduced without the strict written agreement of the publisher.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of their companies or of the publisher. The publisher does not guarantee the source, originality, accuracy, completeness or reliability of any statement, information, data, finding, interpretation, advice, opinion, or view presented.

A

s I write this, the reported global death toll from Covid-19 has just passed a half million.

It has already been the worst peace time health and economic disaster in living memory and one of the sectors most dramatically affected by the crisis and subsequent lockdown has been air travel, which has all but stopped for three months. Coronaviruses are transmitted by droplet and aerosol transmission in the air from coughing, sneezing, even talking, and transmission through touch. Masks, visors, aprons, gloves, minimal contact activities and hygiene measures have been relatively easy to organize for aircrew or ground crew and passenger interactions but the actual operation and maintenance of aircraft is much more difficult to achieve without, especially, touch. This has been an enormous challenge for systems critical to the operation and maintenance of aircraft that have been reliant on touch activated processes using keyboards and touchscreens such as EFB and ETL/ ELB on tablet devices. In order for the sector to return to anything like normal levels of activity and revenue generation, critical actions will need to become, as far as is practically possible, touchless.

This is a huge challenge for Operations IT software developers and vendors whose solutions and applications have become the main drivers of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and regulatory compliance. But, important as it is to address fallout from the Covid pandemic, it is as important to look to the future; to systems and solutions that will ensure a

more efficient and agile sector in the post-Covid world. Covid-19 has accelerated rates of development for products and preparedness to innovate among users with the result that Operations IT is likely to emerge better than ever from the crisis.

In this issue we have the results of and some conclusions from the major 2020 Covid-19 survey carried out by AircraftIT with our forty-six Operations IT developer and vendor partners, to discover the challenges they have identified and the solutions they have adapted or developed. We have two excellent white papers (each part 1 of a series) looking to the future with how the EFB might develop and the very exciting Trajectory Based Operations (TBO), both developments with the potential to revolutionize how aircraft are operated and flown. We also have two superb white papers looking at how JetSmart is using digital data to save fuel and improve efficiencies, and how Sri Lankan Airlines have used their EFB system as the basis for better operations management. Then we have Vendor Flight Logs from AvioBook and PACE. As well as all of that, there is the regular round-up of news and technology developments: plus, of course, useful features such as the ‘Operations Software Directory’. This is Aircraft IT Operations: great technology that can support great, safe and efficient operations.

Ed Haskey

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 3

GLOBE: OUR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS SOLUTION More than just a weather app for pilots & dispatchers With Globe, pilots and dispatchers can have a comprehensive awareness of the weather situation. Globe includes more than a dozen weather layers including turbulence, thunderstorm and sigmets, fully customizable to match your wording and display preferences. Route is synchronized with your pilot Navlog and will reflect your real route whatever the revisions reported in it.

Skypath integration

In-Flight Optim option

Flight Tracking option

Pilots can see Skypath crowd-sourced turbulence reports on Globe. Skypath uses the iPad’s accelerometer and smart filtering algorithms to sense real-time turbulence conditions and shares them with the user community via Wi-Fi. In Aviobook, pilots have a comprehensive awareness of the turbulence situation by combining forecasted turbulence and realtime reports.

Combined with our IFO option, pilots can find the optimal turbulence avoidance scenario. They can compare the effect of vertical or lateral revisions and thus minimize the impact on time and fuel at destination. With EcoCruise, and DIR TO functionalities they can even re-optimize their flight afterwards.

With our AVIOBOOK Flight Tracking system, dispatchers can monitor their fleet through various sources of data (ACARS, terrestrial and satellite ADS-B, MLAT, ASDI, Flight plan). Our efficient alerting solution raises dispatchers awareness on any discrepancies (loss of tracking, squawk, low fuel, path deviation, weather hazards‌) as soon as they occur.

www.aviobook.aero

-

A Thales Group company

AIRCRAFT IT Operations: V9.2

CONTENTS 06 Latest News and Technology updates Keeping up with what is happening in a complex and evolving business world is a challenge. At Aircraft IT Operations or here in the Aircraft IT Operations e-journal the latest developments are sorted and ready to read.

31 MAJOR INDUSTRY COVID-19 SURVEY: 2020 Covid-19 impact on and responses from Aviation IT How leading IT developers and vendors gauge the impact of Covid-19/ Coronavirus, what they are doing to help their clients in the current crisis plus what plans are afoot to leverage established solutions and/or develop new solutions to enable the aviation sector to recover and prosper in the post-Covid future.

48 Case Study: An EFB Case Study from SriLankan Airlines Capt. Tharindu Palihawadana, Technical Pilot, SriLankan Airlines SriLankan summarizes its transformation to using EFB as a state-of-the-art standard operations tool that aids total mission optimization.

54 WHITE PAPER: EFB should stand for enhanced flight bag. Part 1 Sébastien Veigneau, dgBirds President and Air France A320 Captain Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are changing many things. That must mean more than just electronic versions of paper systems: pilots want data and digital processes to add value to their performance.

60 WHITE PAPER: Will Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) usher in a new way of working? Part 1 Michael Bryan, founding Principal and Managing Director of Closed Loop Consulting A real change is coming. How Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) will drive a paradigm change in the way airlines operate and, as importantly, how to ensure your airline is ready to benefit.

68 VENDOR FLIGHT LOG Frederic Dru, CEO, AvioBook explains how AvioBook meets users’ needs with a user-friendly interface for very sophisticated products In this informative Q&A piece, Frederic Dru, CEO, AvioBook completes his ‘Vendor Flight Log’ for Aircraft IT.

70 CASE STUDY: Involving pilots in fuel saving at JetSmart Leandro Alberto Castillón, Chief of flight ops engineering & manuals and Luis Feres Molina, Flight Operations Engineer at JetSmart How JetSmart managed to improve fuel efficiency by adopting StorkJet’s fuelPro that allows pilots and all relevant personnel to see how they are performing against any fuel saving initiative that the airline might implement.

76 VENDOR FLIGHT LOG Oliver Kranz, managing partner of PACE, explains how Pace has grown from an ‘early innovator’ to now offer a right-up-to-date package for clients In another great Q&A piece, Oliver Kranz, managing partner of PACE, completes his ‘Vendor Flight Log’ for Aircraft IT.

78 Operations Software directory A detailed look at the world’s leading Operations IT systems

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 5

NEWS

A new vendor joins Aircraft IT The great strength of Aircraft IT has always been that we are grounded on the skills and capabilities of our Vendor partners. So it is always a pleasure to welcome a new member to the Aircraft IT Vendor Panel. The latest to join is ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions), a global provider of SMS and QMS software, specialized in the development of webbased integrated safety and quality management solutions for the aviation industry. The company was founded in 2009 and today supports more than 200

aviation companies across the globe in creating a safe and productive work environment. ASQS’s core product IQSMS (Integrated Quality and Safety Management System) is a web-based, modular safety, quality and risk management solution for the aviation sector that has been developed by aviation industry experts and IT professionals. IQSMS is based on and in compliance with ICAO Doc. 9859, ICAO Annex 19, EASA and Enhanced IOSA requirements. Characterized by its intuitive handling and user friendliness, the IQSMS Suite currently consists of 10 modules designed to reduce operating

costs while increasing operational safety, compliance and efficiency due to seamless and secure data exchange.

Welcoming ASQS to the Vendor Panel, Aircraft IT COO, Scott Leslie said; “It is always a pleasure to welcome a new vendor to the Aircraft IT family. ASQS offers a great product in a key area of activity for airlines, operators and MROs. Quality and safety management are key factors when running a business for the obvious reason that quality and safety must always be paramount concerns and because both are the hallmarks of a well-run business.”

Japan Airlines deploys Viasat’s Aerodocs Document Management System to transform information management processes At the beginning of March 2020, Viasat, a global communications company, announced that Japan Airlines (JAL) has deployed Aerodocs® document management system to support the airline’s safety and compliance objectives.

Aerodocs, from Viasat, is an aviation-grade document management solution that is providing JAL with complete control over the editing, distribution and viewing of original equipment manufacturer documentation, in addition to critical flight reference handbooks, maintenance manuals and operational manuals. Named by FlightGlobal as the most on-time mainline airline in 2018 in the Asia-Pacific region, JAL continues to invest in solutions to further enhance their awardwinning operations.

“We continue to invest in the enhancement of aircraft operational safety, as it is a top priority. Viasat Aerodocs allows us to effectively organize and manage documents to further enhance aircraft safety while helping us meet critical regulatory and compliance requirements,” said Captain Tatsuo Mori, vice president and chief pilot, Flight Operation Department, Japan Airlines. He added, “the system’s intuitive approach and unique capabilities ensures that critical information is maintained in the right place and is accessible at all times. Having the ability to manage workflows in a more integrated manner, along with tracking read and unread documents, delivers significant value in helping us enhance our safety. While we evaluated a number of different solutions, we agreed that the Viasat Aerodocs product delivered the most comprehensive offering to transform our information management strategy.”

“Our airline partners around the globe are investing in new technologies that will

expand their digital transformation strategies in order to increase collaboration, improve operations and help make more informed, data-driven decisions,” said Dave Elliott, managing director, Viasat Ireland. “The Aerodocs system uses information intelligence to enable digital transformation in air operations; helping airlines, like JAL, to strike a balance between meeting safety and compliance needs and operational efficiencies that contribute to an improved passenger experience.”

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 6

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NEWS

SITA is accelerating air traffic control innovation with Boeing ecoDemonstrator Towards mid-march 2020, SITA announced that it is accelerating innovation in air traffic control (ATC) communications as part of Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator program, alongside key industry partners including NASA and long-standing airline customer, Etihad The program tests pioneering and promising technologies that aim to solve air transport industry challenges for airlines and passengers, as well as enhancing sustainability. The most recent program saw the implementation of such technologies onboard a Boeing 777 and tests a total of 50 different projects.

SITA’s involvement in the program highlights the strength of its SITA FOR AIRCRAFT portfolio, which delivers the promise of the connected aircraft by providing services that enable communication between aircraft, ground systems, ATC and other operators.

SITA is working in collaboration with Honeywell to optimize the transmission of digital information between pilots, ATC and airline operations centers (AOCs) using Internet Protocol Suites (IPS). The technology supports Boeing’s ambition of testing technologies that focus on the enhancement of flight operations and safety, with the potential to drastically improve ATC communications and end-to-end data exchanges. Following the completion of successful trials, the migration from ACARS protocols to IPS could benefit airlines by offering commonality across mainstream communications channels, as well as next-generation network compatibility and enhanced security.

SITA’s testing of these capabilities, through Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator initiative, has an important role to play in today’s ground-to-air connectivity landscape and the increasing pressure on traditional communications protocols. The implementation comes as part of SITA’s work to evolve a multilink aircraft communications ecosystem, as a world leader in IPS.

Central to this approach is SITA’s ability to integrate multiple networks, both proprietary and third-party, enabling seamless fallback and a vital system that inspires industry-wide confidence.

Mike Sinnett, Vice President of Product Strategy and Future Airplane Development at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: “It’s exciting to welcome SITA onboard our debut 777 ecoDemonstrator to address some of the challenges facing airline operations and air traffic control. This is a key area in assessing the technologies that will make our skies safer and more efficient, for Boeing, and the wider industry.”

Dominique El Bez, Vice President Product and Strategy, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT, said: “Reinforcing flight AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 8

safety and optimization remain priorities for airlines and air traffic managers. That’s why SITA is working to build and optimize a multilink communications ecosystem. By working with the Boeing ecoDemonstrator to test these solutions faster and with greater fidelity, we hope to continue to develop our end-to-end, fault-resistant solutions for enhanced aircraft communications, whatever the satellite network or connectivity platform.”

SITA FOR AIRCRAFT is one of SITA’s three domains of expertise, alongside SITA AT AIRPORTS and SITA AT BORDERS. These domains of expertise bring together SITA’s technology solutions and services with in-depth knowledge of industry processes and systems.

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NEWS

Lufthansa Systems and Intermap Technologies obtain first EASA certification for global terrain data

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Lido Surface Data NEXTView receives EASA Service Provider Type 1 Certificate, becoming the first certified aviation terrain product on the market

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In early March 2020, Lufthansa Systems and Intermap Technologies announced that Lido Surface Data NEXTView has received the Service Provider Type 1 Certificate from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Lido Surface Data NEXTView is the world’s first high-resolution, global terrain dataset specifically designed for the aviation industry. It provides the highest quality of data with continual updates and incorporates Lido’s aerodrome database, significantly increasing the accuracy around aerodromes. The solution is currently the only certified digital surface model on the market that fulfills all relevant industry standards.

Lido Surface Data NEXTView was developed in collaboration with Intermap Technologies, an industry leader in geospatial intelligence solutions with long-standing expertise in the field of digital elevation models.

With the newly certified terrain product, Lufthansa Systems is enabling the aviation industry to further enhance solutions such as: • Synthetic vision systems (SVS) as well as enhanced and combined vision systems (EVS, CVS), which

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 10

provide pilots with greater situational awareness; and • Terrain awareness and ground proximity warning systems (TAWS, EGPWS), which allow aircraft and helicopters to maintain a safe distance from the ground.

• Furthermore, the solution serves the wider aviation market by enabling the development of innovative applications for: • Flight planning, procedure design and performance calculations; and • Drone operations and drone planning, increasing the efficiency of flight operations.

“This announcement is a milestone for Intermap Technologies’ data business,” said Patrick Blott, Chairman and CEO of Intermap Technologies. “With the certification of Lido Surface Data NEXTView, we are now able to work with our partners at Lufthansa Systems to consistently and globally deliver high-resolution information that aviators and airlines need to improve the customer experience, navigation and safety. Commercial airlines, UAV companies and governments all over the world can rely on their subscriptions to the Lido Surface Data NEXTView data to power critical automated systems and make flying even safer and more efficient.”

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

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NEWS

Comply365’s ProAuthor to deliver smart manuals to Canadian North Flight crews Ottawa-based airline gains a single system for authoring and compliance management

In early March 2020, Aviation software supplier, Comply365, was pleased to welcome Canadian North to its customer base with a multiyear contract that will transform the operational information flight crew members must access into ‘smart manuals’, and improve the airline’s compliance management system.

Comply365’s ProAuthor, an end-to-end operational content and compliance management system, will replace multiple disparate systems at the Ottawa, Canada based airline while delivering more personalized and relevant content to their pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance technicians.

“We needed to establish consistency across our

operational manuals, and we wanted a single system to manage and deliver our operational content as well as track end user compliance,” Canadian North President & CEO Chris Avery said. “Comply365 is used widely across Canada and the United States, and the

great feedback we’ve heard from other airlines helped solidify our choice in this trusted brand.”

Canadian North, which recently merged with First Air, provides passenger service across 25 destinations within the Northwest Territories, Nunavik and Nunavut,

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 12

NEWS

from its southern gateways of Ottawa, Montreal, and Edmonton. It is also the premier charter service provider and delivers essential goods across very remote areas of northern Canada.

Using ProAuthor, more than 400 employees in the Flight Operations, Inflight and Maintenance departments at Canadian North now will receive smart manuals on their tablets that reduce the data required to download updates, which was especially important because of the limited connectivity in the remote areas the airline serves.

“We warmly welcome Canadian North and look forward to providing them with a solution to boost their end-user compliance while replacing multiple systems to efficiently manage complex processes in a single documentation system that works across the airline,” Comply365 CEO Tom Samuel said. “Canadian North now has the power to deliver more personalized information to flight crews so they can safely and more efficiently travel to places that are essentially off the grid.”

NAVBLUE: New big data player within Skywise NAVBLUE announced in late April 2020 that it has expanded its offering for airlines with a new digital solution, Performance Factor Optimizer, connected to Airbus’ Skywise open data platform. The new app provides an accurate interpretation of the performance variation for each Airbus aircraft, on an individual aircraft basis. This web-based solution automatically computes the ‘delta specific range’ (DSR) and the associated performance factors used in the Flight Management System (FMS) and the flight planning system, with an automatic aircraft performance database pairing. Performance varies over the life of all in-service aircraft, leading to slightly higher fuel consumption levels as an aircraft ages. This is attributed to degradation effects, which impact both the engines and airframe.

The Performance Factor Optimizer application automatically identifies and investigates the resulting DSR trends over time, allowing a more continuous and

regular monitoring while reducing the operator workload. As a next step, using the power of additional aircraft data sources, QAR, DAR, SAR (Quick Access Recorder, Direct Access Recorder, Smart Access Recorder) the app will enable an increased number of points to be analysed, resulting in better coverage of the flight phases for even greater accuracy.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 13

NEWS

Air Support’s PPS flight planning system now in the Cloud

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Efficient operations.

Fewer emissions.

In late March 2020, Air Support announced that its established flight planning system, PPS, is now available in the Cloud. This allows users to increase the level of flexibility and efficiency in their operation and avoid all the IT hassle, taking advantage of a fully secure IaaS cloud solution, including 24/7 system surveillance and support, full redundancy, great scalability and excellent performance.

They’ll reap the benefits of the PPS Flight Planning System in the cloud with the PPS Hosting Solution. Here are just some of the key features and benefits:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Pacelab FPO supplies you with the most cost-efficient speeds and altitudes during your flight, helping you make decisions that save money & harmful emissions.

Pacelab Flight Profile Optimizer.

Discover the original EFB decision support tool for all flight phases. www.pace.de | paceinfo@txtgroup.com

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), also known as cloud infrastructure services, is a form of cloud computing in which infrastructure services are provided to users via a cloud, through the internet.

The offered Virtual Machines are all placed within an enterprise architecture-designed redundant environment, always with new and updated hardware and appliances deployed and maintained in tier-3 data centers. This gives the best performing and high-availability systems for a wide range of applications and services.

Secure data and get full protection

With the PPS Hosting Solution, users reduce the risk of severe data loss AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 14

and cyber security breaches. All systems are monitored around the clock. Monitoring consists of capturing and logging of incidents.

This allows the user to maintain operational readiness at all times without compromising internal IT security policies. Moreover, with extensive backup storage and full roll-back support, historical and recent data can easily be retrieved.

Virtual Machines are also placed within an enterprise architecturedesigned redundant environment and maintained in Danish Tier 3 data centers protected by High Availability (HA) firewall technology.

Excellent performance and storage capabilities

The PPS Hosting Solution includes individual or shared Virtual Machines, which can be accessed anywhere, anytime — users only need internet access. They are built for topperformance during the flight planning process and come packed with great hardware specifications, including best-capacity server nodes, over commitment physical CPU cores, dedicated memory, next-gen storage system technology and more. Storage capabilities are based on next generation technology with ultra-high performance and extreme low latency.

Every Virtual Machine has access to all-flash Storage (SSD) and can scale to serve any application or service.

NEWS

Web Manuals grows its community with two additional manual authoring partners At the start of April 2020, Web Manuals, provider of aviation document digitization solutions, announced that it is expanding its aviation manual community through partnerships with Black River Aerospace and Aerodox to offer additional document templates to aviation businesses worldwide.

Aviation manual creation and management company Black River Aerospace will be providing three levels of support. This will range from a template subscription to manual implementation and a full authoring and maintenance service, including manual creation, updates, and distribution throughout a company, accessed via Web Manuals’ interface. All documents come with live linking to FAA regulations, IS-BAO, and ARGUS standards, meaning customers are immediately alerted to any changes.

Melissa Kearby, Partner at Black River Aerospace said: “Implementation of Web Manuals has revolutionized the way we develop manuals, halving the time we spend executing a customer’s documentation. As a result, we are able to spend more quality time on relationship building and providing a phenomenal product. Everyone at Web Manuals is experienced and the customer service is top-notch concierge level.”

Technical manual provider Aerodox

will supply customized minimum equipment lists (MELs) for many types of aircraft, maximizing flight dispatch reliability.

David Burk, owner of Aerodox stated: “The Aerodox team are experts in customized MELs, CDLs, and NEF programs. We are excited to apply our combined 50 years of experience to an ever-changing world of technology. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the Web Manuals’ online platform and our exemplary MEL service”.

Paul Sandström, Chief Revenue Officer and Director of Operations EMEA at Web Manuals, said: “We are working hard to build our community so that users can have access to more software services via the Web Manuals Store. This is only made possible through companies such as Black River Aerospace and Aerodox sharing their solutions with our customers.”

Aerodox and Black River Aerospace’s services will be available via the Web Manuals Store.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 15

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Aircraft Analytics partners with Air Support to use its world-class PPS Flight Planning System (PPS) to power interactive digital aircraft data tools

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Aircraft Analytics partners with Air Support to use its world-class PPS Flight Planning System (PPS) to power interactive digital aircraft data tools. Air Support will bring real world data and experience to Aircraft Analytics’ range of powerful interactive tools to support aircraft performance analysis.

In late April 2020, Aircraft Analytics (a joint Aircraft Commerce and Aircraft IT venture) was delighted to announce a partnership with Air Support to use its world-class cutting-edge flight planning solution PPS, in the development of powerful and innovative aircraft performance and cost analysis tools.

The tools will initially be available for narrow-body freighter aircraft in the Aircraft Analytics launch module ‘Freighters’, before extending to cover all freighter and passenger aircraft, from regional to wide-body, as more modules are released to market throughout 2020.

The PPS flight planning data, alongside other key aircraft performance data, used in the launch Freighters modules, will allow users to compare the performance of different freighter aircraft in exact, like-for-like route and sector scenarios, using two interactive digital tools:

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 16

• Interactive Payload/Range Tool:

Explore how payload, volume, volumetric payload and cargo packing densities vary by selected sector length and airport elevation.

View results by individual aircraft or compare variants.

• Interactive Network Performance Tool: Test and compare aircraft performance on our real-world networks from around the world.

Results include: en-route fuel burn, block-times, flight times and available gross and revenue payload.

Andy Coupland, CEO at Aircraft Analytics, stated; “This is great news for us: we are so pleased to be working with Air Support. The partnership epitomizes the Aircraft

NEWS

Analytics offer in that, with PPS, as used by aircraft operators in more than 75 countries, we are using world-class real-world data to power our interactive data tools.”

Peter Gravesen CCO at Air Support added; “We are very excited to be partnering with Aircraft Analytics in the development of this valuable resource for the industry. Aircraft Analytics will be applying our tried and tested flight planning technology to bring real world data and analysis to key decision areas about which aircraft will deliver the optimum operational outcomes.”

Aircraft Analytics is a rich resource putting real-world aircraft and performance data at operators’ and MROs’ fingertips; using interactive digital tools to compare aircraft, build powerful key data reports per aircraft variant and establish which will best fit

their operational requirements in each of the segments they serve. An annual subscription to an Aircraft Analytics module will include access to the online Aircraft Commerce library of more than 1,200 downloadable articles. The launch module ‘Freighters’ will be available soon. Meanwhile, you can access the free-to-view site at www.aircraftanalytics.com Air Support specializes in the provision of the desktop- and cloudbased flight planning software PPS Flight Planning System (PPS) along with the integrated web applications CrewBriefing and Flight Watch. Air Support is one of the world’s leading suppliers of flight planning software solutions to private and commercial business aircraft operators, regional/ charter/cargo/national airlines as well as military/utility operators.

OptiFlight becomes a Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Safety line was delighted to announce in mid-June 2020 that OptiFlight, the unique solution allowing airlines to reduce fuel consumption in all flight phases has been awarded the ‘Solar Impulse Efficient Solution’ Label. This assessment tool for positive impact brings together protection of nature and financial viability through a strict evaluation made by a pool of independent experts.

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FLYSMART+ HOSTED GATEWAY SERVICE NOW LIVE

Want to use Flysmart+ but do not have the resources to manage the gateway ground tool and the IT? On top of Ops Approval, Entry into service Assistance and EFB management, you can now benefit from the Hosted Gateway service offered by NAVBLUE: • • • •

Reduced Resources: No need to allocate dedicated resources to Flysmart+ Gateway ground tool Quicker Flysmart+ implementation: No Flysmart+ Gateway Training required Lower cost: No need to purchase cloud area High Availability and Reliability: Guaranteed SLA engagement

Flysmart+ is the Airbus on-board performance computation application currently used by 250+ airlines around the world.

More information at www.navblue.aero

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 17

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Web Manuals to offer freemium licenses for all to support COVID-19 recovery

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In-flight Cruise Profile Optimizer

4D Trajectory Based Real-time retrieval of pilot entered flight plan route

High-resolution winds Based on a unique high-resolution weather forecast from the UK Met Office

Pilot friendly Delivered to the pilot pre/in-flight in an easy to read report

Cost Index Based Total cost optimization based on pilot entered Cost Index

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To support aviation businesses during this time of uncertainty, digital documentation leader Web Manuals announced in late April 2020 that it is offering a freemium package for all new customers.

Available until August 31, 2020, the freemium package includes access for five readers or reviewers, one editor and a free choice of one compliance library, with no system limitations.

Alongside this, users will be provided with the onboarding free of charge.

Martin Lidgard, CEO and founder of Web Manuals said: “The aviation industry has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and are under a number of financial pressures. Ensuring compliance and safety during this time through up-to-date digital manuals should not be another cost to worry about. This is why Web Manuals will be offering this package for free for the next four months, with no contract obligations. “The supporting complimentary training ensures that these customers are fully onboarded and can begin digitizing their documents straight away.”

An additional gesture from Web Manuals is unlimited free licenses for airline and wet lease/ACMI operators looking to digitize their manuals until August 31, 2020.

Initial online training will also be free of charge for these users.

Lidgard added: “Arguably, some of the worst affected segments of the aviation industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak have been airline, wet lease/ ACMI operators. Providing free licenses will support these organizations as they begin to navigate the tricky recovery period, ensuring all members of their team are updated, informed and operating safely.”

Web Manuals allows aviation businesses to digitize their compliance and regulatory documentation and manuals, meaning any updates can be completed and distributed across a company instantly. This ensures that, as regulations change, all members of a team have access to the most accurate information possible, improving efficiency and safety in an organization.

Users can opt-out of the package at any time before July 31st, 2020 without being billed.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 18

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ULTRAMAIN® ELB available on iOS and Windows In mid-June 2020, Ultramain Systems announced ULTRAMAIN ELB v2 Mobile fully replacing the paper technical log, cabin log, journey log and damage log, including signatures. Following excellent feedback from Ultramain’s iOS customers, and demand from Windows users, USI has launched ELB on Windows. Ultramain’s ELB Windows version operates with the same instinctive usability features as the iOS version. This provides interoperability across platforms, which is essential for customers who wish to utilize devices on both operating systems on the same aircraft (interactively), or for airlines using iOS who may have MRO providers using Windows.

ELB v2 incorporates beauty and easy-to-use functionality with intelligent data entry support that greatly minimizes pilot, cabin crew and maintenance workload.

ULTRAMAIN ELB enables flight crews to easily find accurate fault codes, thereby improving accuracy, reducing trouble shooting and simplifying analysis.

Additionally, both versions are capable of integrating with all Spec2000 Ch 17 compliant M&E systems, with current integrations with a number of M&E / Space / MRO systems.

ELB Express is an Ultramain hosted solution for customers that desire a more quickly implemented out-of-the-box solution using best practice workflows for efficiency and to meet regulatory requirements.

ELB Enterprise is for customers that require adaptation of workflows, and interfaces to meet the specific needs of their organization and infrastructure. ELB Enterprise can be hosted within the airline domain.

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Deliver reliable information to frontline employees Dynamic Content Filtering

Customizable Workflow

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Shorter, role specific documents for users

Show changes relevant to a user‘s role

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Provide users with shorter, role specific documents thanks to our unique Dynamic Content Filtering and show relevant changes for their specific role through our Integrated Revision Task List. A Fully Customizable Workflow makes change handling a breeze.

Thanks to an Uncompromisable Audit Trail and a Full QMS Interface, compliance is always guaranteed.

www.yonder.info AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 19

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COVID-19: The EFOS TMS validity extension solution In mid-May 2020, Evoke Systems announced a Covid-19 Validity Extension self-serve solution within EFOS Training Management Suite.

Real life is about reacting quickly, creatively and professionally to the challenges at hand, especially when they could not have been envisioned. Having training data within a training management system is crucial when you need to react with critical real-time data to facilitate rapid decision making. Alongside their trusted clients Evoke Systems have been monitoring the regulatory changes regarding aviation license extensions across the world. Many of those customers had already been in touch requesting amendments to rules and validity periods during this new exemption period.

The aviation industry has been hit hard by the unprecedented impact COVID-19 has had on the world’s economy. During these difficult times, many

airline training teams are unavailable to assist with licence extension administration. At Evoke, they have supported Training Management Teams with rapid, efficient and accurate data to allow them to quickly make informed decisions. These new solutions for customers have been turned around within 24-48 hours.

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Total integration Enabling airlines, streamlining data, creating solutions and connecting flight crews.

Combine any EFF software package with skybook’s data management system to create class-leading EFB packages.

www.bytron.aero AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 20

In a recent series of digital webinars, IATA and industry leaders have stated that periods of crisis are about making the best decisions and minimising damage. Through the EFOS Training Management Suite, Evoke have introduced a digital solution to deliver quick and immediate results, helping customers to overcome some of the operational challenges caused by this pandemic. Through their customers, EFOS is approved for use within several different regulatory bodies, including the CAA, IAA, GCAA and the CAAI. Evoke were also proud to be able to support the innovative e-LPC project that ex-Flybe Training Managers and Trainers created for their Pilots back in April. Readers may have seen the extremely positive feedback about this scheme on LinkedIn. Through this experience and discussions with clients, Evoke decided to put together a specific Covid-19 Validity

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Extension self-serve solution within EFOS Training Management Suite.

This proposal includes a dedicated form or course that allows Training Managers to selectively update the qualifications for their users based on the extensions available. This is supplemented by a number of analysis reports available within the query engine module that will allow monitoring of users within the extension period. Audit reports showing where these extensions have been granted can then be used to enable reporting to the airline’s regulatory authority and inspectors.

Clients utilising Evoke’s DocStore can use this to host and distribute training materials, whilst the exams module can be used for online remote assessments.

Dashboards provide a holistic overview and visual representation of each airline’s extension process, enabling Training Mangers to track the movement of dates and assist the re-balance of the training programme when operations recommence.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Air Atlanta Icelandic chooses StorkJet’s advancedAPM to track aircraft performance

In mid-May 2020, StorkJet was happy to announce that Air Atlanta Icelandic, the carrier with headquarters in Kópavogur, had decided to choose StorkJet’s advancedAPM to track up-to-date in-flight performance for the whole fleet. The airline will use the software to accurately plan fuel for the flight including performance degradation of the aircraft, which should reduce overburns and in the end save fuel. The goal of the project is also to fully automate the process, from data collection to processing,

modelling and presentation of performance factors in web platform.

Air Atlanta is StorkJet’s first partner operating 4 engine aircraft in both cargo and passenger configuration.

That’s good news: from now, besides already supporting Q400, E-Jet family, B737 (Classic, NG & MAX), B787, A320 (entire family, CEO and NEO), StorkJet will also serve A340 and B747 aircraft.

This is another step for StorkJet towards creating a solution for the full range of aircraft — from turboprops to the biggest jets.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 21

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Bytron: the right call could save you thousands

In mid-May 2020, Bytron Aviation Systems considered that the true cost of the current global challenges we face will most likely not be known for months at least but one thing we do know for certain is that you don’t have to look far to see how it’s already affected the travel industry and the operators around the globe who service it on a daily basis.

While the problems may be very real for us all right now, it’s vital that we, as aviation businesses, work together and look to the future to start planning for a return to normality as when the world starts to come out the other side of this pandemic, the need to move quickly and to operate efficiently and effectively will be more apparent than ever, as will the need to look for areas in which money can be saved as the year progresses.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 22

The current emphasis on efficiency and saving money actually presents a real opportunity for operators across all sectors of aviation to look at the systems, solutions and processes currently in place and ask a single question — do they all come together to ensure you are as lean, efficient and effective as you could be.

Although a huge blow, in some ways, the significant reduction in commercial flights offers the chance for operators to look in depth at daily flight operations, dispatch, crew briefing, maintenance and flight tracking, as having the right software solutions in place across these core areas of business will without doubt help to deliver significant improvements and will also help to reduce operating costs by streamlining workflows and by bringing each vital

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area of the business together more cohesively.

Bytron suggest looking at one core area of business as an example — Flight Dispatch. How many different systems are currently used by dispatch teams and how much information do they have to manage, review, grade, import and potentially edit to ensure the flight deck and other areas of the business have the information needed ahead of each and every sector.

This is only focusing on one area of daily flight operations here so it’s fair to say that the same question could also be asked across flight operations and tracking, the flight deck, maintenance and ground handling and the answers would all be the same in many cases. Even now, too much time is wasted manually handling information across multiple systems in order to access and manage a huge range of information and data for each and every flight and make it usable.

Also, this information can change minute by minute so even more time is potentially wasted by having to continuously review to ensure emerging problems are identified and acted upon appropriately which just magnifies the problem further.

Bytron considers that, with this ongoing challenge as the all too real backdrop, now is the time to embrace the opportunity to let technology take the strain by implementing a solution that helps to manage all of this information for you. Surely now, they suggest, is the time to start a conversation with Bytron specialists who can help to identify the skybook

modules that will have the biggest impact in those areas that need to be improved.

Why skybook? skybook is possibly the only solution available today that has a comprehensive range of innovative modules covering the following: • Flight operations and dispatch; • Crew briefing; • Journey logging; • EFB/EFF; • NOTAM management; • Airfield Watch; • Flight Following; • Document management/ distribution; • eTech Log (available late 2020).

Each module has been engineered to deliver significant improvements over the solutions and processes they will ultimately replace and real-time information sourced directly from some of the best and most reliable providers across the world helps to ensure Ops, Dispatch and Aircrews will always have the latest data to hand — specific to each and every sector. skybook can also be used to create an ongoing dialogue between a wide range of third-party systems and solutions thanks to its class leading integrations and this alone is helping some of the biggest names in the industry deliver solutions for their clients across the globe. With over 35 years in the aviation industry, the people at Bytron fully understand the challenges faced during these rare and unprecedented times.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

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Evoke expands partnership with West Atlantic

In mid-June 2020, Evoke Systems were delighted to announce that they are expanding services with existing customer West Atlantic to the airline’s Swedish partner based in Gothenburg.

West Air Sweden, trading as West Atlantic, has been part of the West Atlantic Group since 2011.

Evoke, who are based in the UK, provide innovative software solutions to the aviation industry. Since their inception in 2001, Evoke has worked with airlines around the globe to build their EFOS Product Suites which span the Training, Leave and Flight Management sectors of aviation.

Under the EFOS Training Management Suite, West Atlantic’s Swedish partner will use several of the training modules available, including Course Management for candidate AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 24

progress tracking. Supported by a dedicated iPad app with the benefit of offline usage, Trainers can record, track and manage all airline training for their staff with ease. Also utilising the EFOS Flight Management Suite, the West Atlantic Group will have access to the Electronic Journey Log, allowing crew to record flight and duty information digitally, fulfilling compliance for Commander reporting and providing the opportunity to capture valuable operational and commercial performance data.

Evoke CEO Mike Peters said “Having worked with West Atlantic since 2016, we are delighted to be expanding our partnership with them, and look forward to working with their Swedish Colleagues on this exciting new project.”

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dgBirds welcomes SD Aviation as a new customer, reaches more than 5000 users and extends its EFB portfolio with the ‘Reports’ service dgBirds announced in mid-June 2020 that SD Aviation, the French based airline, has subscribed to the Documentation service. From their iPads, SD Aviation Pilots are now able to easily access their operational manuals offline during their missions.

Sébastien Dubreuil, SD Aviation CEO said: “We are all positively surprised about how easy to implement and use is the dgBirds EFB as a Service solution. It definitely enables us to make a great step towards paperless Flight Operations”.

FFA, the French Aeronautical Association is extending its subscription to offer the Documentation service to its 3000 flight instructors.

From their iPads or directly online, the flight instructors and the staff of their aero clubs are now

able to easily access all information from the central office located in Paris. They are notified by email or push notification of any update of the documents, manuals or regulations. Standardization of training practices is key to ensuring flight Safety at the highest level.

New features: dgBirds has extended its portfolio with the Mission / Reports service, already subscribed by Charter Jets airline. Thanks to the Reports service, dgBirds customers are now able to make available, for their mobile users (e.g. Pilots and Cabin Crew) all needed form templates. Thanks to a very agile and user-friendly form builder, operators can create safety and quality forms (e.g. Air Safety Report, Captain Report…). Once created, forms are distributed from the Administration platform and

mobile users access these forms from their iPads.

When events occur, mobile users can report them by filling the ad hoc form: this action can even be done offline, when no network connection is available. As soon as the iPads are connected, reports are sent to the operator’s back office. All reports are stored, available at any time and data can be used for analytics purposes.

This Reports service is therefore an additional function that enriches dgBirds multi services ‘EFB as a Service’ platform. dgBirds now supports the mission of crews, by bringing not only their reference manuals and their rosters of activities including all relevant information to prepare and follow their missions, but also by allowing them to report any occurrence that may happen.

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Contact us today at connectivity@cmcelectronics.ca to find out how we can help you optimize flight operations, improve maintenance efficiency, and more.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 25

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Safety first: Northern Jet Management partners with Web Manuals to streamline manuals

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Business jet operator Northern Jet Management announced in mid-June 2020 that it is digitizing its regulatory documents so that it can be instantly compliant with changing aviation regulations. After being in operation for 25 years, Northern Jet Management has accrued a robust set of manuals for its Charles (Chuck) Cox, Northern Jet Management fleet of aircraft. The team needed a system that would streamline this process and Web Manuals was the best solution.

Jeff Gauger, director of operations at Northern Jet Management, said: “Digitizing our documentation allows our operations to run leaner and more efficiently. Web Manuals allows us to improve how we work, and in turn continue to improve safety, and be ready for post-COVID-19 recovery. Safety is the main benefit of using Web Manuals. The compliance library means we can cross-reference against the most current regulations and standards and respond instantly. On top of this, we are now able to operate much more efficiently. Instead of it taking one of our managers a day, or even a week, to make manual revisions to a document and distribute to our pilots, they can now use that time to keep updated with industry trends, liaise with our pilots or crew, and spend more time with customers.”

Northern Jet Management flies clients across the US and to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe, so it is crucial that the company complies with each country’s regulations, as well as keep abreast of the differing manuals for several different aircraft types it has in its fleet.

Charles Cox, owner and CEO of Northern Jet Management, commented: “We recently added a Gulfstream G150 to our existing fleet of Bombardier, Cessna, and Dassault Falcon aircraft. This addition brought with it an entirely new set of manuals to be uploaded — a process made much quicker by the implementation of Web Manuals. In fact, the feedback already received across the team — from our chief pilot to director of maintenance — has been incredibly positive.”

Krister Genmark, director of operations Americas at Web Manuals, added “Taking time to digitize your documentation can save a company such as Northern Jet Management weeks of unnecessary administration. With jets flying around the world, it is vital that Northern Jet Management disseminate regulation amends instantly to their pilots, ensuring compliance and safety.”

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 26

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Regional financial support provided to Safety Line SWAG project to optimize airports’ global ground operations Nowadays airport ground operations wants to go further: to not only are based on established common measure, but also optimize and practices which are not efficient and automate ground traffic operations to have never evolved over the years. In significantly reduce airport CO2 order to deal with the growing airport emissions. A new research project traffic issues expected within 20 named SWAG (Smarter Ways for years, Safety Line together with Airport Ground traffic) was thus research partners (ENVISA, IFSTTAR, launched in mid-June 2020 and LIP6, Paris Aéroport) launched in brings in two significant innovations: 2015 the AWACS (Airside Watch for optimizing and automating ground Amelioration of Capacity and Safety) traffic by reducing the taxiing time project. Three years later, the and distance. Recognised as an successful collaboration came to an innovative and useful project for end with the creation of an effective Parisian airports, but also for all decision-support tool for airports, airports around the world, the SWAG based on the analysis of radar data. project has been funded by the ett-aviation_ad-aircraftIT_PRINT.pdf 1 2/7/20 12:16 PM Today, Safety Line’s research team Ile-de-France Region.

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Aircraft Analytics to use ch-aviation industry-leading airline intelligence data Aircraft Analytics announced in mid-June 2020 that it had partnered with ch-aviation to use its aircraft data for detailed fleet analysis. ch-aviation brings the most up-to-date and reliable fleet data to power detailed analysis of fleet and potential freighter conversion feedstock candidates in Aircraft Analytics’ launch module: ‘Freighters’.

Aircraft Analytics (a joint venture of Aircraft Commerce and Aircraft IT) was delighted to announce a partnership with ch-aviation to use its industry leading fleet data to power detailed analysis of the current freighter fleet and potential freighter conversion feedstock candidates. The data includes fleet numbers by: Aircraft Type, Aircraft Vintage, Engine Sub Variant, Winglet Status, and Current Operational Status (Active, Stored, in Maintenance).

The data will initially be available for narrow-body freighter aircraft in the Aircraft Analytics launch module, ‘Freighters’. Further Aircraft Analytics modules are to be released to market throughout 2020 and 2021 covering all freighter and passenger aircraft, from regional to wide-body.

Andy Coupland, CEO at Aircraft Analytics, stated; “This is excellent news for us: we are delighted to be working with ch-aviation whose fleet data, containing more than 50,000 commercial aircraft details, is used and trusted by countless airlines, airports, leasing companies, OEMs, and lots more globally. The partnership drives to the heart of our product: to provide our subscribers with only the best and most accurate data available.”

Thomas Jaeger, founder and CEO at ch-aviation

added: “As a genuinely Swiss company for us it is all about data quality. Having been supporting commercial aviation decision makers for more than

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twenty years, we are very pleased to be working with the team at Aircraft Analytics. Information about fleets and aircraft is at the heart of good decisions and our data delivers a world-leading resource in this competitive industry.”

Aircraft Analytics is a rich resource putting real-world aircraft and performance data at the industry’s fingertips. In addition to detailed data and analysis per aircraft variant, subscribers can use powerful interactive digital tools to compare aircraft performance and cost. An annual subscription to an Aircraft Analytics module also includes access to the online Aircraft Commerce library of more than 1,200 downloadable articles.

The launch module ‘Freighters’ will be available soon.

Safety Line nominated for the French Innovation Tourism Awards Nominated for the ‘New Technologies’ category, Safety Line has taken part in the French Innovation Tourism Awards and has introduced, in mid-June 2020, OptiDirect, an interface for pilots recommending shortcuts based on historical tracks flown, with an indication of fuel and time savings.

The annual contest rewards the most

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Founded in 1998 as an aviation information service provider in Switzerland, today ch-aviation operates as the largest and most comprehensive B2B database in the area of commercial aviation. ch-aviation provides more than 800 customers around the globe with relevant and up-to-date airline intelligence and insightful news on the aviation industry. ch-aviation provides reliable and accurate intelligence, and its data and industry news coverage is trusted by airlines, airports, brokers, finance and leasing companies, government agencies, consulting and human resources companies, IT providers, aircraft manufacturers, MRO’s, tourism and hospitality enterprises and travel buyers all around the globe.

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Safety Line opens OptiFlight Customer Support Office for Asia in Bangkok and appoints Elisabeth Monteiller as Regional Sales Manager for Europe As part of its international growth strategy, a new Safety Line office opened in March 2020 in Bangkok to support airline customers and prospects in Asia with support services for fuel-saving solution OptiFlight. Vincent Pierre, a young aeronautical engineer (ENAC), attended a 3-month work-training in Paris before taking office in Bankok.

Also, Safety Line is expending its international presence and building a global commercial network for further growth. In this context, Elisabeth Monteiller, an experienced Business Developer and aviation expert, joined the growing team in March 2020.

Safety Line welcomed Elisabeth on board and invited customers and potential customers to not hesitate to contact her, ask their questions or request a demo.

DocuNet Forms – supporting customers as they deal with new operational challenges In early July 2020, Vistair Systems announced that it has released an upgrade to its DocuNet Forms module to further support aviation customers during this time.

Using our highly flexible, integrated DocuNet Forms module, DocuNet customers can now create and distribute digital staff declaration forms throughout their operation, straight from the DocuNet viewer.

The new enhancement has been developed in line with our customers’ needs and to satisfy new EASA

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 30

requirements surrounding normal operations during Covid-19.

Additional functionality includes a daily pop-up feature, facilitating secure and easy data collection that is compliant with GDPR and a flexible notification system to ensure relevant stakeholders are alerted of any staff showing Covid-19 symptoms.

Mark Micallef, Technical Pilot at Air Malta said: “During the pandemic, Vistair has provided both pragmatic and value-enhancing support.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT

AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

Aircraft IT Operations 2020 survey: COVID-19 and the response of aviation IT developers and vendors A comprehensive review of how the sector is addressing the challenges of a pandemic and how it plans to support airlines and operators in the future

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 31

AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

W

e know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had more impact on commercial aviation than any other peacetime event. And we know that, in any situation, the more information you can have, the better. So we surveyed the vendors on the Aircraft IT panel to find out how the pandemic is seen from their and their customers’ point of view as well as what the future might hold. Our survey was divided into three distinct parts in order to first obtain a high-level view of how aviation IT developers and vendors are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects that it is having on commercial flying. Then to see how solutions are being used during the COVID crisis and how vendors have adapted and, finally, looking ahead, to consider what will be the future for the aviation technology sector following the COVID crisis.

SECTION 1: HOW IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS ARE YOU ASSISTING CUSTOMERS DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

In the first part of the survey, we wanted to establish a global understanding of how developers and vendors were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and its fall-out, citing specific areas of activity. So, we asked whether respondents had made any changes or additions to their solutions such as providing support for remote workers, or special offers or incentives for new or existing customers. We also wanted to know whether developers and vendors felt there is anything airlines or MROs could be doing during this pandemic period with which the vendor’s software and/or solutions might assist them.

Responses have ranged from a variety of software solution modifications and upgrades to the offer of free services during the duration of the pandemic.

Web Manuals said: “The aviation industry has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and is under a number of financial pressures. Ensuring compliance and safety during this time through up-to-date digital manuals should not be another cost to worry about. This is why Web Manuals will be offering this package for free for the next four months, with no contract obligations. The supporting complimentary training ensures that these customers are fully onboarded and can begin digitizing their documents straight away.”

“Real life is about reacting quickly, creatively and professionally to the challenges at hand, especially when they could not have been envisioned…”

Image from Web Manuals

In a similar vein, AVTECH “have extended the free trial of the premium version of proFLIGHT. This means that the pilots that are still flying can access highresolution weather forecasts tailored for their flight to make their flight as safe, comfortable and cost effective as possible.”

Most respondents have focused on the needs of customers to manage their way through the current crisis, a majority have also started to look to the future and how airlines might be able to operate successfully in the post-COVID world. NAVBLUE offers a service for the end of the immediate crisis before moving back to operations, “NAVBLUE safety experts propose a comprehensive set of methodologies to support Airlines in executing hazard identification and risk assessment before getting back to a

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 32

Image from AVTECH

AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

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normal situation. This service also covers the necessary change management that Airlines may have to assess to support their transformation.”

Working during the pandemic

This dual approach is reflected in some of the responses we received. Bytron told us that, “During this tough period, our main objective from the outset was to maintain business as usual and above all, support our clients by continuing to push forward and deliver their requirements. Our latest skybook update that went live in April is an excellent example of this. We addressed several essential areas that will be vital for operators moving forward as skybook will now integrate with more solutions than ever before. This update creates a seamless automated flow of data between operating systems that will significantly reduce workloads, save time and improve accuracy at a time when carriers will be looking for every efficiency possible.”

Of course, nobody could have predicted what has happened and so the comment from Evoke Systems, “Real life is about reacting quickly, creatively and professionally to the challenges at hand, especially when they could not have been envisioned.” is very true: they continued, “ Having training data within a training management system is crucial when you need to react with critical real-time data to facilitate rapid decision making.” Typical of the kind of initiatives designed to help airlines deal with the current situation Evoke Systems also reported that, “Alongside our trusted clients we have been monitoring the regulatory changes regarding aviation license extensions across the world. Many of our customers have already been in touch requesting amendments to rules and validity periods during this new exemption period.”

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Vistair have told their customers that, “We are assessing our systems to ensure essential functions are equipped to change business operations as and if AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 33

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needed to support customer requirements. We will continue to monitor and manage this situation for any potential risks of disruption, we will take any required actions and provide additional communication to our customers as necessary.”

As part of its response to the COVID pandemic, Viasat tells clients that, “We’re living in extraordinary times. COVID-19 is changing the way we live and work. Like customers, we’re relying on connectivity to keep in touch, keep busy, and just keep going. Our focus is, and always will be to keep [customers] connected — no matter how hard it is.”

Some airlines have assigned passenger aircraft to freight use, sometimes removing and sometimes retaining the seating. In either case, this has meant a change to the operating rules and regulations and, in turn the operations manuals.

As Comply365 put it, “We’ve seen many of our airlines… reconfiguring their passenger aircraft for cargo flights in the midst of COVID-19. Others have conducted special missions to repatriate stranded citizens. In both circumstances, updating your operations manuals is a necessary step in the process.” Even during the current circumstances, there can be no let up on standards and regulations but software can help with the organization of materials to ensure continued compliance. Also, of course, changing the use of an aircraft will change other factors required in order to operate it safely.

Infographic from Comply365

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“The system is one of the biggest advances in Line Maintenance, Engineering and Operations that I have ever encountered.”

Andy Pyett, Line Maintenance Control British Airways CityFlyer

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As Smart4Aviation observed, “… our customers were able to successfully convert their pax configurations into cargo configurations, by taking the seats out and strengthening the floor so cargo could be shipped. With the change of configuration and with the support of our weight and balance system flights were soon on their way to carry cargo and crucial medical equipment around the globe.”

The influence of the pandemic has been felt in many different ways including the impact of the additional procedures and restrictions on dispatch and on turnaround times. While this might not be such a huge issue during the pandemic, faster dispatch is always a goal for airlines and so a technology solution that mitigates against the delaying effects of additional procedures and requirements will be welcome. One such solution is mobile capability. “Some of our customers sped up the implementation of remote dispatch with our mobile applications, which meant that crew no longer needed to visit the busy crew rooms for preflight duties. Instead they could go directly to the aircraft as the required documents were uploaded on their device.” Smart4Aviation again.

Another interesting fall-out from the pandemic is that some airlines have had to solicit financial support from their governments and, as Safety Line said, “… what we’ve been seeing is that rather than cutting corners, existing customers recognize not only the savings they can achieve, but also [fuel management’s] contribution to further reducing their CO2 footprint — something many airlines have committed to in connection with bailout discussions with their respective governments.” Storkjet drew together the various considerations here, tying together turn-around times and fuel efficiency, “Turn-around times may increase due to various COVID related restrictions. While all these issues are challenging from a commercial standpoint, from fuel saving standpoint they should be considered as opportunities.”

Image from Storkjet

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

“As the industry starts to look towards the long road back to some form of normality, one clear thing is the need for efficiency, and the potential to do more with less.”

One consideration for every airline and operator is the need to be able to maintain the same or better standards of safety based on the same or better quality of maintenance processes. While not strictly an Operations matter maintenance is a concern for Operations and a key factor in aircraft reliability and availability. There is also a cross-over consideration with the technical log book or techlog. Bringing technology to that function is something that will benefit both Operations and MRO processes. “With reduced flying programmes, now is

the perfect opportunity look at implementing Electronic Tech Logs in order to reduce cost and increase efficiency. In order to assist operators, we are providing dedicated implementation support including remote training sessions. We are also offering price reductions to enable operators to start the transition with minimal cost until normal flying resumes.” This comment from TrustFlight to the survey reminds us that, while it is important to address the challenge of working with COVID-19, there is also an opportunity to grasp. The industry could never have arranged a six month or more virtual break in operations during normal times and so one bit of value to take away from this awful pandemic is for airlines to use the time to establish the resources they will need to ensure success in the future.

Working in the post-COVID world

One recurring theme has been the need, more than ever, to consider the costs and cost effectiveness of whatever solutions are in use. Airlines could be forgiven for thinking that they had already squeezed the most return from the least costs but new technologies and digital possibilities offer further changes to processes and operations that will make even more savings and efficiencies possible. As one respondent put it, “COVID-19 has, without doubt, had a dramatic impact on aviation. As the industry starts to look towards the long road back to some form

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

of normality, one clear thing is the need for efficiency, and the potential to do more with less. Carriers now need to find ways of saving across every sector and each flight.”

Like any employers, software developers and vendors have had to look to the welfare of their own workforces and adapt their own working practices accordingly.

They have also all seen the need to contribute to ensuring that, when the crisis is over, the industry will not only be in a position to quickly return but also will be able to instigate further improvements and developments going forward. “During this tough period, our main objective from the outset was to maintain business as usual and above all, support our clients by continuing to push forward and deliver their requirements.” This, from Bytron, is typical of responses in this regard.

Part of that concept of returning to business done better as opposed to business as usual has included the integration of systems and an emphasis on automation of processes. Bytron again, in a comment reflective of the general tone, explained, “skybook will now integrate with more solutions than ever before. This update creates a seamless automated flow of data between operating systems that will significantly reduce workloads, save time and improve accuracy at a time when carriers will be looking for every efficiency possible.” Other EFB suppliers considered the growing use of cloud-based solutions which, in a future world, will reduce the need for IT admins to continually update or ensure that they are up-to-date with the solutions they use. It will also enable them to only pay for the parts of a solution that they are using. Several respondents highlighted this development including dgBirds who pointed out that, “… you pay exactly for the service you’re using, per day, per user, as a Cloud service. Our… ’EFB as a Service’ is already suited for this kind of situation and our customers may deactivate all accounts not necessary, so that they automatically won’t be charged for these accounts.”

Another key element in the post-COVID world will be the need to not only restore comparable service quality in a non-comparable operating environment but also to be able to react more rapidly and nimbly to any future events. Lufthansa Systems consultants “have partnered with the data scientists at ZeroG to offer innovative and progressive network planning solutions, including sophisticated demand forecasting models, that enable airlines to effectively plot a comprehensive and sustainable recovery from this crisis.” but continued to ask, “… how do you recover your networks using data from a world that no longer exists?” answering their own question with, “To overcome this dilemma you must learn quickly from the daily changing global situation and volatile booking behavior and shift from a seasonal development approach towards a daily network development approach, and from a fleet perspective to a step-by-step phasing-in of aircraft network development perspective.” If this reads as thorough, that’s probably because it is.

Lufthansa Systems also supplied a useful infographic looking at Crisis Management and Crisis Recovery.

Infographic from Lufthansa Systems

Airlines will need to be agile in the new world, to not only catalog a range of anticipated disruptive events but to also have in place processes to cope with wholly unanticipated events. What a number of respondents involved in the planning side of the business confirmed is that they are either developing or creating new capabilities that will enable users to plot almost infinite numbers of possibilities and, as importantly, to suggest potential strategies for coping with those situations. In this context, coping includes recovery and, again, a number of respondent vendors have already started to devise ideas for that and the software to support those ideas. NAVBLUE, a provider of ‘risk assessment and operations conformity services under COVID-19’ is proposing, “a comprehensive set of methodologies to support Airlines in executing hazard identification and risk assessment before getting back to a normal situation. This service also covers the necessary change management that Airlines may have to assess to support their transformation.”

We have already alluded to the fact that, while some developers have been creating new solutions, others have been developing established solutions but some respondents reminded us that the now popular mobile and web-based structures of many solutions are already well-suited to the demands of what we anticipate will be the post-COVID order. “Since our solutions combine mobile device and web functionality, we didn’t have to change anything to allow customers to use the service once COVID-19 had an impact on normal office work. One day the customers accessed the service from the office — the next from home.” was how Nvable put it, adding, “These are not new features, but they are features that allow airlines to be agile in their response to the recent challenges.” Ultramain, also, has improved its ULTRAMAIN ELB v” Mobile which, “fully replaces the paper technical log, cabin log, journey log and damage log, including signatures [and]

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NEWS

enables flight crews to easily find accurate fault codes, thereby improving accuracy, reducing trouble shooting and simplifying analysis.”

And just as IT developers and vendors have been ‘fast-tracking’ developments such as touchless processes, so, also, airlines and aircraft operators have been accelerating their adoption, take-up and implementation of new technologies. One respondent to the survey noted, “Some of our customers sped up the implementation of remote dispatch with our mobile applications, which meant that crew no longer needed to visit the busy crew rooms for preflight duties. Instead they could go directly to the aircraft as the required documents were uploaded on their device.” TrustFlight added that, “we have tailored our services due to COVID-19 in order for operators to use this time as an opportunity to implement new digital processes as well as identify areas to increase efficiencies and cost savings within their business. With reduced flying programmes, now is the perfect opportunity look at implementing Electronic Tech Logs in order to reduce cost and increase efficiency. In order to assist operators, we are providing dedicated implementation support including remote training sessions. We are also offering price reductions to enable operators to start the transition with minimal cost until normal flying resumes.”

with software solutions as well as with ideas on how to use the opportunity of a long break in service. This particularly includes putting in place the processes and supporting technologies that will ensure not only a smooth and wellmanaged return to service but also a better way of working in the future to more easily recover the losses of the pandemic and restore the fortunes of the business.

Looking into the even longer-term future, Safety Line reports that, “rather than cutting corners, existing customers recognize not only the savings they can achieve, but also OptiFlight’s contribution to further reducing their CO2 footprint — something many airlines have committed to in connection with bailout discussions with their respective governments. In line with this, we were proud to announce in April that we have joined the Solar Impulse World Alliance for Efficient Solutions.

Image from Safety Line

SECTION 2: HOW SOLUTIONS ARE BEING USED DURING THE COVID CRISIS AND HOW VENDORS HAVE ADAPTED

Our next group of questions were designed to discover how different vendors are applying their solutions in the current circumstances and how the pandemic has influenced the ways in which they run their businesses. There were six questions in this part.

Image from TrustFlight

So, as well as a challenge, the pandemic, like any crisis, has heightened users’ readiness to consider and progress with new ideas that will not only make it easier to work during the period of challenge but will also serve them well as a progressive step to improve future processes and operations. In summary, it seems that aviation IT vendors have stepped up to the plate in this pandemic

Question 1: Have you seen increased or reduced usage of your software during the pandemic?

Experiences varied from “remains mostly the same” to “Because our Software is mostly used by pilots, we see a decrease of up to 75 % in the civil aviation

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NEWS

Industry”. Most report having seen between 10% and 75% reduction in use of their products commensurate with the reduction in flying activity but, against this, most have seen little, if any reduction, in interest for their products for future application. Typically, “On the one hand, we have understandably seen a reduction in the number of aircraft and flights [using our product] during the pandemic however we have seen very little impact in terms of onboarding new operators and requests for enhancements from existing customers.” Interestingly, several respondents identified the difference between cargo and passenger activities with comments such as, “Our customers include a mix of cargo operators and passenger carriers. There has been no change in usage on the cargo side, but the passenger carriers have experienced severe cutback, and the use of our software has decreased with them.” Also, from a different respondent, “Some of our cargo clients were flying basically at the same pace.” Another respondent highlighted the fact that some flying activity has centered around aircraft moving to and from maintenance facilities. Most vendors were phlegmatic about the situation with one summing that up as, “We see tendencies of a reduced usage; however, we predict that during/after the summer we [will be better able to] see how the pandemic actually has affected us.” Encouragingly, it seems that all users are active, albeit at lower levels of activity, and are taking the chance to prepare for the future.

Question 2: Which modules or aspects of your software applications are being most used during this period (the last 2 months prior to the June survey)?

Looking at all the responses, there was, again, some link to activity with one saying, “Our usage profiles are similar to pre-COVID, albeit at reduced levels.” or another, “The modules that were previously used are still being used to the same degree, just with fewer transactions.” and yet another, “It is hard to give an answer on this, as our products are used by our customers as soon as they are flying. But, as the flights have reduced, proportionally the usage of our products has gone down. However, our pilot application has continued to grow, with a lot of users from the cargo sector.” was how one respondent described it, while another explained, “Because EFB Software depends on operational flights all modules of our Software are affected, due to the limitation of the amount of flights.” And, from yet another about the cargo sector, “We see an increase in cargo-specific functionality as cargo airlines are operating at their full capacity.”

It certainly seems that vendors have noticed an uptick in the use of dispatch and flight planning tools with comments such as, “we believe that the crew and flight planning tools are seeing more use as they adjust to the ever-changing landscape in the midst of the pandemic.” and “weight & balance and load planning solution are definitely [applications that have stood up during the INTERACTIVE Click here for full product details

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

“Of the fourteen respondents to this question, four have experienced no real change from pre-COVID to the time of the survey. Another four have seen some extra demand for training services and implementation support.“ pandemic]. Next to our clients flying solely cargo other airlines were looking at alternatives where they took cargo packages in the cabin on the seats after covering them, which was fully supported by our solution.”

With regard to dispatch and planning, one respondent reported, “We have seen constant demand for our EFB Application, our Dispatch Portal and above all our EFF enablement capability.” And another that they had seen most use for their, “Network Planning tools and demand forecast modelling.” There has also been good reported use of documentation, “Digital Flight Plan, Meteorology, Notam, Documents and Manuals.” as one respondent put it, and, “Documentation, for pilots to maintain their competencies and for the airline to deliver information about COVID crisis, sanitary measures, while in confinement.” as another said. And, finally, with another reference to maintenance, “The defect management and line maintenance activities [and related Software activities] are more in use…”

Question 3: Which of your services are in more demand during this period?

Of the fourteen respondents to this question, four have experienced no real change from pre-COVID to the time of the survey. Another four have seen some extra demand for training services and implementation support with one reporting, “We have seen an increase in the number of operators using this period to better plan new roll-outs by increasing training and working on process changes.” and another that had assisted with, “the introduction of the new…Training Forms.” It also seems that airlines have taken the opportunity to undertake some of those ‘must get round to’ jobs with four respondents citing a range of such projects from bug fixes to integrations from, “… airlines see this as an opportunity to roll out features/ systems.” to, “Data management, machine learning.” and, “We have been

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

assisting more with data analysis.” One respondent has been, “quite busy with virtual Fuel Efficiency workshops with existing customers.” One other respondent has seen that, “… the pilot application has continued to grow and we have got new users from a (for us) new segment of pilots, the cargo operators.” The numbers reflect that a couple of respondents mentioned more than one category.

Question 4: How has the COVID-19 experience altered your product plan?

There were a variety of responses to this question and, while one respondent did say that COVID, “has stopped commercial actions since the beginning of the year.” it was heartening to see that optimism prevailed not in a starry-eyed way but with developers and vendors having clear ideas about what they were going to do and, more importantly, how they planned to achieve that. Typical was the response, “COVID-19 has delayed our projects, but we do not think the need for our products will be reduced after the crisis but rather the opposite. With another focus in the industry where the demands on the airlines from the passengers will be higher, our efficiency products will be needed more than ever before.” and “All of our implementations are paperless Ops implementations. We expect to see an increase in market demand for paperless systems where transactions are captured at source in real time using mobile devices.” Like some of their customers, developers and vendors are using the opportunity of COVID-imposed stasis to improve their own positions. “COVID-19 has not changed our product schedule. We use the current situation to focus more on development to improve our Software.” was one response as was, “We have decided to accelerate modernization efforts of one of our products.”

As we’ve said, the optimism is not starry eyed. “… our future priorities very much center around new solutions and modules that help to drive towards more automation, increased accessibility, improved data capture and sharing, integration and much more besides.” and, “… we are thinking about diversifying more by adopting our products or new products to other markets. This could be e.g. other forms of transport like maritime, rail and/or health.“ are typically upbeat responses to the pandemic, as also is, “We haven’t decreased investment in R&D. Connectivity and data will be important, in some ways more so (better situational awareness, same results with less staff, etc.)”

There was also a strong focus on helping customers to move out of the COVID restrictions by adopting more of the advanced solutions that are already in growing use, including, “our consulting and data modelling focus has shifted to help airlines develop quick and well-informed recovery plans.” and, “the way the world is looking towards online solutions more than ever will strengthen our roadmap and our ongoing dialogue to understand what our customers need next.” One respondent has plans to put more power in the hands of customers, “to allow airlines to adopt

“…responses confirmed previous comments around the opportunities that are there to be leveraged as a result of either the down time enforced by the pandemic and the need for airlines and operators to embrace new processes, methods and ideas in the post-COVID world.” our solutions increasingly on a self-serve basis. This year we have introduced a full remote windows deployment solution… “ Finally, “Although it will take time for our existing customers to return to pre-COVID traffic levels, we expect to continue adding new customers to compensate for that.” From one respondent that seems to sum up the positive but realistic mood of the sector on future plans.

Question 5: Most businesses globally have announced some reduction in staffing and size. Are you seeing the same in the software space? Is your company making any adjustments?

Perhaps understandably, responses to this question were less direct than those to previous questions, “We are adapting as necessary and in line with demand” was how one respondent put it. One respondent did simply say that, “… we have reduced the IT team.” While another limited their comment to the current crisis, “… reduced work time for all personnel [to] 60% due to COVID-19.” As with much of the present situation, some, including two of the eleven who answered this question, are deciding to await the post-pandemic time to see how the land lies then. Their comments, “We have not had to make adjustments yet although we keep it in review.” and, “ So far, we’ve had no need to do so. Actually, we were able to acquire new customers recently. Our software will soon make their business processes more efficient and in turn deliver savings.” speak to some of the current uncertainty. Two respondents told of a pause, “… we are not reducing staff. We have put a pause on hiring in Q2 but that’s it.” and, “We have slowed down new recruitments during the crisis, but are still planning to invest in growth when traffic picks up.” Encouragingly, three respondents were very positive, “Our staff has actually increased over 30% since 2019.” was one while another told us, “No, we continue to add staff worldwide.” and, “We have actually still been hiring throughout this period, both in our software development and implementation teams.”

It seems that a combination of efficiency and the prospect of resumed growth in the post-COVID world plus the increased need to remove paper and physical

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contacts from as many processes as possible are encouraging the aviation IT sector to adopt as bullish approach to the pandemic and its aftermath.

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Question 6: Please share with us any additional thoughts you have regarding the use of your solutions at this time.

While we hoped that our questions had covered all the bases, we know that, in practice, things often emerge that were not foreseen. So, we wanted to let our vendors who had contributed to the survey responses to have the last word on this section.

Some responses confirmed previous comments around the opportunities that are there to be leveraged as a result of either the down time enforced by the pandemic and the need for airlines and operators to embrace new processes, methods and ideas in the post-COVID world. “This period still represents a unique opportunity to implement process improvements and new technologies where both the regulators are receptive and also there is less risk in implementing these changes due to reduced flying.” was a typical response in this regard. There was also further mention of the new prominence of cargo operations, “As mentioned above, we see a reduced use of our products due to reductions of fights. However, we have been in contact with more cargo airlines than usual as they operate more now than before the pandemic. We have a positive outlook on the future and that this crisis could be an initiation for transformation in the industry.” or, “We are currently seeing a situation where commercial travel is almost non-existent and EFB solutions are therefore currently not in full use in all areas. Nevertheless, there are many areas of the aviation industry, such as air cargo, which continues to run in regular business. In these areas, digitalization is more important than ever and will continue to gain in importance.” and, with a very positive spin, “technology has an important part to play in allowing airlines to operate flexibly and allow them to achieve more with fewer resources… The recent challenges have sharpened the focus on how important those two attributes are for any organization.” There was a note of caution in a response that suggested, “This is a time for internal reflection for many companies, especially passenger carriers, as they evaluate each expense line item to determine whether they absolutely need to keep it on the books. They certainly are not looking to incur large new expenses, so getting an airline to switch to a new ERP or flight and crew management system at this time is nearly impossible unless the new solution can show an immediate ROI. One response was quite specific in the advice it offered for the future, responding, “We’ve seen many of our airlines reconfiguring their passenger aircraft for cargo flights... Others have conducted special missions to repatriate stranded citizens. In both circumstances, updating operations manuals is a necessary step in the process. We offer a few tips to make that process more efficient and streamlined: Enable effective collaboration between your technical publications staff and subject-matter experts; reuse content, wherever possible, by establishing

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“Technology will place an increasingly important role in helping organizations operate flexibility, safely and whilst controlling their costs. Strategically this will remain important as fleets return to service and the world cautiously opens up.” a ‘single source of truth’; streamline approvals — by enabling your Regulators to approve changes digitally; publish incremental updates to get the content into the hands of the pilots, flight attendants and crew more quickly, and reduce download time and bandwidth/data consumption; and finally, easily monitor compliance so that you know that the crew has received, read, and understood the updates in order to operate safely.”

Overall, the responses were positive with one respondent confirming that, “The aviation industry will still exist post COVID so software that supports the industry will still be needed. We see a greater demand for systems that support paperless operations… and COVID will only accelerate that trend.” Another noted that, “Airlines seem to be coming out of the crisis with strong sustainability commitments.” which can only be positive. But we’ll conclude this section with what one respondent reminded us, “As someone smarter said, Aircraft will continue to fly, that’s what they are designed to do. They might be in different structures (airlines) but they will surely continue to fly. So, solutions which help with optimizing operations — flight/maintenance — will continue to be relevant.

We don’t see this as something that reverses trends towards more data and analytics, on the contrary, data and analytics are now seen as something that could ‘save the world’.”

SECTION 3: WHAT WILL BE THE FUTURE FOR THE AVIATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR FOLLOWING THE COVID CRISIS? In this section, we wanted to discover some very practical ideas about what the future holds for aviation IT following the current crisis, yes, but also in broader terms. This is a fast moving, nimble and agile sector, so it is not unexpected that developers and vendors in the sector would be able to come up with some great and inciteful responses to this question. As with section one, the material relates to each responding vendor’s field of capability and so each was telling us about how they see the future in terms of their own product range.

As we’ve seen in the previous sections, a number of respondents made the distinction between getting through COVID-19, the adoption of technologies, solutions and processes that will address the issues that this pandemic has raised and the longer-term business imperatives.

Question 1: Will technology need to adapt to meet a new industry post-COVID?

Most of the comments here focused on that adaptability that typifies the sector but there were also some notes of realism. For instance, Bytron suggested, “It’s hard to say because the impact has been so widespread and has touched so many. We’ve already seen a clear need to use more online services and a shift towards technologies that can help reduce physical contact. Cash payments are seemingly becoming a thing of the distant past, so this may well result in more confidence around the world when it comes to using virtual solutions where once we would favor human contact.” Pointing also to the challenges, which cannot be ignored, DextraData (Logipad) added, “Voice interactive Interfaces [offer] a good opportunity. Current voice interactive solutions need an internet connectivity inside the cockpit. Unfortunately, most airlines do not have this option available today. On the other hand, experiences are missing, and users must change their familiar way of working, therefore it will take some time to establish interactive functions.”

Nvable summed up the responses, “Technology will place an increasingly important role in helping organizations operate flexibility, safely and whilst controlling their costs. Strategically this will remain important as fleets return to service and the world cautiously opens up. This may involve new monitoring of COVID-19 related data (such as passenger test statuses and staff test results) but will also involve the wider adoption of non-COVID related solutions that just improve processes because the priorities have shifted.”

Question 2: It is said that this era is an opportunity to accelerate digital transformations rather than slow them down. Do you share that sentiment?

There was more or less unanimity in the answers to this question: all shared the sentiment to one degree or another. Variations were more in the senses of how the outcomes might be distributed and timing, ranging from, for instance, Conduce, suggesting, “There will be no overall effect, some well-funded Airlines will take the opportunity to invest in new systems, whereas many airlines that operate ‘hand to mouth’ will cutback and may cease to trade, but overall the

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global airline digital transformation will continue.” to Lufthansa Systems’, “Absolutely…there is no better time to make use of data and automation. Most airlines face a reduction in workforce and will need to adapt to working smarter with less.” In a similar vein and putting the emphasis on passengers, AVTECH suggested, “… Changed passenger requirements will increase the demand for new solutions to increase efficiency, safety and comfort.” while Honeywell added, “... Data and analytics are as important as medical innovations to keep passengers move to their destinations in a safe and sustainable way.” Looking to the business consequences of COVID-19, Smart4Aviation offered a note of realism in answer to the question, “There is always a cost factor to digital transformations and despite the support measures from governments, the first priority of our clients will be to get back to business as usual. In parallel there may be room for digital transformations but if that gets priority is really the question now.” And, in yet another slight variation of emphasis, StorkJet looked at the drivers of digital transformation, “As new technology appeared like fast servers, on-board internet connection, artificial intelligence and EFB, this built business opportunity to create solutions that can optimize operations in real time. There is huge area for improvement and that’s where StorkJet puts the main focus in R&D projects.” But, notwithstanding the different emphases, the overall conclusion was positive, reflected in the response from Trustflight, “… If anything, current circumstances have forced the change for both operators and also the regulator. Operators have learnt how to adopt new technologies and systems quickly, and regulators have learnt how to incorporate regulatory changes to support this (e.g. FAA remote aircraft inspections). There will also be a push for organizations to adopt digital transformations where they can benefit from measurable cost savings.” AFSys took a pragmatic view, “[We] firmly believe this because it will be a necessity rather than a desire, since the digital transformation of airline organizations is a means of reducing costs.” Comply365 offered a neat summarization, “As corporate offices reconsider the need for physical presence in the office, and a new population of employees has proven their ability to perform effectively from ‘home,’ the need for digital transformation will expand. Old school set-ups, such as paper files in a cabinet, are no longer practical.”

Question 3: We are all operating in a somewhat virtual world today.

The consensus is that some of this is here to stay. What would you say are the virtual tools in your software or processes and do you think these will be more widely used once the industry emerges from the crisis?

While the tools themselves varied from vendor to vendor, there was again a reasonably, positive consensus around the likelihood of their continued and wider use once the industry emerges from the crisis. Most seem to feel that,

“While the tools themselves varied from vendor to vendor, there was again a reasonably, positive consensus around the likelihood of their continued and wider use once the industry emerges from the crisis.” while the pandemic might have delayed it, there was already a movement in the direction of using more virtual tools. The response from eTT Aviation offered clarity, “Virtual meetings are ubiquitous now with everyone becoming Zoom, GoToMeeting, and WebEx experts. These tools are not as good as face to face meetings in many cases. However, for some cases they are just as effective such as for tech support and training delivery. That is where I see that it is here to stay.” Others, like Nvable, extended the response to embrace their own business model, “We made the shift to primarily provide remote support and all the associated technologies some time ago. This happens to be in line with our strategy to provide self-serve solutions. More broadly it makes sense in a world whether businesses expect to ‘just use’ software and do not particularly want the introduction costs of ‘consultancy’ (in whatever form). We have long believed that the industry should adopt virtual technologies and, yes, we believe recent events will sharpen the focus on those.” Ultramain made a similar point, “We agree with the general consensus. Virtual tools provided and used in our software start with the fact our software is fully paperless allowing individuals to record and share data in real time. With respect to implementing our software, we have shifted to providing more implementation support remotely using collaboration tools, video training, and cutover support. In fact, we recently saw our first implementation go-live with no onsite support by our staff. It was all provided remotely.” Taking a slightly different approach in keeping with how they view their own business, Safety Line explained, “We believe we will still need to support our customers in their time zones and have therefore opened an OptiFlight customer support office in Asia. Increased use of virtual tools will however facilitate the integration of remote staff with the global team.” Looking to the future, Web Manuals added, “Collaboration between technology companies is here to stay, and gone are the days where a solution would be cobbled together across several different platforms offering slightly different things. At Web Manuals, we have partnered with many digital document and template providers to ensure that compliance managers can access all the documentation and manuals they need in one place.”

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

Question 4: Do you believe that there will now be faster adoption of paperless, e-signatures, and other digital methods for execution?

Screenshot from DextraData (Logipad)

One advantage we have at AircraftIT is that we see trends through the articles that vendors contribute to the publication.

Paperless processes, e-signatures and digital executions have been increasingly important elements in those articles in the past few of years but, of course, not everybody has yet adopted them. Now, with the need to minimize physical contacts or shared materials (paper), this question becomes very pertinent.

That change of imperative was very much reflected in DextraData’s response, “… because contactless working will become more important especially in the next months and even years. Before COVID-19, digital tools

“…we have seen this with our current customers, where they sped up the implementation of remote dispatch with our mobile applications, which meant that crew no longer needed to visit the crew room for preflight duties.” were often ‘nice to have’ instead of necessary. With the current situation things look different and the focus is very much on the digitalization of business processes.

This will certainly bring a digital boost. With Logipad, we already offer a paperless solution that integrates features such as e-signature and face-recognition and are happy that we can support our customers in digitizing their processes and business.”

Nvable’s response took a similar but slightly different line, “The adoption of the digital approaches had long been acceptable — and we have found that in virtually every region when we have discussed such solutions with aviation authorities.

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AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

other times from the airline itself. As more airlines adopt these approaches and see the benefits of making the transition it is inevitable that adoption will more rapid.”

Looking more closely at specific processes, Smart4Aviation shared this, “In some areas we have seen this with our current customers, where they sped up the implementation of remote dispatch with our mobile applications, which meant that crew no longer needed to visit the crew room for preflight duties. Instead they could go directly to the aircraft as the required documents were uploaded on their device.” And others related the answer to the current situation, like eTT Aviation, “Perhaps. We think most air operators want to go paperless or at least paper-less.

The fact that much of their workforce is working from home is undoubtedly moving them towards less paper and more e-signoff solutions.”

Question 5: Do you believe that business analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools will become more pressing and prevalent?

This was interesting inasmuch as, although all respondents were positive about the answer, their positivity came from different places and was about different outcomes. There was no doubt where Lufthansa Systems was coming from on this one. “Absolutely. Data from the past cannot necessarily be relied upon in the post-COVID world. Machine learning and AI will play a big part in re-defining the

data used to make customer experience and operational decisions.” Honeywell approached the answer from a slightly different but equally valid perspective, “Staff levels will be reduced at Airlines, so operations will need to rely on less manual work and more automation across the board.” Taking yet a different but, again, equally valid tack and also agreeing with the premise in the question, Ultramain suggested, “Yes, as these technologies become more mature and available.” Safety Line took a quite opportunistic approach in answering this question, “As hardware evolutions may be slowed down due to the crisis, machine learning and AI will be the fastest way to achieve disruptive technology advances.” AFSys summed up the practical aspect of this question, “Regarding the solution we offer, without a doubt. They are necessary tools for analysis, detection of possibilities for improvement and optimization of resources.” As we said, all were positive but in different ways.

Question 6: Please share with us any additional thoughts on the post-COVID aviation technology landscape and how your solutions can assist your customers and future customers.

As in section 2, this question was a catch-all, blue sky invitation. Some respondents broadened the topic out to the wider sector whose economic outcomes will, of course, have a significant impact on aviation IT. “Conduce

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The new standard in digitizing manuals Web Manuals is an easy-to-use document editing application for fast authoring of company manuals with automated revision control, compliance monitoring, distribution and full audit trail.

The Web Manuals application empowers managers, auditors and authorities in the online review and approval process.

CONTROL

COMPLIANCE

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 46

AGILITY

EFFICIENCY

AIRCRAFT IT 2020 SURVEY: COVID-19 AND THE RESPONSE OF AVIATION IT DEVELOPERS AND VENDORS

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“One of the astonishing things about this survey was just how much vendors had already clearly been considering the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact and its aftermath, and how willing they were to share that thinking with our readers.”

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expect that the airline market will substantially shrink, maybe by 50% in the next 2 years. In the Airline world it will be a case of ‘Survival of the fittest’ and only the strongest players will get through this. “The most efficient airlines with effective electronic systems such as ELB in place are more likely to succeed.” Was a typical response. Others were bullishly opportunistic about grasping the future, “StorkJet plans to take advantage of COVID and put focus on R&D in area of fuel efficiency solutions. What we see is missing on the market now is the lack of information about precise saving potential and indication of fuel penalty that comes from non-compliant flights. Thanks to using machine learning models the results will reflect real airline operations.” AVTECH was a respondent who emphasized the contribution technology could make in the post-COVID era, “Increased passenger demands on airlines for efficiency, safety comfort and timeliness. Airlines need to improve their decision support through available technology solutions to meet the demands of passengers. In this challenging time where the airlines may not be able to make excessive investments, our solutions are particularly interesting as they provide state of the art information and decision support without requiring investments. AVTECH solutions can be part of an airlines strategy to recover from the crisis and to develop into the future.”

SUMMARY

One of the astonishing things about this survey was just how much vendors had already clearly been considering the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact and its aftermath, and how willing they were to share that thinking with our readers. Even within the very large space we have allocated for this survey, we have still had to exercise some editorial control but we believe that the information used has been representative of most or all streams of opinion on each subject. It has reminded us, as if we needed reminding, what a far seeing, innovative and resourceful sector it is in which we work.

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

An EFB Case Study from SriLankan Airlines Capt. Tharindu Palihawadana, Technical Pilot, SriLankan Airlines shares the experience of digital transformation to EFB as a standard Operations tool

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

A

s this article will be about SriLankan Airlines, it might be useful to first share with readers a brief profile of the business. SriLankan is a small airline with an all-Airbus fleet of 26 aircraft. There are 330 pilots and all Captains are mixed fleet, as are about half of the first officers, i.e. able to fly either of the main aircraft types on the fleet: there are also some 1,100 cabin crew. The route network (figure 1) connects with South India using the narrow-body fleet, and to Asia and the rest of the world using the widebody fleet.

OUR FLEET 26 Aircraft

x4

OUR CREW

x2

x6

x4

x8

x2

OUR ROUTE NETWORK

330- Pilots 1100- Cabin Crew

THE EFB PROGRAM

Being a planet-friendly airline, transitioning into EFB was not so hard because we started very early, with SriLankan’s EFB journey having commenced in 2012 when we were the first airline in Asia to use an electronic flight bag.

37 Destinations / 20 Countries

2012

Our regulatory body was also very supportive of this move. As far as the business case was concerned, at the time in question, we had placed some aircraft orders on which we planned to use mixed fleet capable pilots. The new aircraft were delivered with all the necessary electronics to support EFB which meant that the transition would only be a small matter with all the aircraft fitted with EFB devices.

EVOLUTION OF EFB -2012

• Phase 1 : Introduction

Figure 1

Sri Lanka was designated ‘the best country to visit in 2019’ by Lonely Planet and SriLankan Airlines is a proudly planet-friendly business with that philosophy at the core of the airline. We have been identified as one of the most conservation minded airlines in the world with initiatives such as banning illegal wildlife transport from our network and promoting eco-tourism.

• Asia’s 1st Airline to use EFB flight bag.

• Achievement

• Reduction of 84 Kgs of Paper Manuals onboard.

“At the beginning, we started with Fly Smart EFB from Airbus and Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro. When phase 2 started in 2015, we had, by then, implemented Lido Flight 4D, the flight planning solution from Lufthansa Systems…”

Figure 2

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

This was one of the major drivers of the program plus, of course, the drive to eliminate from the flight deck 84 Kgs (figure 2) in paper manuals which, over a number of flights, would also generate a massive saving of fuel.

2015

2019

The next phase was in 2019, when we migrated our Flight Management System (FMS) to Lido mPilot and Lido FMS Database, both from Lufthansa Systems (figure 4). The main reason behind this was our positive experience with Lido Flight 4D itself.

At the beginning, we started with Fly Smart EFB from Airbus and Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro. When phase 2 started in 2015, we had, by then, implemented Lido Flight 4D, the flight planning solution from Lufthansa Systems and we’ve used the PDF document package that could be put into a good reader and then we’ll only have the flight plan in paper format (figure 3).

EVOLUTION OF EFB -2019 • Phase 3 : Business Process Optimization • Migrated to Lido mPilot + Lido FMS. • Seamless integration with Lido FMS + Lido Flight 4D + Lido mPilot.

• FlySmart eQRH implemented.

• FlySmart inflight implemented.

EVOLUTION OF EFB - 2015

• Phase 2 : Integration

• Switched to Lido flight planning system : Lido Flight 4D • Adapted Lido PDF flight plan package out of CMB. • Achievement : • Process Integration

Figure 4

Figure 3

The achievement was more the process integration with the EFB which resulted in getting a lot more work with Fly Smart, the Charting and, of course, with the flight plan in PDF format.

“…the charts had been developed for a more airline oriented platform, significantly reducing heads-down time with the chart and content organization, and we were very impressed with that.”

Throughout the three years when we were implementing the EFB solution, we already had Lido Flight implemented; we had already experienced good service support from Lufthansa Systems, which is part of an Airline group itself and due to its long-term experience in the aviation industry thinks like an airline. Thanks to Lufthansa Systems’ many years of experience within an airline group, the company was able to keep its finger on the pulse of aviation and acquire extensive technical expertise. We also had a lot of support from training which has given us a very good impression of the product itself. So, when it was time to renew our charting, we had a very positive look at Lido mPilot and what we saw was, being part of the technical evolution team , that the charts had been developed for a more airline oriented platform, significantly reducing headsdown time with the chart and content organization, and we were very impressed with that. A small example that I have used was the number of charts for a pilot to select arrival from, especially when flying into the East such as to China when the arrivals tend to change a lot and we have to select between about eight or nine charts in general to search through the applicable arrival. In Lido, it was organized in a way that kept it all in four charts and it could be clearly seen that these charts were made for FMS flying aircraft.

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Because of these numerous advantages, we decided to switch to Lido mPilot. Of course, we also saw the synergies between Lido mPilot, Lido Flight 4D and Lido FMS and as a result, we assigned Lufthansa Systems the task of its integration. And we had eQRH, an EFB application that enables users to display and to manage the Airbus QRH (Checklists, Procedures, and Operational Data), implemented as well as in-flight performance which was also implemented; it’s on trial at the moment which, when complete, will let us complete our implementation.

IMPLEMENTATION

Going into a little more detail about the Lido Flight 4D implementation; the Lido Flight Planning Service (Lido FPLS) went live in Q4 2011 for all long-haul departures. After building our confidence, we moved to the complete Lido Flight Planning System which went live in Q1 2014 covering all Flight Dispatch with the objective of achieving route optimization and compliance. Looking at the Lido FMS implementation, we started off with the A330 fleet before expanding it to cover the entire fleet. The objective, and what we achieved, was complete system integration which was an advantage because the data solutions came from the AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) to the database and then, from the database, the same data is provided to the flight planning system and also to the mPilot solutions: so there cannot be any discrepancies in these systems.

“We’ve now come a long way in making the EFB the standard for Operations at SriLankan Airlines and we can see that there will be a huge safety enhancement from this project with easy access to all the data using Flight Smart and the integration…”

EFB AS STANDARD FOR OPERATIONS

The Lido mPilot induction in which I was involved went live in Q1 2019. Of course, there was an initial resistance to change from the pilots but we had very rich training material which could be accessed on the iPads that the pilots were using with better support services to once again thank. As we’ve already noted, the new solution offers reduced heads-down time as a result of the better display of information on the Lido Charts.

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

We’ve now come a long way in making the EFB the standard for Operations at SriLankan Airlines and we can see that there will be a huge safety enhancement from this project with easy access to all the data using Flight Smart and the integration between, for example, MEL / CDL (Minimum Equipment List / Configuration Deviation List) and performance applications, the time it takes to select and the cross-integration between applications. What we now see is the importance and significance in sharing user experience. We are all aware about the fact, that strategic alliances and international collaboration are fundamentally important in the world of aviation. In the context of the Aviation Campus, Lufthansa Systems’ environment for digital innovation, we are able to exchange ideas and share knowledge. The opportunities to talk with other users in a common forum such as the Lido User Group conferences run by Lufthansa Systems were an informative occasion for users to talk about the challenges. We’re really thankful for these opportunities because that’s what helps everyone to fly their aircraft safely.

particular things are happening. For the future, we aim to implement Lido mBriefing, a tool to replace the paper flight plan, and we’d like to thank all the applications by the manufacturer, Airbus, giving us more rich content and training for the changes.

THE FUTURE FOR THE EFB

What we see for the future of the EFB is as an ultimate communication tool. We are planning to deploy a flight operations App to replace the conventional reports and we are also planning to deploy a flight operations magazine to give the pilots more inside information on how things are done and detail as to why

Figure 5

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CASE STUDY: SRILANKAN AIRLINES – APPROVED AND TRANSCRIBED PRIOR TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK

What we hope for the future is to convince our management to invest in the AIDS (Aircraft Integrated Data System) and then have further in-flight optimizations possible (figure 5) which is supported by Lido as Lido Total Mission Optimization where, for a flight plan after the flight has been dispatched, when the aircraft gets airborne, the data from the aircraft gets communicated to the flight planning system and the flight planning system re-calculates and communicates updated route information, optimized laterally and vertically, to re-plan the flight enroute and, of course, real-time updates.

I hope that this brief recap of our journey at SriLankan Airlines towards a wholly integrated flight operations based around the EFB, has proved useful to readers who might be considering a similar development in their own businesses.

KEEP UP WITH IT DEVELOPMENTS

CAPT. THARINDU PALIHAWADANA

Now the chief technical pilot for SriLankan Airlines, Capt. Tharindu Palihawadana joined SriLankan in 2007 as a cadet pilot and was promoted to Captain in 2014. He has also been serving as the airline’s technical pilot since 2016. Tharindu was part of the project team for the transition to the Lido mPilot system and also the EFB standard operations transition.

SRILANKAN AIRLINES

Launched in 1979, Sri Lanka’s National Carrier is an award winning airline with its hub is at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, providing convenient connections to its global route network of 109 destinations in 48 countries. SriLankan Airlines currently has an all-Airbus fleet of 26 aircraft including: A330 (long haul), and A320/A321 (including neo versions) aircraft (short haul and medium haul).

LUFTHANSA SYSTEMS

Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co. KG is a leading provider of consulting and IT services for the global aviation industry. Over 350 customers worldwide rely on the know-how of IT specialists at Lufthansa Systems. Its portfolio covers innovative IT products and services which provide added value in enhanced efficiency, reduced costs or increased profits. The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020 and, in addition to its headquarters in Raunheim near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, now has offices in 16 other countries.

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United Airlines adopted the EFB on iPad in 2011

EFB should stand for enhanced flight bag PART

1

In part 1, Sébastien Veigneau, dgBirds President and Air France A320 Captain, considers the history of EFB, the platforms it can use and how the solution will fit into the aviation sector AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 54

F

or many years, pilots have been bringing paper documents to the cockpit in hefty flight bags; then, in 2010, everything changed when the iPad was launched. Where, previously, ‘avionics’ had been the only IT permitted on board to assist pilots in performance of their duties, mobile IT, with its short development cycles, is now accepted. Rapid innovation can now enter cockpits with tablets hosting EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) applications that really should do much more than simply replace paper. Pilots don’t want just an Electronic version of the paper original: they’d rather have an ‘Enhanced Flight Bag’; fed from collaborative sources, with applications and functions harnessing the power of digital technology to enhance situational awareness before, during and after the flight. New levels of operational efficiency and safety will result from information sharing, collaborative algorithms and overall or individually gained experience. So what are these EFB solutions?

CUTTING A LONG STORY SHORT

The history of EFBs started well before 2010, but that year was pivotal in the development of this aid to efficiency. At that time, many major airlines had no EFB program and those that did have one had a very limited number of EFB functions.

Different EFB classes, functions and options

In 2010, EFB platforms were one of Class 3, Class 2 or Class 1 EFBs and some that qualified as ‘Class 1½’ EFBs, depending on how they were connected to the aircraft. To make it simple, Class 3 EFBs used aircraft integrated platforms (not removable in normal service), Class 2 EFBs used platforms plugged in to the aircraft to get electrical power and/or data, and Class 1 EFBs used platforms not connected to the aircraft. EFB platforms were laptops, stylus-operated portable computers or early tablets. Functions included documents, browsers, charting solutions and take-off performance calculations. The business case was simple:

“The history of EFBs started well before 2010, but that year was pivotal in the development of this aid to efficiency. At that time, many major airlines had no EFB program and those having one had a very limited number of EFB functions.” paperless, paperless and paperless. We should add that, for take-off performance calculations, the business case was driven by engine maintenance costs reduction, thanks to a very accurate computation of the reduced thrust needed to take-off.

However, Class 3 EFBs were not always user friendly or up-to-date in terms of processor performance; and the cost of Class 2 EFB installation was not easy to justify to management. Class 1 EFBs were simply not that sexy. They were tablets or off-the-shelf laptops, customized to support EFBs: even touch screen wasn’t standard. In short, EFBs were introduced with an initial range of functions that mainly replaced some paper processes with equivalent software solutions on electronic platforms, which remained the case until the iPad was launched in 2010.

2010, THE PIVOTAL YEAR

When the iPad was launched in early 2010, something changed, notwithstanding that the device was not dedicated to any specific business purpose and even less so for aeronautics.

Cockpits welcome Mobile IT

Suddenly, mobile IT with its short development cycles was welcome in the cockpit because, as AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 55

platform for an EFB, this brand new tablet offered far more advantages than restrictions. However, many stakeholders in our very conservative industry struggled to see such an innovation as the ‘good idea of the decade’; except, that is, for final users, the pilots. Mobile computing has always been associated with the guarantee of a very good user experience but Apple has made it a central point without variation, which distinguished the iPad from previous tablets. In the closed world of the cockpit, ergonomic considerations have always been at the heart of any improvement to the pilot’s working environment, but the concept of user experience had not yet become a strong consideration. That’s why it took only a few months for the iPad to find its place in the cockpit.

User experience first

People who were skeptical about the iPad argued that the tablet was too small, too fragile, too bright in a dark environment, not manageable, not connectable to the plane… even too beautiful for pilots: although they bought the devices for their children at Christmas. However, proponents of iPads saw only advantages: removal of paper and its associated weight on the aircraft, ease of use, a high-quality screen with better readability than a larger traditional laptop screen, exceptional touch interface, incredible autonomy, ease of installation for new applications, ease of content distribution, etc. In short, it offered user experience first.

A wake-up call for the industry

It didn’t mean that Windows EFB platforms had to disappear from cockpits, but the feeling at that time was that the iPad was the new big challenger as an EFB platform. That was a wake-up call for Microsoft whose famous operating system was not, in 2010, ready to be touch-compatible. With the iPad in the cockpit, rapid innovation was possible… to digitize, eliminate paper, simplify update procedures, reduce weight or optimize the flight.

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IT OR MAINTENANCE SERVICES?

This new entrant in the EFB world also raised a subsidiary question to those who planned to deploy attached iPads in aircraft, i.e. devices remaining in the aircraft and not allocated to pilots to bring them on board. If the object is allocated to pilots, there is no doubt that it is a computer system whose maintenance is the responsibility of the Information Systems Department. But what happens if the iPad is attached to the aircraft? Can it be or should it be a part of the MRO program (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) without having a Part Number? In other words, who would ensure the updates of this consumer tablet and who would take over its maintenance?

The overwhelming majority of operators chose to distribute iPads to pilots, thus withdrawing all the issues of responsibility for updating. At the same time, operators were establishing the involvement of IT for the administration and maintenance processes of these tablets which played a role in terms of dispatch of the aircraft. On the other side of that, in 2010 maintenance departments had little incentive to get involved in the maintenance of a consumer tablet. And last but not least, the Apple ecosystem relying on the iOS (Operating System) was not ready to facilitate that.

SOFTWARE WAS THE KEY

The hardware to support rapid innovation in cockpits was found. But in 2010, the software for a consumer tablet used as an EFB had yet to be developed.

New game, new players

Airframe OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) rapidly started to develop EFB applications for the iPad, but they were not the only ones. During this exciting period, new players entered the EFB software market, all with more innovative ideas.

Effectively, the technological barrier to progress was gone.

Alaska Airlines adopted the EFB on iPad in 2011

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“…what happens if the iPad is attached to the aircraft?

Can it be or should it be a part of the MRO program (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) without having a Part Number? In other words, who would ensure the updates of this consumer tablet and who would take over its maintenance?”

The end-user at the heart of specifications

What was successful for consumer electronic tablets applications needed also to be successful for applications dedicated to professional pilots: placing end-users at the heart of the specification process and developing applications appropriate to their needs. In fact, applications on tablets deliver much more than a response to a user need, they deliver a user experience. This concept had not, so far, been at the heart of EFB solutions’ development.

Airlines were part of the game

Among the new players coming to shake up the EFB world, airlines having the IT capability and the ambition began to develop their own solutions as they were unable to find any off-the-shelf solution corresponding perfectly to their specific needs. However, while many companies were taking the leap of launching their EFB program using software solutions from the market, only a few were embarking on the adventure of developing their internal

solutions. For example, in 2011, Air France started the development of EFB applications on iPad to support pilots; and who could be better placed to understand the needs of its pilots than the airline itself? To do this, it was necessary to overcome a number of barriers, sometimes psychological ones, in order to make this major decision to involve IT on the EFB. The IT division, at that time, was mainly responsible for back-office systems, and the deployment of office solutions together with solutions for customers.

But now, it was about developing and maintaining solutions for operational staff, to be used in the critical and highly regulated cockpit environment.

The challenge was important.

New development methods

It was an opportunity to set up new Agile work methods which established a direct link between the business and software developers. For the first time, pilots were sitting around the same table as developers, but they were not the only ones. All the businesses or stakeholders involved in the development of the EFB solution were

contact@dgbirds.com

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“The project at Air France was successful because it achieved the dual objectives of providing pilots with a very good user experience in carrying out tasks related to their mission, and enabling the company to improve a number of indicators” empowers teams to optimize each release during developments.

A success story

physically grouped together in a single space to ensure the efficient development of a solution that perfectly met the needs of each business or stakeholder. The Agile method, used in software development, is a particular approach to project management. To assist teams in responding to the unpredictability of software development, it uses iterative work sequences that are commonly known

as sprints. After each sprint, the software is considered as deliverable.

The Agile method ensures that value is optimized throughout the development process. The use of continuous feedback ensures that teams can continuously align a delivered product with client needs.

That’s how the Agile method helps companies build the right product for purpose. Instead of trying to market software before it is written, it

The project at Air France was successful because it achieved the dual objectives of providing pilots with a very good user experience in carrying out tasks related to their mission, and enabling the company to improve a number of indicators. Air France pilots still access their documentation in a very intuitive way on iPad. They are notified of updates, can customize their documentation, or search efficiently for information from hundreds of documents available to them (operations manual, training booklets, safety information, flight safety, health, human resources…).

They can write flight safety reports, answer questionnaires, or retrieve and study their briefing package.

These same methods were then deployed for the creation of software supporting other businesses and to further advance that, in 2017, Air France created dgBirds, a subsidiary to pursue the development of innovative mobile solutions and market its know-how. It’s not so much about IT competencies,

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 58

because many startups know how to develop mobile solutions: it’s a question of being able to express a general need for the aeronautical industry and to make it a reality through a solution. And for an EFB solution, that’s simpler when the developer is close to an airline.

REGULATION: FOLLOWING OR LEADING?

It took aviation regulatory authorities some time to take stock of the revolution that was going on in the cockpits. They wondered whether it was a fashion phenomenon or a lasting trend, so it took a few years for regulations to adapt to these innovations. Also, it was not easy because the development cycles of software solutions are much faster than those of aircraft developments in general, and for cockpits and avionics… especially in commercial aviation. Moreover, it could be said that regulation must follow technological developments or, better still, anticipate them. Eight years after the release of the iPad, the European and American authorities launched the necessary processes to stay ahead of technological developments. In doing

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so, they no longer want to be seen as a brake against innovation, but still to be maintaining their major role as guarantors of flight safety.

STANDARDIZATION

EFB standards were not designed for consumer tablets. The history of EFBs started well before 2010 and the industry has over the years developed a number of standards among which ARINC 429 (Digital Information Transfer System), ARINC 618 (Air/ Ground character-oriented protocol), ARINC 619 (ACARS), ARINC 620 (Datalink) ARINC 633 (Electronic Flight Folder), etc. The overall goal was to define communication protocols between applications and aircraft or ground systems. Some standards were dedicated to EFBs in order to better integrate this new domain, into cockpits. For instance, the ARINC 840 is an application control interface standard for EFBs, while the ARINC 828 is about the standard interface of an EFB. But after 2010 and the iPad, everything that had gone before was up to be questioned. The standards now had little or no implication. While they were there to facilitate innovation by allowing a better integration of hardware and software EFBs together, in the tablet era they would more like be considered as brakes.

Specific standards for consumer tablets used as EFBs are not yet ready but it is not really a brake. The first EFB applications on consumer tablets were based on IT standards. The EFB world standards were not needed. This will be

necessary when developments will make these applications communicate with each other or with aircraft systems.

Part 2 will cover what pilots might want from an EFB and how that can be delivered within the regulatory environment.

SÉBASTIEN VEIGNEAU

After teaching computer science and as a TRI while flying A320 and B777, Sébastien is now flying the A320 as Captain at Air France.

With a PhD in Computer Science and his Air Transport Pilot License, he developed software solutions before introducing the iPad for Air France pilots in 2012. As an EFB expert, he participated to the EASA RMT 601/602. In 2017, he co-created and became President of dgBirds, an AF subsidiary.

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DGBIRDS

dgBirds is a vibrant company based on many years of experience in designing mobile solutions for professional pilots. In 2010, Air France chose the iPad as an Electronic Flight Bag for its pilots and developed some apps to support their mission. dgBirds was launched in 2017 as a subsidiary of Air France to build on this successful solution used by 4000 pilots.

The business is committed to developing and marketing software solutions for any mobile business.

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Will Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) usher in a new way of working?

PART

1

Viewed from the airline perspective, Michael Bryan, founding Principal and Managing Director of Closed Loop Consulting, explains how Trajectory Based Operations, has the power to change the industry if we have the foresight to grasp the opportunity and learn from the past AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 60

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D

escribed as paradigm-changing, Digital Data came to prominence in the mid-1980s. It promised a lot, but after three decades the result is fragmented and proprietary and has yet to deliver much. The EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) journey began not much later as the phoenix from the ashes of the ELS (Electronic Library System). EFB was supposed to change the way pilots did just about everything. Unfortunately, its name became its focus, and except for a couple of recently planned, but as yet widely unimplemented innovations, it hasn’t achieved much more than automation of the status quo. The vast savings that were trumpeted to be achieved on its back have also been disappointing so far.

Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) drives real change in the way airlines operate and do business. However, unlike Digital Data, the EFB and other ‘paradigm-changing’ industry initiatives, the industry does not have 30 years to do it, and it needs to get it pretty much right out of the box. That said, Digital Data, EFB and connectivity will be essential components of the TBO system, making the handwringing and nit-picking about the business cases irrelevant, because both will be fundamental to TBO outcomes, and TBO will be crucial to the ability to operate.

While having technology-based enablers, TBO is not a technology-driven system; nevertheless, it will require wholesale system change that will likely test the strategic, operational and project execution capability of most airlines. TBO is a big challenge, so we have to ask; can an industry so successful at making simple things difficult even contemplate something as significant as TBO, or do we have to break the way we’ve been doing things for years and find a different path?

While this article was penned before the world shut because of COVID-19, it remains just as relevant because, while the industry growth trajectory has taken a big hit, most industry analysts project that it will return to pre-COVID levels within two to three years. Even if it does take a bit longer and growth is not as rapid as forecast only a matter of months ago, the critical issues TBO is designed to address were quite apparent right up until the virus arrived.

Moving on, this article will turn on visioneering, looking at a possible future for the industry, and contrasting the seriousness of some of the predicaments facing it.

There are a few definitions for visioneering, and the industry must decide which one it wants to be known for. Looking at how things have been done in the past, the Urban Dictionary seems to reflect the industry best. It describes visioneering as ‘A buzzword used to make useless pamphlets (info) seem extremely sophisticated and important.’ Does that definition describe our collective approach to the development of eEnablement, connectivity, digital data, blockchain and EFB plus a few other big, multi-letter acronym-based programs? We think it does.

in the industry is notable. We’ve been involved in a few things over our time together (Figure 1), and our collective capability gives us valuable insight into how the industry has developed and, we think, some liberty to discuss how it might develop into the future.

Niche, Global, Aviation Consultancy 125 years collective operational domain experience

Flight Operations Flight Operations Systems Strategic Planning Flight Training Systems

Project Management Supply Data Integration and Analysis

FOQA SMS LOSA

IATA Weather & Turbulence Project

Figure 1

Can Science Fiction Save the Industry?

Figure 2

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Compliance Systems Compliance Management Regulatory Content Management HTML 5 CMS XML

Flight Safety Systems

CLOSED LOOP

To set some context, Closed Loop is a global group of aviation specialists who have been working together for just over a decade and our combined experience

EFB

Dispatch & Ops Control

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Figure 3

To illustrate the point further, think of a possible journey scenario for a soon-tobe typical trip, and as you read, think about how ‘futuristic’ this journey really is.

THE AIRPORT PERSPECTIVE

Unlike most taxis, the all-electric urban air transport vehicle arrives on time and is brimming with the latest technology and security gadgets and, of course, it’s connected. During the journey to the airport, facial recognition cameras scan and compare passport details; frequent flyer information from the credit card that paid for the trip are also captured; baggage and personal weights have been determined as a result of the energy required to get airborne. The baggage compartment has scanned and ‘sniffed’ the luggage and a precise ETA for arrival has been sent to the airport and airline ops department.

When we first tried to fly, people thought we were crazy. Today, we’d be accused of talking science fiction. Yet, many of the most exciting technical inventions have a genesis in science fiction. Some might dismiss such vision by arguing that a retrospective look will always turn up coincidental ideas, but we think there’s more to it. Science fiction is not constrained by the present, or by technology that currently exists. Technology that initially seems fanciful looks more realistic over time and comes into existence, rapidly becoming economically viable and ending up in the hands of consumers.

Next time you flip open your phone, converse through your watch or take advantage of the latest in Uber transport, ask yourself this: ‘Where did the latest fad or newest tech really have its genesis?’

The Airport perspective… delivering the customer to the gate as efficiently as possible, and on time…

Figure 4

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The data sent to the airport Operations Centre will be used by the airport and circulated to other users, including the airline, with more layers of information, intelligence and usefulness added as the data moves from one user to the next.

Seamless data exchange is universal; the transaction providing travel details to the check-ins so that one can go straight from the landing zone to airside and miss the big queue of people (Figure 5).

“The high degree of confidence provided by actual weight & balance information, among other things, reduces discretionary ‘Captain’s fuel’ and fine-tunes other fuel requirements and reserves to further improve efficiency and reduce emissions and additional associated costs.”

Airports are doing this exceptionally well and are charging airlines more and more for the amenity. Where the system is let down is with what happens to the journey after one gets to the gate.

THE OPERATIONS PERSPECTIVE

Looking from the airline Operations perspective, carving efficiencies similar to those achieved at the airport isn’t so easy (Figure 6).

The Operations Perspective?

Figure 5

Passport data is sent to customs to speed clearance using facial recognition and other biometrics, eliminating more queuing and form filling. ‘Frequent flyer’ details are forwarded to the catering department and the cabin crew to ensure preferences are met on the flight. Oh, and the cabin crew team have also been given details of who they can happily anticipate being on the plane. Baggage and personal weight are used by airline dispatch to fine-tune the trajectory capability for planning and fuel needs for the flight. The high degree of confidence provided by actual weight & balance information, among other things, reduces discretionary ‘Captain’s fuel’ and fine-tunes other fuel requirements and reserves to further improve efficiency and reduce emissions and additional associated costs. The ETA at the airport is used by the airline and the airport along with IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, facial recognition camera systems, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and past practice — just like Google and Facebook — to estimate and track progress through the airport to the departure gate, ensuring an on-time departure. This ‘intelligent data exchange’ satisfies the airport perspective of getting people to the gate for an on-time departure and fleecing as much as possible from them at retail outlets along the way.

Figure 6

They’ve got to be aware of, and coordinate what everyone else is doing, where they’re going and when. The task is epic. Ops must coordinate the departure of one particular flight within the context of other customers for that flight, and

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customers for different flights; organise the most optimal arrangements and timing for ground handling teams, the baggage flow system, the cleaning teams, fuelling and other ground equipment, as well as coordinate movements among all their other aircraft and those of every other airline using the airport and demanding its resources. They have to feed in weather factors not just for the airport but for the whole route. The collaboration, analysis and coordination necessary to build the entire operational picture for a single flight is significant and becoming more problematic with time because of growing congestion at airports, and in the air. That all of this is done with the success and general precision achieved today should generate a sense of pride for our operations, airport, ground and dispatch teams.

All this came together on the day. The flight plan reflected the most efficient route and altitude profile and took weather on the flight path into account. There are no intermediate level-offs on departure, interrupted descents or holding into the destination. Conflicting traffic and weather deviation is coordinated for the entire sector and reflected in the ‘trajectory clearance’ — before the flight leaves the gate. Amazing!

All that had to happen to achieve this fantastic result, that the flight departed on time, to the second.

THE ACTORS

Let’s look at the different actors that have to work together to achieve it (Figure 8).

The Actors

•Planning •Dispatch •Ops

Figure 8

•Planning

• Equipment • Tail

The Actors

• Schedule • Statistical Weather • Fuel Budget • Overflight • Slots/Gates/Bilateral Agreements • Alternates • Right and available Crew • Accommodation & Transport

Figure 7

Figure 9

When was the last time you were on a flight that was airborne within the second, let alone, seconds of its schedule?

To achieve a departure to the second, planning work that includes all the moving pieces has to begin a long way out, years, in fact (Figure 9).

“…all the external pieces must fit, just right and just in time. Are crews where they need to be; qualified and current?

What’s the meteorological situation; how accurate are the forecasts used to generate the flight plan? What about environmental responsibilities?”

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•Dispatch

• Performance

The Actors

• • • • •

Flight No. Route Efficiency Flight No. Fuel Optimisation Route and Terminal Weather Volcanos Flight No. Maintenance State

• Flight Following • GADDS • Journey Log / Flight Plan Analysis Figure 10

On the day, we expect highly efficient flight outcomes from even more moving targets, and then we assume that efficiencies just keep getting better — as if by magic. But look at the various touchpoints and then consider them in the context of all the other airlines trying to get their aeroplanes airborne… to the second (Figure 10).

•Ops (NOC)

Credit: Avel Chuklanov

• Network Ops

The Actors

• Disruption Management • Connection Management

• Airport Ops

• Gate Allocation • Servicing • Check-In and Boarding

Figure 11

As departure time approaches, there is another hive of activity going on to ensure all the people are assembled at the gate and, at the same time, all the equipment and processes necessary to get the aeroplane ready are lined up and

waiting for their turn (Figure 11). Then, all the external pieces must fit, just right and just in time. Are crews where they need to be; qualified and current? What’s the meteorological situation; how accurate are the forecasts used to generate the flight plan? What about environmental responsibilities?

“The collaboration, analysis and coordination necessary to build the entire operational picture for a single flight is significant and becoming more problematic with time because of growing congestion at airports, and in the air. ”

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45 40 35

10 Bn Pax

30 25 20 15 10

Managing the Silos • To the airline • Into the Operation • Coordinated with our competitors • With an eye on the environment

Figure 12

And then, like the separation between the airline and the airport is the line between the airline and Air Traffic Control (ATC). It’s no wonder the industry is often referred to as ‘siloed’ and it’s no mean feat that it works at all. We work well with what we’ve got, but what we’ve also got is growing inefficiency and growing costs propelled by increasing congestion. And all the while the bosses want even more, for less.

PLAUDITS AND CHALLENGES

It’s a testament to the industry that it’s been able to absorb the growth that it has. It took forty-one years for the modern aviation industry to carry its first billion passengers. The second billion took half that time, even taking account of the aftermath of 2001. It took less than half that time again to achieve three billion, and even with SARS, we carried the fourth billion over just the next five years (Figure 13).

71 Yr

5

• Through the Airport

0

1 Bn

2 Bn

3 Bn

4 Bn

Figure 13

It took 71 years for the industry to carry its first ten billion people, a fantastic achievement by any measure.

More recently, the aviation industry carried over four billion in 2017 alone and growth was on a trajectory to double within the next 17 years, give or take, even at the lower end of industry growth forecasts. That’s about the population of the world, carried every year and growing.

If projections are accurate, depending on which ones you look at and notwithstanding the timing of the recovery from the back-step caused by COVID-19, the second ten billion will be achieved somewhere in the early 2030s celebrating the second ten billion passengers in about half the time it took for the first. Even if it’s a bit longer now, the question is, how is that going to work given the congestion, slots, delays and bottlenecks we already had right before the virus?

Irrespective of which pre- and post-COVID-19 forecast you subscribe to, at these

“…the industry is often referred to as ‘siloed’ and it’s no mean feat that it works at all. We work well with what we’ve got, but what we’ve also got is growing inefficiency and growing costs propelled by increasing congestion.”

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numbers, there’s little practical difference in what it means to the industry. These numbers are the endpoints of the latest forecasting, but it’s not as if it’s going to stop there — or sneak up and suddenly appear overnight. It begs the question, where are we going to put all the people and all the aeroplanes? We have to start changing our way of doing business right now- irrespective of COVID-19.

What we do now has reached the limits of its capability and effectiveness. To keep things moving, let alone growing, we need to take a good hard look at how we do things.

It is pragmatic to expose the industry, including its supra-national bodies like ICAO and IATA (by its own admission), and the airlines within it, as a (generally) loose collection of silos. It’s no longer funny to hear the analogy. We need to break these down and start coordinating and collaborating with our suppliers (airports, ANSPs, Border Control, Bio Security Departments, pre- and next segment journey providers like trains and taxis, etc.) and competitors to keep stuff moving as efficiently as possible. There is no choice: things will have to be different.

In part 2 Michael will look at Trajectory Based Operations, the technologies that accompany it and it could work.

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MICHAEL BRYAN

Michael has enjoyed an Aviation Career spanning over 45 years. Recently retired from an A380 Command with a major carrier, Michael holds a Master of Aviation Management, a business degree in strategic planning and is a certified PRINCE2™ practitioner. He has experience in Airline, Corporate and General Aviation operations including training, system development, project and management positions. Michael’s management experience has included Strategic Planning and operational system development and Project Management across all industry segments. He is the founding Principal and Managing Director of Closed Loop Consulting.

CLOSED LOOP

Closed Loop is a global team of aviation professionals supporting industry and airline management, and their people, to deliver strategically crucial, business-driven, financially sustainable and assured transformation outcomes. The business specialises in assisting airlines and other stakeholders to manage and deliver the coming wave of industry change and to integrate that with airline strategic and efficiency program portfolios; providing support, guidance or direction through all levels of the airline — from the Board to the tarmac and into the aircraft.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations: VENDOR FLIGHT LOG

VENDOR FLIGHT LOG: AVIOBOOK

Frederic Dru, CEO, AvioBook explains how AvioBook meets users’ needs with a user-friendly interface for very sophisticated products Prior to being appointed Chief Executive Officer of AVIOBOOK in January 2020, Frederic Dru joined the company in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer after an extensive track record of Aviation Senior Management positions in Thales. Frederic worked in different roles such as program management, engineering and customer support, and in different business lines such as In-Flight Entertainment, Helicopter Avionics and Digital Aviation. Frederic holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from both a French and a Canadian university.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business?

Frederic Dru: Frederic Dru, CEO, AvioBook Aircraft IT: How did AvioBook get started?

Frederic Dru: AvioBook was founded in 2010 with the ambition to offer intuitive and integrated software to increase operational efficiency and enhance the operational decision making of airline pilots, by allowing easier access to up-to-date, relevant operational information, and accurate real-time mission data. Over the next several years, we have extended both our product portfolio, to address different stakeholders within the airlines (dispatchers, maintenance engineers, cabin crew, etc.), and our customer base, to more than 240 customers worldwide at the beginning of 2020.

Aircraft IT: What is the attraction of aircraft-related software?

FD: Aviation has always been one of the most fascinating industries, because it is powered by passion. The complexity and diversity of airline operations, together with the necessity for performance, makes it the perfect ecosystem for the most innovative yet reliable solutions to emerge. For an IT professional, this represents an amazing field for innovation and creativity, in the areas of both business and technology, to disrupt airlines’ operations.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives AvioBook?

FD: I would highlight two key business principles. First, since day one, AvioBook has been very focused on end-users, carefully listening to their propositions and feedback. We have been as well very open and transparent on the ideas we

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations: VENDOR FLIGHT LOG

“How to manage complexity is our daily concern, certainly not the one of our customers. This has become a reality thanks to our three-tiered product architecture, with customer specific integrations developed and maintained separately from our core product.” would consider or not, and on the reasons for our decisions. Second, we always encourage innovation.

Our ambition is to build the future of flying, by integrating different types of assets (software, hardware, data, services…) to continue inventing the next generation of solutions to the benefit of our customers.

Aircraft IT: What has been AvioBook’s greatest technical achievement to date, and why?

FD: Our greatest achievement has been to successfully hide the complexity of our products behind an extremely intuitive and user-friendly user interface. How to manage complexity is our daily concern, certainly not the one of our customers. This has become a reality thanks to our three-tiered product architecture, with customer specific integrations developed and maintained separately from our core product.

Aircraft IT: What has been AvioBook’s greatest business achievement to date, and why?

FD: I think our greatest achievement was to successfully transform a start-up company into a leader in the integrated EFB market, and now helping major airlines worldwide to achieve their operational objectives.

Aircraft IT: What have been AvioBook’s

disappointments and what have you learned from them?

FD: We work in an industry that has very long cycles.

Transforming this industry can sometimes be difficult and create frustration when not being capable of conducting the change faster. This fact forced us to listen even more to our customers to understand the inner reasons, to work with them on more realistic and phased approaches, prioritizing low hanging fruits bringing immediate value; and to follow them in the long term, developing a close relationship.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what AvioBook does for aviation customers?

FD: We are enhancing efficiency and safety of our customers operations, by optimizing their end-to-end workflows, integrating their flight decks within their IT back-end systems securely.

Aircraft IT: What is new on AvioBook’s development horizon?

FD: We have launched the development of AvioCast, an all-in-one, non-installed QAR/AID/WAP that will enable connectivity between avionics, AvioBook application suite, and control centers. We are also constantly enhancing our Globe module: in its cockpit version by integrating Skypath (which

allows users to sense real-time turbulence conditions, giving pilots a comprehensive awareness of the turbulence situation), and finalizing our In-Flight Optimization function designed to calculate optimal turbulence avoidance scenarios while indicating the impact on fuel and time. But also, in its control centers version with our Flight Tracking feature to allow pilots and dispatchers to share the same situational awareness.

Aircraft IT: What will be the next big thing in Aviation IT? FD: Following the introduction of IT assets in the cockpit, that are capable of connecting to the avionics, there will be increased capabilities to broadcast aircraft data to the airline IT back-end system, to access aircraft repository by back-end systems, and ultimately to send data into cockpit avionics. Data analytics (through AI algorithms) will lead to more automated decision-making, with the ultimate objective to help end-users making the right decision at the right time.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about AvioBook?

FD: That they cannot remember how they could run their operations before AvioBook.

Aircraft IT: Frederic Dru, thank you for your time.

“We have launched the development of AvioCast, an all-in-one, non-installed QAR/AID/WAP that will enable connectivity between avionics, AvioBook application suite, and control centers.”

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CASE STUDY: JETSMART

Involving pilots in fuel saving Leandro Alberto Castillón, Chief of flight ops engineering & manuals and Luis Feres Molina, Flight Operations Engineer at JetSmart share the secret of JetSmart’s fuel monitoring & savings using StorkJet’s fuelPro during 2019-2020 AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 70

CASE STUDY: JETSMART

F

ounded in 2017, JetSmart is a South American ultra-low-cost aircraft operator, mainly serving Chile, Argentina, Perú, Colombia, and Brazil. Its primary operations bases are Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago de Chile, and El Palomar in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently with a fleet of seventeen aircraft, JetSmart has a very ambitious growth plan, aiming to have a hundred aircraft fleet by 2028. JetSmart’s goal is to become the major ultra-low-cost carrier in the region.

Today’s very competitive airline environment means that lower costs are the key to success. In 2018 we started to look for new solutions to improve cost-saving initiatives in JetSmart’s daily operations. Fuel represents our major cost and so we focused on its optimization. Tracking and control of fuel-saving initiatives is an essential tool for airlines to reduce total fuel consumption through effective company fuel policies in all flight stages. Having a modern and robust tool to keep track of all initiatives on an easy to understand and easy to update basis was a must have for us. With these two premises, we started the search for a holistic solution.

During this search, we were contacted by StorkJet, whose expertise is in flight data analysis and fuel efficiency. As a result of that contact, in 2019 we started the implementation of fuelPro, a powerful web based platform which allowed us to obtain monthly reports for each fuel efficiency initiative.

THE CHALLENGE AND THE WAY FORWARD

At the beginning of the project JetSmart had a set of initiatives that covered the basic aspects of flight operations. As operations grew, we were facing more and more difficulties in keeping the data up to date. A lot of time was spent generating the data instead of analyzing it and these time-consuming efforts were becoming a challenge to us. With a very fast growth planned for the near future, we were worried about how to overcome this issue. That was when the easy method for uploading data into StorkJet’s fuelPro really optimized our manpower usage. We are responsible for getting the raw data and uploading it into StorkJet’s server. Once uploaded, the StorkJet team consolidates all the different reports into a single database where all the information is available.

Also, they do the required validations to ensure the quality levels are met. This process ends with new data added to the platform giving us a full set of graphics and tables to analyze our fuel initiative program. The task of getting raw data is easy to automate, meaning we are now able to dedicate more time to analysis of the data instead of generating the set.

Also, with fuelPro capacity, we can get KPIs that otherwise would not be possible to obtain. One good example is the cruise speed KPI that allows us to monitor fleet adherence to the company’s cruise speed policy. Thanks to StorkJet’s fuelPro we were able to considerably increase adherence to company’s cruise speed policy and generate important efficiencies in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 reduction.”

“In 2018 we started to look for new solutions to improve cost-saving initiatives in JetSmart’s daily operations.

Fuel represents our major cost and so we focused on its optimization.”

The other big challenge we had was communications. Pilots and dispatcher are the key players in any fuel efficiency program. Without their commitment it is impossible to have a good efficiency program. This was addressed using the web-based portal, which each JetSMART pilot can access from their own home, to check their performance. StorkJet’s fuelPro allows pilots to understand their own weak and strong points; thus, promoting continuous improvement in the operation.

At last, fuel efficiency is not a static matter. New fuel efficiency initiatives show up in fuelPro and must be considered. During the time we have been using this tool several improvements and new initiatives were added to the platform, reflecting a strong aspect of the system, its flexibility. Adding new features in a very short time allows JetSmart to stay updated in terms of new initiatives.

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CASE STUDY: JETSMART

SOLUTION

fuelPro is a multi-variable fuel platform for the analysis and tracking of costsaving fuel initiatives, in all flight stages; fuel policy, flight planning, ground operations, APU & packs, departure, flight speed & vertical profile optimization and arrival (see figure 1). Using fuelPro, we can easily see fuel statistics for each section, mean values for fuel consumption, compliance percentages for each initiative over any period, airport, runway, bases, fleet, aircraft types, and individual pilot’s scores. Additionally, we can set targets for each initiative and see if they are fulfilled by our crew and technicians. All this data has been of great value for JetSmart’s procedures, company fuel policies, fuel tracking reports and always being aware of and ready to act on the status of fuel saving initiatives for our company.

“fuelPro is a multi-variable fuel platform for the analysis and tracking of cost-saving fuel initiatives, in all flight stages…”

Figure 1: FuelPro Sections

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CASE STUDY: JETSMART

FUEL DATA TRACKING SYSTEM

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The fuelPro data tracking system shows the percentage of data that has been recovered monthly for each tail. As we can see in figure 2, the overall retrieval rates for Operational Flight Plans (OFP), Quick Access Recorder (QAR) and Load-sheets (LDS) are over 90% for JetSmart’s fleet. When gaps occur, we can download an Excel file with the group of flights with missing information, which allows us to request our team (maintenance, engineering, flight ops.) to recover that data in a faster way.

advancedAPM provides tail-specific aircra� performance for precise fuel planning and accurate calcula on of op mum speeds and al tudes.

Figure 2: Monthly retrieval rate for OFP; QAR and LDS for JetSmart fleet

BEST CONFIGURATION TOOL

Fuel saving comes as a result of a combination of several initiatives, for instance: when conditions and safety allow it, using one engine during taxi; flaps in the lower configuration and an adequate acceleration height will result in less fuel consumption during the departure configuration. fuelPro includes an integrated Figure 3: Departure section. Fuel data per Airport/Runway. characteristic to visualize the best configuration (see figure 3) for all runways and intersections operated

by JetSmart. This is useful to determine where potential fuel savings could be found and establishing new fuel policies to advise our crew members in daily operations. For example, using fuelPro we found out that in Santiago airport, the best departure configuration offers savings between 21 and 28 kg, thus offering a potential saving of 28 kg per flight, for 3000 flights, a fuel price of 0.5 US dollar/l, fuel density of 0.78 l/kg, the savings would be in total $56,000 US dollars.

ü SEE PERFORMANCE OF ALL AIRCRAFT TYPES IN ONE PLACE ü NO MANUAL WORK ANY MORE ü ENJOY THE HIGHEST PRECISION ü EXPLORE NEW SAVINGS (0,2-1%)

REQUEST A DEMO info@storkjet.com +48 600 800 528 www.storkjet.com

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CASE STUDY: JETSMART

As compliance increases, also the fuel saving increases: the highest compliance was reached in September 2019 with saving for our company of $30,359 US. Annual fuel saving for JetSmart due to fuel efficiency practices were $287,737 US.

PILOT PERFORMANCE INTERFACE

Pilots can easily access to fuelPro platform using their corporate email and password, each of them has an associated ID and name, so they can see their individual performance monthly results in a website interface. They can also compare their fuel performance scores with previous month and with other pilots (see figure 5).

Luis Feres Molina has a degree in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering and a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering . As Flight Operations Engineer at JetSmart his duties include updating manuals (MEL), route studies, flight performance (Take off charts & Aircraft degradation) and tracking and providing monthly data for fuel efficiency initiatives.

JETSMART Figure 5: Pilot performance’s section FUELpro

In the words of Johannes Akel — First Officer, who has been regularly using StorkJet’s fuelPro, “fuelPro displays the results of each pilot in a friendly way which allows them to quickly view the status of the general results. By comparing your own information with that of other pilots, you can quickly visualize and understand whether compliance with savings policies is above or below average.”

Figure 6

Figure 4: Monthly fuel saving cost 2019 JetSmart

Leandro Alberto Castillón, Chief of flight operations engineering and manuals at JetSmart. He is a graduate aeronautical engineer and member of the Professional College of Aeronautical and Space Engineering in Argentina. During seven years at LATAM airlines, Leandro was part of the fuel savings team. Since 2017 he has been in charge of flight operations engineering and manuals at Jetsmart.

LUIS FERES MOLINA

ANNUAL FUEL SAVINGS 2019

StorkJet’s fuelPro offers JetSmart an excellent dashboard to see the potential for savings during the year. As we can see in figure 4, on the left axis are the monthly savings and on the right axis the percentage compliance for all JetSmart initiatives.

As compliance increases, also the fuel saving increases: the highest compliance was reached in September 2019 with saving for our company of $30,359 US. Annual fuel saving for JetSmart due to fuel efficiency practices were $287,737 US. Since the beginning of 2019 the monthly savings doubled — from around $15,000 to $30,000 monthly.

Recently, new initiatives have been added in fuelPro, which could considerably improve fuelsaving in 2020.

LEANDRO ALBERTO CASTILLÓN

JetSMART recommends fuelPro for airlines seeking to reduce their fuel consumption. It covers the essential fuel saving initiatives and has helped JetSmart to upgrade their fuel procedures, control and savings. Also, StorkJet technical support is always available to solve any issue or question as fast as they can.

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 74

JetSMART is a Chilean low-cost airline based in Santiago, Chile.

From its hub at Santiago International Airport. JetSMART flies to eight international destinations within Argentina, Brazil and Peru and to 10 domestic destinations with a fleet of 17 aircraft from the Airbus A320 family. A further 75 aircraft from the A320 family are on order for delivery over the next few years.

STORKJET

Renata Niedziela (Managing Director) established StorkJet to help airlines reduce fuel and operational costs. The business’s principle is to deliver the most precise, data driven solutions. They must be intuitive, user friendly and fully cover any airline’s needs.

StorkJet customers can rely on them as the experts in aircraft performance and fuel efficiency, which proceed directly to fuel savings.

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Lufthansa Cargo uses data to improve contingency fuel uploads

Testing to ensure that new systems work before they’re put into operation at Alaska Airlines

Qantas develops and deploys a digital flight planning tool

CASE STUDIES: LUXAIR • LUFTHANSA CARGO • VOLOTEA

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 • V8.4

Using formulas and calculators to optimize each flight’s fuel

Luxair implements digital documentation Better flight ops, safety and compliance

At Volotea, data improves fuel and operations Using big data and digitalization

NEWS • VENDOR FLIGHT LOG: SAFETY LINE • OPERATIONS SOFTWARE DIRECTORY • NEW: SOLUTIONS IN PRACTICE

AIRCRAFT IT Operations V8.4 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019

CASE STUDIES LUXAIR • LUFTHANSA CARGO • VOLOTEA VENDOR FLIGHT LOG SAFETY LINE

CASE STUDIES: ALASKA AIRLINES • SOUTHWEST AIRLINES & UNITED AIRLINES WHITE PAPER: THE FAA

WINTER 2019-2020 • V8.5

Using test data and Service virtualization to check systems functionality

The evolution of EFB regulation at the FAA How the rules are changing

Effective EFB mounting at Southwest and United Keeping devices visible and secure

NEWS • OPERATIONS SOFTWARE DIRECTORY • SOLUTIONS IN PRACTICE

AIRCRAFT IT Operations V8.5 WINTER 2019-2020 CASE STUDIES ALASKA AIRLINES SOUTHWEST & UNITED AIRLINES WHITE PAPERS THE FAA

CASE STUDIES: QANTAS AIRLINES • CEBU PACIFIC VENDOR FLIGHT LOGS: COMPLY365 • DEXTRA DATA • eTT AVIATION

MARCH-APRIL 2020 • V9.1

4D route optimization maximizes choices for efficiency

Cebu Pacific uses big data across its Operations Fuel efficiency and performance benefits

Solutions in Practice – a safe device mounting solution ASG’s fixed mount at Southwest Airlines

NEWS • SOLUTIONS IN PRACTICE • OPERATIONS SOFTWARE DIRECTORY •

AIRCRAFT IT Operations V9.1 WINTER 2019-2020

CASE STUDIES QANTAS AIRLINES • CEBU PACIFIC VENDOR FLIGHT LOG COMPLY365 • DEXTRA DATA • eTT AVIATION

AIRCRAFT IT Operations

AIRCRAFT IT Operations: VENDOR FLIGHT LOG

VENDOR FLIGHT LOG: PACE

Oliver Kranz, managing partner of PACE GmbH — a TXT company, shares the secrets of PACE’s thoroughness in getting things right for the customer Oliver heads the business unit Flight Operations leading a committed team of product managers, software developers and sales executives, who are responsible for defining, developing and marketing unique inflight and ground-based solutions which improve operational efficiency as well as environmental sustainability. Passionate about leveraging new technologies for airline operations, Oliver is the driving force behind PACE’s strong partnership network of technology and service providers.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business?

Oliver Kranz: My name is, Oliver Kranz and I am the co-founder and managing partner of PACE GmbH. Aircraft IT: How did PACE get started?

OK: We just celebrated our 25th business anniversary. I met my co-founders Alexander Schneegans and Michael Kokorniak at Technische Universität Berlin, where we collaborated in a research project on computer-assisted aircraft design.

Building on our research we launched PACE and started building

relationships with customers like Airbus and Rolls-Royce, which thrive to this day. Our custom software developments for aircraft design and performance analysis laid the foundation for the diversified product portfolio we offer today.

Aircraft IT: What is the attraction of aircraft-related software?

OK: The aviation industry is the embodiment of mankind’s dream of flying, and we feel privileged to be part of this fantastic global community.

The industry has been dealt a severe blow by COVID-19, but we are determined to keep on making flight

operations greener, safer and more efficient. Developing aircraft-related software certainly comes with a lot of technological, regulatory and safety challenges, but we are motivated by the knowledge that every day, all over the world, aircraft are designed, marketed and operated using PACE software and that we have managed to make a name for ourselves and to stay competitive in a market dominated by giants.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives PACE? OK: Innovation. We are constantly, some may even say compulsively,

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 76

looking for new and smarter ways of doing things and how to leverage emerging technologies to better support our customers. We also pride ourselves on being a company of experts and enthusiasts, which is reflected in our product quality and market leadership.

Aircraft IT: What has been PACE’s greatest technical achievement to date, and why?

OK: Speaking for our Flight Operations division, I would say it was pioneering on-board flight profile optimization software more than a decade ago, when EFBs just started

AIRCRAFT IT Operations: VENDOR FLIGHT LOG

“We are constantly, some may even say compulsively, looking for new and smarter ways of doing things and how to leverage emerging technologies to better support our customers.”

to take off in the flight deck. This gave us a technological head start and many of years of invaluable experience, which is why we are able to offer a much more mature and holistic solution than our competition.

And being serial innovators, we keep adding smart new capabilities, e.g. for circumnavigating turbulences forecasted in your flight path, and cloud-based optimization.

Aircraft IT: What has been PACE’s greatest business achievement to date, and why?

OK: In general, taking PACE from a small university spin-off to an international market player, weathering 9/11, the 2008 global economic crisis and the current pandemic.

In the Flight Operations division, it has been achieving market leadership for tactical flight execution tools with Pacelab FPO, which is used by more than 10 major airlines across Europe and North America to save thousands of tons of fuel and CO2 emissions – and a lot of money too! Most recently, we

completed the first large-scale cloud-based installation of Pacelab FPO for a large commercial carrier with a fleet of 800+ aircraft.

Aircraft IT: What have been PACE’s disappointments and what have you learned from them?

OK: We had to discover that trailblazing can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes it takes quite a long time before the market is ready to adopt new technologies, which can be very frustrating if you have a great new product or feature. In order to succeed with breakthrough ideas and innovation, you certainly need a good deal of patience and persistence.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what PACE does for aviation customers?

OK: Our flight profile optimizer provides flight crews with detailed recommendations on the most cost-efficient way to complete their flights under the given conditions,

optimizing all flight phases, managing real-time constraints and carefully balancing operational considerations with passenger comfort and on-time performance.

Aircraft IT: What is new on PACE’s development horizon?

OK: We have significantly broadened our vision for flight optimization and are currently collaborating with Route Dynamics Corp. on an integrated, multi-dimensional solution that combines vertical and lateral optimization. Ultimately, our joint software suite will provide complementary tools to pilots and dispatchers to promote collaborative decision-making. The response from the market has been extremely positive, and we are excited to merge our and RDC’s capabilities into something that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Aircraft IT: What will be the next big thing in Aviation IT? OK: Predicting the next big thing is

always a bit risky, particularly in a volatile situation such as this, but I think it’s safe to say that airlines will look to leveraging dedicated cockpit IP connectivity from gate to gate and high bandwidth for flight operations applications. I also expect a significant growth of big data analytics to support operational efficiency and sustainability initiatives, using technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about PACE? OK: At our last user conference, our marketing team recorded a few customer interviews and the statement that most stuck in my mind was “They listen”. Naturally, I also want my customers to rave about our software and how much it helps them in their day-to-day activities, but I’m especially gratified by this expression of trust and shared purpose.

Aircraft IT: Oliver Kranz, thank you for your time.

“Ultimately, our joint software suite will provide complementary tools to pilots and dispatchers to promote collaborative decision-making. The response from the market has been extremely positive, and we are excited to merge our and RDC’s capabilities into something that is much greater than the sum of its parts.”

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 77

DIRECTORY

Operations Software Directory Key ‘at-a-glance’ information from the world’s leading Operations software providers.

IT is a powerful force but, to leverage its greatest value, it must be harnessed and directed. It must also be able to handle huge and growing data streams that record every aspect in the ways that aircraft fly, how they are readied and the conditions they will meet. This challenge has attracted the best brains and most innovative enterprises to create IT solutions for one of the most demanding working environments, Aircraft Operations. Inevitably, there are many such developers and vendors offering solutions ranging from single function ‘Specialist Point Solutions’ to complete ‘End-to-End’ solutions covering the whole process.

Only readers will know the specific requirements of their businesses but we have assembled a directory of the best Operations software providers and listed them alphabetically to make it easier for you to undertake a brief-ish (there are 44 providers and the number continues to grow) survey of the market, preliminary to starting on any specification and selection process. Or you might simply read it to keep up to date with what is available today.

ACFT PERFO

Advanced Flight Systems Sl (AFSYS)

Air Support A/S

W: www.acftperfo.com T: +352 26 12 94 E: info@acftperfo.com

W: afsys.aero/en T: +34 606 339 396 E: info@afsys.aero

W: www.ppsflightplanning.com T: +45 7533 8889 E: sales@airsupport.dk

Location: Steinfort, Luxembourg

Location: Madrid, Spain

Location: Billund, Denmark

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • WORLD AIRPORT DATABASE Compatible for ALL TO Performance soft • All A/C Types TO. & LAND. • Performance soft • EFB SOFTWARE SUITE • Operational support in Performance and Operations • EFLS Electronic loading system ground operations

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • iCOM

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • PPS Flight Planning, CrewBriefing

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Flight Plan • Meteorology (Airports & Maps) • Notam (Filtration and Representation) • Tech.Log/ Safety & Company Reports • Manuals (Viewer and Manager)

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Flight Planning • Crew briefing facilities

ACFTPERFO has acquired a solid experience in the development of electronic flight bags tools and related support since start up in 1999. Our products are in continuous evolution in order to adapt to new regulations or practices in this rapidly changing business. We use our expertise to help customers and our commitment is to find the best solution for any challenge an airline could face.

Safety is a major concern of our ACFTPERFO team and our airport database has been developed to be the best on the market. It is maintained up to date using extremely efficient tools which guarantee the highest level of accuracy and follow up.

Afsys an innovative company offering solutions to the aeronautical industry, with wide knowledge and expertise aviation sector. and commercializing iCOM. iCOM creating team are high experienced pilots, computer experts in Business Intelligence and creative designers iCOM is a solution that digitizes, integrates and connects in one platform all the information and process associated with the planning, dispatch and management of the air operation; combines all the process related to air operation, facilitates pilots’ planning and decision-making and provides information to companies to improve efficiency and resource optimization. In other words, iCOM is a solution which enables airlines to optimize resources, save time and costs through digitalization and relationship of all process related to the air operation.

Offered digitized information and reliable traceability of process, allows the operator to obtain essential information to improve its procedures and strategic planning by using their own Business Intelligence, leading then to remove printed documentation from the cockpit.

Confidentiality, availability and real-time access of information are guaranteed.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 78

AIR SUPPORT is one of the world’s leading suppliers of flight planning software with web-based briefing facilities.The PPS Flight Planning System (PPS) is one of the leading flight planning systems in the world due to the optimization of operating costs along with its incredible and flexible usability.

PPS generates a complete briefing package available directly on CrewBriefing or its accompanying app, providing the crew with online access to company messages, flight log, triptailored surface weather data, NOTAMs, wind- and significant weather charts and the high-quality vertical cross-sectional chart.

The combined synergy of PPS will ensure that your airline will have the most modern and powerful flight planning system available.

PPS offers: • World’s most flexible airline flight planning system • Automated filing, calculation and dispatch of all selected flights • Automated data import from scheduling/crew/maintenance systems • Automated data export to EFB solutions • Automated consideration of company policies and dispatch parameters • Automated flight briefing packages with the highest quality • Low acquisition and running costs offering highest costbenefit ratio in the market

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DIRECTORY

Avionics Support Group W: www.asginc.net T: +1 305-378-9786 E: info@asginc.net

ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions) W: www.asqs.net T: +43 1 306 1234 E: sales@asqs.net

Location: Florida, USA

Locations: ASQS GmbH, Vienna, Austria, ASQS Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Cockpit EFB Mounts, EFB Power Supplies.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • IQSMS (Integrated Quality and Safety Management System) • Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) Service • The IQSMS Suite consists of a total of 10 modules, varying according to the operator. (Airlines, Business Jets, Helicopter, Airports, MROs...)

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • STC Certification • EFB Mounts • EFB Power Supplies • Avionic Products • Avionics Engineerings Avionics Support Group, Inc. (ASG) is a premier Avionics Systems Integration & FAA-PMA approved Aerospace Manufacturing and Avionics Engineering company. ASG’s competitive advantage can provide your company with a Single Source Solution for avionics engineering, manufacturing, aircraft installation technical support, Supplemental Type Certificate (STC’s), video surveillance, SATCOM, and much more. We lead the aerospace industry with our US patented Constant Friction Mount (cfMount™), EFB Integrated Power Supplies, and EFB Cradles. Contact ASG today to learn how ASG’s Single Source Solution can work for your company!

KEY BUSINESS SOFTWARE AREAS • Quality Management Module • Reporting Module • Risk Management Module • Document Distribution Module • Emergency Response Planning Module ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions) is a global supplier of highly innovative QMS and SMS software for the aviation industry, supporting more than 200 large and small operators, including airlines, business jet and helicopter operators, groundhandling agents/FBOs, airports and maintenance organizations, in creating a safe and productive work environment.

The company specializes in intuitive, integrated, web-based solutions with exceptional customer support. ASQS’s core product IQSMS allows clients to manage operational data 24/7 online and offline with a single integrated tool which significantly simplifies daily tasks. The easy handling of the software creates a positive reporting culture, enables comprehensive quality management and proactive risk management to maximize productivity, reduce operating costs, and optimize internal and external working procedures.

IQSMS automates laborious processes like the submission of ECCAIRS or IDX compliant incident reports which, combined with a consolidated, up-to-date regulations database, ensures legal compliance with national and international requirements and standards.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

AVIOBOOK

AVTECH Sweden

W: www.avioBook.aero T: +32 11 72 10 30 E: info@avio.com

W: www.avtech.aero T: +46 8 544 104 80 E: sales@avtech.aero

Location: Belgium (Hasselt), France (Toulouse), Singapore & Piscattaway

Location: Sweden

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • AvioBook, AvioBook Connect, AvioBook Cabin, AvioBook Tech, AvioBook Base, AvioBook Systems, AvioBook Data, AvioBook Integrations, AvioBook SaaS

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aventus NowCastTM - The FMS Optimization • Aventus SIGMA - Severe Weather service • Aventus AIR — Weather Uplink • Consulting Service — ACARS and connection

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • EFB software solutions • EFB hardware solutions • Suite of ground & flight application • Navigation DataBase, weather data, ADS-B AVIOBOOK, a Thales Group company, supports airlines as a partner in their digital strategy. AVIOBOOK offers a comprehensive and highly integrated suite of ground and flight applications, systems and solutions that connect all stakeholders and key assets in a safe and secure manner.

This, combined with expertise in data and cyber security, gives airlines an edge through greater efficiency and ultimately sustainable, profitable growth.

AVIOBOOK proven solutions make communication between the cockpit, cabin and back office faster and more efficient than even before.

With the integrated and secure AVIOBOOK application suite, pilots, cabin crew, dispatchers and ground staff can be securely connected to each other, making communication more efficient and driving value throughout the operation.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 79

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Wind Uplink FMS Optimization • Reduce Fuel burn and CO2 footprint • Severe Weather application AVTECH, specializing in tailored information to the cockpit, offers easy, automated and inexpensive improvements in FMS optimization.

The Aventus NowCast™ weather service give pilots access to weather data of the highest available quality, and when the data is fed into the aircraft Flight Management Computer, the actual aircraft trajectory can be optimized, reduce the fuel burn and CO2 footprint.

Working directly with Met Office (UK), the Aventus SIGMA service supply the cockpit crew with severe weather information, based on Actual route and time in the FMS. The service brings adequate, timely and correct information on turbulence, icing and other weather phenomena that affect safety and comfort. The SIGMA service sets a new standard on how, when and where your crew gets their information.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

DIRECTORY

The Boeing Company

Bytron Aviation Systems

CMC Electronics

Comply365

W: www.boeing.com/supportandservices T: +1 206-655-2121 E: BoeingSupportandServices@Boeing.com

W: www.bytron.aero T: 01652 688 626 E: info@bytron.aero

Location: 65 Offices Worldwide

Location: Kirmington, United Kingdom

W: www.cmcelectronics.ca T: 15 147 483 000 E: alexandre.huynh-belanger @CMCElectronics.ca

W: www.comply365.com T: +1 (800) 206-2004 E: info@comply365.com

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Business Consulting • EFB Document Browser • Electronic Flight Folder • Fuel Dashboard • Onboard Performance Tool KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • EFB applications • Fuel Efficiency Solutions • Consulting Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. Boeing Support and Services combines airplane design and manufacturing expertise with unique access to fleet-wide operational data to offer optimization solutions.

With these offerings, Boeing addresses the evolving need for integration and optimization of data and information across the aviation ecosystem to empower smart decision-making.

The portfolio includes services and solutions for flight operations, maintenance & engineering and procurement organizations to optimize the operational efficiency of airplanes and operations.

Boeing has more than 250 customers for its optimization solutions. The portfolio draws on solutions from a family of Boeing companies: AerData, Inventory Locator Services and Jeppesen, serving operators of Boeing and non-Boeing airplanes.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • skybook aviation cloud KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Dispatch Portal • EFB Application • Airfield Watch • Flight Following • Crew Briefing Bytron Aviation Systems has over 35 years of industry experience and understanding driving the development of solutions engineered to make a big impact in the aviation industry.

The business specializes in the design and building of fully fledged, reliable, integrated systems that ensure critical data is consistently distributed to the right place, at the right time on the right device, increasing awareness and accountability, improving information capture, reducing costs and streamlining workflows. Above all, improving communication between flight ops and flight deck.

Location: Montreal, Ottawa, Chicago.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • PilotView EFB and Aircraft • Information Systems (AIS) KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • CMA-1525 AIS (Flange Mount) • CMA-1510 AIS (2 MCU) • AIS Software Option (Dataloader, vQAR, ACARS) • CMA-1310 Tablet EFB • EFB Application Manager & Configuration Tools CMC Electronics (CMC) is a global leader in meeting the demanding aircraft information management requirements for a long list of customers and aircraft OEMs. CMC is marshalling its considerable experience to facilitate tablet connectivity in the cockpit with its Aircraft Information Server and a range of aircraft interface devices that bridge the gap between classes of EFB systems..

skybook is Bytron’s core aviation solution that offers unrivalled flexibility, automation and integration, using the best and most reliable data sources to deliver all vital information across flight ops and dispatch and the flight deck. skybook enables operators and aircrews to work smarter, not harder and the firm’s proven award-winning solutions cover Flight Dispatch, Crew Briefing, Airfield Watch, Flight Tracking plus there is a class leading Electronic Flight Bag application. Contact Bytron today to arrange your introduction and trial.

Location: USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ProAuthor (XML-Based Authoring Solution) • Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) • Digital Briefing • Document & Communication Manager • Training Solution (LMS Learning Manager) KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • XML-Based Authoring Solution (ProAuthor) • Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) • Digital Briefing Flight Release • Document Mgmt. and Distribution Platform • Targeted Distribution w/ Compliance Tracking Comply365 delivers secure, cloud-based solutions, focusing on Authoring, EFB and Digital Briefing Solutions, as well as Targeted Distribution of Mobile Manuals.

The Authoring Solution, features ProAuthor: the aviation industry’s first and only XML-based solution for authoring, revising and distributing publications.

Comply365’s proven Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution lets crews access mission-critical information throughout each phase of flight.

Digital Briefing helps turn planes faster for more on-time departures with instant feedback to dispatchers when the flight crew accepts a release and signs Fit for Duty.

Comply365’s full-featured Document Management and Targeted Distribution Platform boosts productivity by delivering any type of manual or document directly to any mobile device or stationary workstation.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 80

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

DIRECTORY

Conduce

CrossConsense

W: www.conduce.net T: 0044 333 888 4044 E: info@conduce.net

W: www.crossconsense.com T: +49 69 4035 7600 E: contact@crossconsense.de

Location: Nuneaton, UK

Location: Frankfurt Germany, Heusenstamm Germany

Location: Paris, France

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • eTechLog8 • eCabinLog8 • eTraining8 • eCentral8

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aircraft Fleet View • ACSIS

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • EFB as a Service

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Tech Log • Cabin Log • Document Viewer Conduce specialise in producing mobile applications for the aviation industry, writing native Win8/10 and IOS tablet “Touch” solutions and integrating these with responsive modern connected websites. The current flagship product eTechLog8 enables an airline to eliminate the traditional paper based tech log,cabin log and deferred defect books and is currently in differing stages of contract, trial & acceptance with various airlines. Several NAA’s are also now involved with respect to monitoring these projects, enabling the necessary approval for the eventual roll out of paperless tech log systems with multiple EASA approved airline fleets.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Support • Consulting • Business Intelligence solutions • App and dashboard development CrossConsense’s portfolio stretches from AMOS Support, BI-Management, Data Migration and Hosting to the products Aircraft Fleet View (progressive web app for up-to-date fleet status), and ACSIS (tool for predictive maintenance).

AMOS Support: CrossConsense has a long tradition in providing support for AMOS with one single point of contact for 1st and 2nd level. CrossConsense realizes well-planned and perfectly organized data migration projects for airline customers; plus offers Reporting and Business Intelligence Analytics for AMOS customers.

Aircraft Fleet View is a user-friendly Progressive Web App (PWA) developed by CrossConsense that gives you an always up-to-date view on your airline’s fleet status. It indicates AOGs, delays and other important information.

It provides the right level of detail to be useful but not crowded with information.

ACSIS is a powerful software tool developed to assist any airline, aircraft operator, MRO facility and OEM to avoid AOGs, delays and turnbacks, as well as improve aircraft utilization, and enhance safety. ACSIS integrates with any MRO / M&E Software solution to deliver better insights into aircraft health and potential future problems to be dealt with during scheduled maintenance.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

dgBirds

W: www.dgbirds.com E: contact@dgbirds.com

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Documentation • Mission/Briefing • Mission/Reports dgBirds is a subsidiary of Air France, with many years’ experience designing mobile solutions for professional pilots, and committed to developing software solutions for any mobile business.

Team building is extremely important as it is more than putting together a group of people to work; it is about creating a team culture based on common values.

Obviously, Agile methods have been at the heart of dgBirds’ developments for many years.

Optimizing airline operations represents a major challenge for safety, customer satisfaction and cost-savings. In cockpits, while the evolution of avionics is slow and expensive, new platforms like `tablets’ have fewer constraints and are hosting more and more amazing functions to support pilots’ duties. But solutions in silos are not well integrated. That’s why dgBirds has developed an integrated multi-services software solution. It is flexible to allow users to choose the services they need (Documentation, Mission, Environment, Communication, Training) and configurable to fit the business.

High-quality and affordability go well together.

Eagle Cap Software W: www.EagleCapSoftware.com T: +1 619 321-8550 E: tom@eaglecapsoftware.com Location: Portland, OR USA (Headquarters); Denver, CO USA; (Satellite Office); San Diego, CA USA (Satellite Office)

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Software Development Services • System Integration Services • Aviation Charting Service KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Software Engineering Services • Mobile App Development • System Integration • Flight Ops Subject Matter Expert • System Design and Architecture Eagle Cap Software provides software engineering, mobile application development, and systems integration services.

From Flight Operations to the Flight Deck, Eagle Cap can design and build custom solutions tailored to your organization. We have domain experts in: Electronic Flight Bag & Moving Map; Flight Planning & Optimization; Aviation Data & Charting; and, Dispatch. Look to Eagle Cap for: management and integration of data, devices & apps; avionics & instrumentation interfaces; application design & architecture; and, mobile migration of web & legacy applications. The team consists of software engineers, technologists and domain experts with decades of experience developing aviation applications for commercial, business, general, unmanned and military aviation.

Because you are awesome, dgBirds builds awesome solutions.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 81

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

DIRECTORY

eTT Aviation

Evoke Systems

Flatirons

Flygprestanda AB

W: www.ettaviation.com T: +1 208-424-9424 E: info@ettaviation.com

W: www.evoke-systems.aero T: +44 (0)3456 521 240 E: info@evoke-systems.aero

W: www.flatironssolutions.com T: +1.303.627.6535 E: info@flatironssolutions.com

W: www.flygp.se T: +46 40 642 00 10 E: sales@flygp.se

Locations: Boise, ID, USA

Locations: UK

Locations: Europe, Asia, USA, Middle East

Location: Malmö/Sweden, New Milford, CT/USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • SkedFlex

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • EFOS Training Management Suite • EFOS Leave Management Suite • EFOS Flight Management Suite

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • CORENA Suite

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Guru2 w &w/o Mass & Balance, • Airport Analysis, Drift Down, • Load & Trim, AHM560

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Flight & Crew Management • Fleet (Movement) Management • Qualification & Training Management • Crew Pay • Line & Preferntial Bidding SkedFlex is a full-featured, affordable, innovative and expertly supported flight and crew management solution designed to meet your needs and exceed your expectations. With its scalable platform and optional modules, SkedFlex provides air operators the ability to successfully schedule and manage crewmembers, flights, and aircraft in a flexible, efficient, and visual manner. Coupled with its proprietary rules engines, SkedFlex helps ensure regularity compliance under the Code of Federal Regulation parts 117, 121, 125, and 135, for flight, duty, and rest limitations and additional company requirements and rule sets from regularity authorities can be incorporated.

Crew and Flight Scheduling are the core components for the visual mastery of complex operations. Crew Pay ensures pay accuracy and accountability, freeing employees and administrators to focus on productivity, not paperwork.

Qualification and Training Management automates simulator and classroom scheduling, crewmember training delivery, currency, and qualification tracking. Line and Preferential Bidding provides an airline the option to build lines or trips for crewmember bidding, and allows crewmembers to establish standing bid criteria and further modify their bids as they desire. Entire fleets of aircraft can be scheduled in minutes with Fleet Management while scheduled inspections are displayed visually to optimize aircraft utilization around required inspections.

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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aviation software solutions • Aviation leave (vacation) management • Aviation Training Management System (TMS) • Flight Management EFOS Training Management Suite: An established and complete Training Management solution available exclusively for the aviation industry, EFOS TMS provides intelligent forms and records, course management and candidate progress tracking along with qualification and role profile monitoring, and supports AQP, ATQP and EBT programmes. Supported by a dedicated iPad application, EFOS TMS is available on web and for mobile and offline use.

EFOS Leave Management Suite: A sophisticated leave (vacation) management system, designed specifically for airlines. With highly customisable rules, the EFOS Leave Management Suite suits individual airline requirements and offers a fair, deterministic and transparent way to allocate leave. EFOS LMS can be integrated with airline rostering systems to provide a holistic view of staff availability.

EFOS Flight Management Suite: An iPad application for flight journey log information, flight folders, alert event and safety reporting which enables commercial analysis of the associated data to deliver lean airline operating environment.

Integrations with other operating systems maximise data efficiency.

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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Content Management System (CMS) • Interactive Electronic Technical Publisher (IETP) • Maintenance & Engineering • Flight Operations • Tablet Solutions & Mobility Flatirons provides consulting, technology, and outsourcing for content lifecycle management (CLM). For more than 20 years, we have served global Fortune 1000 customers in aerospace, automotive, electronics, financial services, government, healthcare, and publishing. Our customer engagements help organizations efficiently deliver the right information, at the right time, to the right people by leveraging structured content and digital media — Turning Content into Knowledge®.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft Performance Services • Performance Engineering • Special Performance Calculations • Engine Failure Procedures Flygprestanda AB, a pioneer in aircraft performance calculations, was founded 1969. For nearly 50 years Flygprestanda has been in the forefront of providing aircraft operators of all kinds with high quality services. Today Flygprestanda is serving around 200 customers worldwide from the head office in Malmö, Sweden and continues to lead innovation in this part of the aviation industry with its well known Airport Analyses and Guru2 application.

The CORENA Suite by Flatirons is the leading content lifecycle management (CLM) solution developed specifically for organizations that rely on mission-critical data to design, manufacture, operate, or maintain complex assets over their product and service lifecycles as well as across multi-echelon business networks. For more than 25 years, the world’s leading airlines, aerospace manufacturers, OEMs, and defense organizations have relied on the CORENA product suite to create, manage, and deliver large volumes of technical information throughout its lifecycle. Today, CORENA customers rely on the CORENA suite to modernize their IT infrastructures, improve customer satisfaction, and maintain their competitive advantage.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 82

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DIRECTORY

Gigsky

Honeywell

International Flight Support

Laminaar Aviation InfoTech

W: www.gigsky.com T: +45 39158025, E: vchand@gigsky.com

W: aerospace.honeywell.com T: +359 2 971 3503 E: info@aviaso.com

W: www.ifs.aero T: +45 33464600 E: sales@ifs.aero

W: www.laminaar.com.sg T: +65 6239 0150 E: contact@laminaar.com.sg

Location: United States of America, Denmark, Canada & India. Danish Office For EFB, Aircraft Sales

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Location: Singapore, Denver, Bangalore, Mumbai

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • GSM Roaming Data

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aviaso/Fuel Efficiency, EU-ETS

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Consumer Data Roaming Solutions • Enterprise Data Roaming Solutions • OEM Data Roaming Solutions

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fuel Efficiency Software • Flight and Operational Efficiency • EU-ETS and Emissions Management • Fuel Efficiency Consulting and Training

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ARMS®2.5, ARMS®NS, ARMS®on the TAB, InfoPrompt 2.5

GigSky for Enterprise offers end-to-end mobility services to meet your airline connectivity needs. With global coverage across 190+ countries, GigSky provides superior international network coverage through Tier 1 operators at competitive roaming rates. The GigSky Enterprise Portal provides reports and analysis that help intelligently track mobile data across your organization. GigSky Enterprise Portal Admin Users can create custom notifications, manage data policies, and see usage in real-time.

In September 2015, Honeywell acquired Aviaso creating Honeywell Aviaso, an international aviation software company that offers fuel-efficiency and emissions-savings solutions to the airline industry. Fuel consumption can make up as much as 20 to 40 percent of an airline’s operating costs, and even single-digit percent efficiency improvements can save airlines tens of millions of dollars in fuel spending. Honeywell Aviaso’s expertise in data warehousing and analytics provides the most complete and technologically advanced fuel efficiency software solution in the industry today. In addition to fuelefficiency solutions, Honeywell Aviaso also provides software for emissions reporting as well as consulting and training for fuel efficiency and emissions management.

Honeywell Aviaso customers include Aer Lingus, Air Baltic, Air Berlin, Air Transat, Belair Airlines, Cargolux Airlines, CityJet, Condor, DFS (German ATC), Lufthansa, Etihad Airways, Europe Airpost, Finnair, Germanwings, KLM Cityhopper, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Widerøe, and others.

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PFB Paperless Flight Bag solution, PFB Back-Office Platform, PFB Document Management & Library Module, PFB Web Crew Portal & Notification Module, PFB Electronic Flight Planning Module, PFB Voyage/Journey Log Reporting Module (Pre+Post flight), PFB W & B/eLoadsheet Module w/ electronic sign-off, PFB Take-Off Performance ON-line, PFB Take-Off Performance OFF-line, PFB Landing Performance OFF-line, PFB eTechlog Module w/MEL data import/export, PFB eReporting Module, PFB Duty Time Registration Module

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • EModular PFB Platform Architecture • Modular PFB GUI Architecture • Seamless integrations with multiple back-end systems • Fully customized set-ups without expensive R & D costs • Designed for simplicity, userfriendliness and effectiveness IFS — International Flight Support is an innovative and experienced supplier of iPad OS and Windows XP/7/8 based EFB Platform solutions aimed exclusively at the aviation industry. The company was founded in 2001 and has a full decade of operational experience providing in-cockpit calculation solutions to airlines, business aircraft operators and military users. The PFB™ Paperless Flight Bag software solution defines a new standard for high quality modular EFB architecture. It was built to achieve complete data integration to any back-end software systems used by the operator while offering a unique degree of customization options that reflects each operator’s preferences.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 83

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Network / Commercial Planning with Optimizers • Flight Operations / Fleet Following • Flight Planning & Dispatch • Crew Operations Management with Optimizers • Maintenance, Engineering & Logistics A future-ready and fully integrated software applications suite for the aviation business: airlines, non-scheduled operators, MROs, airport operators, regulators and training facilities, with in-built optimizers, business intelligence (BI) & Data Analytics.

Our offerings may either be accessed as a complete suite covering the full spectrum of operations, or as a stand-alone module addressing a specific functional area, e.g., Network Planning, Flight Ops, Crew, Maintenance, Logistics or Safety or Analytics. The suite has a unified database that allows a seamless flow of data and information between operational functions. Our product is highly customizable and designed to adapt to clients’ specific requirements. We do our own implementations, on a turnkey basis, and also provide prompt, reliable and economical technical support in-life.

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DIRECTORY

Logipad DextraData

W: www.logipad.aero T: +49 201 95975 0 E: info@logipad.aero

Lufthansa Industry Solutions

W: www.lufthansa-industry-solutions.com T: +49 40 5070 30000 E: marketing.sales@lhind.dlh.de

Location: Essen, Germany

Location: Germany, Switzerland, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Logipad

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • DocManage Product Suite, • DocSurf Mobile, EFFOM, DocCreate

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • eBriefing / EFF • iPad und Windows EFB Management • Class-I EFB and Class-II EFB • Logipad for Pilots, Cabin and Maintenance Since 2002, Modern.Work has been providing airlines with Logipad, an inhouse-developed Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution. Logipad makes flight management simple, fast and smart for pilots, crew and ground members. Due to a Single Sync transaction process and modules like Document Management, eForms and eBriefing / EFF, Logipad reduces paperwork.

In 2017, Modern.Work GmbH merged with DextraData GmbH, an IT consulting company and independent software vendor.

Together the companies not only offer comprehensive expertise in IT services and EFB, but also implement and develop IT solutions such as Logipad according to customer needs. Furthermore, clients can profit from the companies’ cooperation with important IT and aviation manufacturers (e.g. Microsoft Corporation, Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. and Avialytics GmbH).

DextraData’s portfolio includes: Business Consulting, Cloud & Managed Services, IT Service & Enterprise Management, Next Generation Infrastructure, Modern Work / Software Infrastructure and Program & Project Management. The company is located in Gemany.

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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • IT Solutions and Process • Consulting for MRO • Electronic Flight Operation Manuals • Airline Job Card Content Management • Predictive Analytics and Maintenance • RFID Lufthansa Industry Solutions is an IT service company for process consulting and system integration. This wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Group supports its customers with the digital transformation of their company. Its customer base includes both companies within Lufthansa Group as well as more than 150 companies in various other industries.

The products EFOM and DocSurf Mobile were developed together with Lufthansa Airlines based on 15 years of common experience and excellence in electronic flight operations manuals and processes to fulfill both current and future requirements. • EFOM — A manufacturer independent Content Management System. Functionally mature and based on 17 years of experience, EFOM makes it possible to fulfill FlightOps requirements, e.g. expandable for new publishing backends; flexible to integrate new documents; open for customized enhancements or to integrate business processes such as Compliance Management. • DocSurf Mobile — A Library Viewer for MRO and FlightsOps documents is available as a native iOS app or Windows application. The revision service allows change lists to be checked and content to be compared with a previous version. Navigation is intuitive and includes a fast and easy search. A user independent management of favorites and notes is provided, keeping this information revision safe and available.

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Lufthansa Systems

NavAero / Global Eagle

W: www.LHsystems.com T: +49 69696 90000

E: marketing@lhsystems.com

W: www.globaleagle.com T: 310-437-6000 E: info@globaleagle.com

Location: Germany and in 16 other countries.

Location: USA, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • IT Solutions

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • “Smart” Mount Tablet EFB Systems • Virtual QAR Software Application • Universal Aircraft Interface Device • t•BagC22 Aircraft Dedicated EFB Systems • t•Cam Cockpit Door Surveillance Systems (CDSS)

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Operations and Commercial Solutions • Flight Deck Solutions • Finance Solutions • In-Flight Entertainment and Mobile Solutions • Professional Services and Consulting The company offers its more than 350 airline customers an extensive range of successful and in many cases marketleading products for the aviation industry. The innovative IT products and services in this portfolio offer customers a wide range of economic benefits while also contributing to improving efficiency and competitiveness. In addition, Lufthansa Systems also supports its customers both within and outside the Lufthansa Group with consulting services and the experience it has gained in projects for airlines of every size and business model.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 84

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Operation Solutions / Data Analytics • Content • Connectivity Systems Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:ENT) is a leading provider of satellite-based connectivity and media to fast-growing, global mobility markets across air, land and sea. Supported by proprietary and best-in-class technologies, Global Eagle offers a fully integrated suite of rich media content and seamless connectivity solutions that cover the globe. With approximately 1,500 employees and 50 offices on six continents, Global Eagle delivers exceptional service and rapid support to a diverse base of customers around the world. NavAero is a Global Eagle company that provides tablet-based and aircraft-dedicated Electronic Flight Bag systems to airlines as tools for increasing their operational efficiency and solving problems more effectively.

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DIRECTORY

NAVBLUE

NVable

W: www.navblue.aero T: +33 5 82 84 06 18 E: communications@navblue.aero

W: www.nvable.com T: +44 141 280 0050 E: contact@nvable.com

Location: Toulouse, France; Waterloo, Canada; and Hersham, UK

Location: UK

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Electronic Flight Bag applications • Fuel applications • Dispatch & Crew Planning • Airspace & Airport Consulting

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ConNVerge for Aviation

an Airbus Company

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Flight Bag & Documentations • Fuel Solutions • Ops Control Center Solutions • Consulting • Flight Data Analysis NAVBLUE is an aviation services company, dedicated to Flight Operations & Air Traffic Management Solutions, wholly owned by Airbus. Through digital & collaborative innovation, our passionate and customer-focused team develops solutions to enhance the safety and efficiency of air transport.

NAVBLUE provides solutions and services for mixed fleets and supports both civil and military environments, on the ground or on board any aircraft. NAVBLUE offers the highest level of expertise in digital cockpit operations, Operations Control Centre (OCC) systems, Flight Ops Engineering, Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Air Traffic Management (ATM).

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Techlog • Electronic Forms (Assessments) • Document Management • Operational Analysis • Station Operational Compliance The concept behind our CoNVerge platform is simple. We believe that businesses should have the flexibility to easily innovate and add new applications to their toolbox, without being stifled by legacy technology or a single technology brand.

CoNVerge is all about minimising risk, fuss and capital costs and maximising efficiency. Provided as a service, it combines a hosted environment and web portal with mobile applications and data interfaces to virtually any system.

The platform is easily integrated into your existing business systems and brings together the best tools to handle data acquisition and data analysis — all on scalable infrastructure.

Best of all, we even take the day-to-day management off your hands.

Our CoNVerge platform is blazing a trail in the aviation sector. In a hi-tech industry, where the stakes are even higher, long-standing clients such as British Airways Cityflyer know they can rely on NVable and our custom-designed software to make things simple, safer, more secure and streamlined.

We provide airlines with technology solutions that reduce effort, improve processes and produce useful information, with one simple goal — to change things for the better.

WHAT’S IN THE MRO ISSUE? MAJOR INDUSTRY COVID-19 SURVEY: Aircraft IT MRO 2020 survey: COVID-19 and the response of aviation IT developers and vendors

How leading IT developers and vendors gauge the impact of Covid-19/Coronavirus, what they are doing to help their clients in the current crisis plus what plans are afoot to leverage established solutions and/or develop new solutions to enable the aviation sector to recover and prosper in the post-Covid future.

CASE STUDY: Using digital solutions to drive efficiencies at APLUS Wilfredo E. Regalado, Director Corporate Finance, Strategic Planning and Information Technology, APLUS

SOLUTIONS IN PRACTICE: Real life essentials in five minutes Some recommendations to reduce NFF (No Fault Found) rate.

Leandro Correa, Senior Vice President, Seabury Solutions

WHITE PAPER: Aviation Maintenance and Covid-19

Allan Bachan, VP, ICF and Arun N, Aviation Solution Adviser, Ramco Systems

WHITE PAPER: Digital processes, e-signatures and ETL/ELB promise better ways of doing business in the post-Covid world Kirk Strutt — Senior Product Manager and Dan Dutton, VP, R&D, both responsible for Aerospace & Defense at IFS

VENDOR JOB CARD: Aviation InterTec Services (AIS)

In the latest of our Q&A pieces, Eric Hansen, Chief Executive Officer, Aviation InterTec Services Inc (AIS) completes his ‘Job Card’ for Aircraft IT.

Bring everything together and do IT better when you bring onboard CoNVerge and NVable.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 85

AIRCRAFT IT MRO

DIRECTORY

OpenAirlines

Orlando

Ovidius

PACE — a TXT company

W: www.openairlines.com T: +33 (0)5 31 61 52 18 E: stephane.nitenberg@openairlines.com

W: www.orlandotechpubs.com T: +33 (0) 534 362 971 E: contact@orlandotechpubs.com

Location: France, Asia, USA

Location: France

W: www.gds.eu/en T: +49 30 4081895-0 E: patrick.hallmann@ovidius.com

W: www.pace.de T: +4930293620 E: paceinfo@txtgroup.com

Location: Germany

Location: Germany, France, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • SkyBreathe Fuel Efficiency • Crew Intelligence • OptiFleet • CrewPad

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Orlando Suite for Tech Pubs

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • XR/docs, ARC-Desk, • TCToolbox Airline Edition

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Pacelab Flight Profile Optimizer • Pacelab CI OPS

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • XML Content Management • System (CMS) • Revision Management Workflow • Electronic Publications for EFB • PDF Publication with Change Packages • Consulting and Support

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Flight Profile Optimization • Cost Index Operations • Fuel Efficiency • Operational Efficiency • EFB Library Viewer

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fuel Efficiency • Crew Efficiency • Fleet Efficiency • EU-ETS Management • Cabin Crew CRM Based in Toulouse, the cradle of aeronautics and space, OpenAirlines was created in 2006 to help airlines optimize their operations. Thanks to a highly qualified and committed team of Fuel Experts, Data Scientists, and IT Specialists, OpenAirlines is today a world leader in the market for flight operations optimization software with a range of complete solutions answering all the key requirements of aviation professionals.

Drawing on 8 years of R&D, OpenAirlines has developed SkyBreathe®, an innovative eco-flying solution based on Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data to save fuel and reduce airlines’ carbon footprint by up to 5%.

Rewarded by many innovation awards and leader in the low-cost market, the software is now used by a very active community of 30+ airlines around the world including Malaysia Airlines, Norwegian, Cebu Pacific, flydubai and Atlas Air… Now composed of 40 fuel experts with offices in Miami and Hong Kong, OpenAirlines continues its growth and begins in 2018 the development of a new module, called SkyBreathe® OnBoard, designed to be embedded in the cockpit to give recommendations to pilots in real time.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Cloud Aviation Document Management • OEM and company manuals XML authoring • Controls & Data Analytics • Publi shing and Distribution • Web & Mobile & EFB document viewer Orlando Suite for Tech Pubs is an XML-based cloud Document Management System designed for airlines, MRO and manufacturers.

It is the unique solution capable of managing Company, Flight Ops, Maintenance and Engineering manuals in one system. It is natively compliant with OEMs’ proprietary electronic data schemas and with the main aviation technical data standards (ATA Spec 2300, ATA iSpec 2200, S1000D).

Orlando Suite features are in 7 modules to streamline the manuals lifecycle: Library (Cloud CMS), Editor (Web based WYSIWYG editing, content reuse), Merger (automated OEM/ airline manuals reconciliation), Analytics (data checker, compliance to regulations, revision report), Publisher (HTML, PDF and XML), Dispatcher (Distribution of publications, Mobile Content Management), Explorer (Web & Mobile & EFB viewers).

Ovidius offers complete solutions for creating, managing, and distributing airline operation manuals, which allow for fast revision cycles by extensive automation of crucial processes.

Our solutions support our customers in meeting regulatory requirements (IOSA / EASA) and we are certified according to EN 9100:2009.

Working with many of the leading OEMs, engine manufacturers and airlines for more than two decades has enabled us to develop a range of innovative products that directly respond to the challenges of the international aviation community.

We closely collaborate with performance and cabin engineers, senior training captains, fuel conservation and operational efficiency managers, EFB teams and consultants to deliver hands-on support for strategic and operational tasks.

It also supports interoperability with other systems, and (manuals can be exported to their native XML standard. Our customers benefit from the best in class secured Cloud offer as well as premium support services delivered by our Tech Pubs experts committed to assisting users at every stage of the process.

Orlando is the sole off-the-shelf solution approved by the leading turboprop manufacturer ATR to manage the ATR Flight Operations XML manuals.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 86

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DIRECTORY

AIRCRAFT IT Pivot

Rolls-Royce

The SA Group

W: www.pivotcase.com T: +1 281-895-0128 E: mike@flyboys.com

W: www.controlsdata.com T: +44 (0) 1332 777 100 E: info@controlsdata.com

W: www.scanav.com T: +45 7950 8000 E: sa@scanav.com

Locations: Dahlewitz, Germany; Bristol, UK; Derby, UK; Houston, USA; Indianapolis, USA; Singapore; Wellington, NZ.

Locations: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Greece, Bahrain, CIS, India and Malaysia

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • VisiumDIAGNOSTIC • VisiumFUEL • VisiumEMISSIONS • VisiumFLEET • VisiumAQD

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Scandinavian Avionics’ Tablet Based EFB Solution

Location: Houston, Texas

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • PIVOT mounting solutions KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Mounts for EFB • Mounting plate • LTRM - Long Term Removable Mounts PIVOT is a worldwide provider of EFB-related products, which are anchored by the patented and iconic universal PIVOT mounting plate. EFB devices housed in protective PIVOT cases connect directly to the PIVOT mounts. Featuring unequaled pilot EFB functionality while also retaining full corporate IT flexibility, PIVOT is deployed to over 100 airlines including Delta, United, Southwest, Cathay Pacific, Singapore and ANA. PIVOT revolutionized the process of EFB deployments and effectively removed the need for cradles driven by changing form factors, saving customers millions in equipment, labor, and deployment time.

PIVOT mounting solutions include a unique, new class of mounts referred to as LTRM’s or Long Term Removable Mounts. LTRM solutions provide the integrated style, security and function of an installed mount at a fraction of the cost with virtually instantaneous deployment.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Equipment Health Monitoring • Fuel Management • Emissions Monitoring • Fleet Reporting • Safety, Quality and Risk Management • MRO Business and Parts Management • Expert Consultancy Today, in the aerospace sector only, over 1,300 customers are benefiting from our Data Services globally. Through our EHM services, we monitor around 10,000 engines, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, analysing billions of data points on-board per flight, and millions every day on the ground. Our data services complement the Group’s TotalCare® Service Solutions of Maintenance, Availability, Efficiency and Asset Value, allowing our customers to increase availability of their critical assets, minimising risk and operational disruption to ultimately improve their operational efficiency.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Flight Bag Solutions • Avionics Certification • Avionics Installation • Avionics Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul • Avionics Training Scandinavian Avionics offers a state-of-the-art, future-proof, tablet based Class 2 EFB solution, which provides the functionality to meet today’s operational requirements of airlines and aircraft operators and in addition is simple to upgrade in the future to meet coming requirements.

The concept consists of two ruggedized 10.1” Panasonic tablets installed in the cockpit combined with a data integration center and a communication unit installed in the avionics compartment. The data integration center is used for power, aircraft interface and server capability and the communication unit enables and controls the data communication between the EFB system and the airline’s ground infrastructure.

The SA Group provides complete turn-key avionics solutions for civil and military aircraft.

Operations

Webinars eJournals Software Conferences News Advisory Unit Want to be involved?

Simply email scott.leslie@aircraftIT.com for more information

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 87

www.aircraftIT.com

DIRECTORY

Safety Line

SITA FOR AIRCRAFT

Snecma

Smart4Aviation

W: www.safety-line.fr/en T: +33 (0)1.55.43.75.71 E: contact@safety-line.fr

W: www.sitaonair.aero E: media.relations@sitaonair.aero

W: www.snecma.com T: +33 1 1 60 59 40 74 E: jeanthomas.rey@snecma.fr

W: www.smart4aviation.aero T: +31 20 654 1824 E: info@smart4aviation.aero

Location: Villaroche/Montereau (Paris area, France)

Location: Netherlands, Poland, Canada, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • SFCO2®: Smart Fuel Efficiency; Engine Remote Diagnostics; • Engine Fleet Management

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Smart LOAD, Smart COMM, Smart BRIEF • Smart VIEW+, Smart OPERATIONS MANAGER

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fuel Efficiency Service • Engine Health Monitoring • Engineering Supports

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Weight and Balance • Communication and Alerting • Pilot and Cabin Crew Briefing • Flight Planning and Tracking • Fleet Management

Location: Paris, France

Location: Switzerland. Regional Offices in: USA, UAE, UK, Canada, France, Brazil and Singapore.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • SafetyCube, OptiClimb, • FlightScanner, AirsideWatch

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • AIRCOM applications and services, Datalink, EFB solutions, CrewTab

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Safety Management System (SMS) • Fuel Efficiency • Fuel Management Systems • Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) • Ground Operations

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • AIRCOM applications: FlightTracker, FlightPlanner, FlightMessenger • Cockpit Applications and Services • AIRCOM ACARS Services • AIRCOM Datalink Applications • AIRCOM Information Services

Safety Line is an innovative digital technology company, specialized in data management software solutions for aviation. With a team of highly experienced Aviation Industry and Safety experts (including former BEA investigators), Data Scientists and IT specialist, Safety Line is in a position to propose an extensive range of products able to match the world’s issues challenges in air transport.

OptiClimb is based on Machine Learning combined with Optimization and aims at reducing the fuel consumption through the use of flight data. After 2 years of R&D, it was applied to a fleet of Boeing 737 at Transavia France and demonstrated that 10% of the fuel used during climb ended up in $40 savings per flight. Yearly, it means that for one aircraft the savings can reach $80’000. With 25 aircraft in its fleet, Transavia can save $ 2 M per year. It is a very promising offer for any airline.

SITAONAIR was born to drive new thinking and address challenges airlines face in ground and inflight connectivity, cockpit data services and air traffic management solutions, aircraft communications and infrastructure solutions, as well as application development for both passengers and crew.

Snecma (Safran) offers its customers world-class services throughout the life of their engines via its comprehensive service package named EngineLife®. This offer embodies Snecma’s experience and recognized expertise as an OEM on engine performance & maintenance, flight operations and IT. The aim of our services is to help our customers meet their operational requirements and decrease their operating costs.

A fully owned subsidiary of SITA In January 2015, SITA and OnAir formed SITAONAIR as part of the SITA Group to help airlines realise the full potential of the connected aircraft. This combined SITA’s proven knowledge of airline communications and IT, and OnAir’s expertise in supplying in-flight connectivity. As the world’s leading specialist in air transport communications and information technology, SITA provides the broadest portfolio for the air transport industry.

Our web based and mobile solutions with an exceptional support are recognized within the industry as being some of the most dependable and innovative in the market. All of our current customers such as Air Canada, Delta Air Lines, Air France, Emirates, Air New Zealand, Qantas, easyJet, Thomas Cook, Thomson Airways, flydubai, Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, Martinair and Air Austral have all benefitted from implementing Smart4Aviation solutions.

SafetyCube is an integrated risk and compliance management software that provides airlines with a ready-to-use solution for new IR-OPS requirements. FlightScanner allows you to automatically identify the factors which explain hazardous situations based on all flights data. AirsideWatch determines the runway condition without interfering with operations at a time when airport safety and capacity issues have become increasingly complex to manage.

CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo

Smart4Aviation is one of the fastest growing companies in aviation operations, founded to provide web and mobile based products and services designed to optimize, simplify and improve airline operations. Our company is committed to delivery of the highest quality, most innovative and costeffective, state-of-the-art solutions to support all of your current and future operational business needs. Our products effectively manage all operational business units, such as Operations Control Management, Load Planning and Weight & Balance, Communications (all Operational and Corporate branches), Flight Planning, NOTAM Management, Flight Dispatch, Flight and Cabin Crew Briefing, Weather, Flight Tracking and Aircraft Performance.

Smart4Aviation’s web and mobile-based solutions have been acknowledged as the “Smart Choice” within the industry by a number of international and domestic air carriers.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 88

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DIRECTORY

StorkJet

TrustFlight

Ultramain

UTC Aerospace Systems

W: www.storkjet.com T: +48 600 800 528 E: info@storkjet.com

W: www.trustflight.io T: 44 (0) 330 229 0219 E: info@trustflight.io

W: www.ultramain.com T: +1.505.828.9000 E: sales@ultramain.com

Location: Poland

Location: Leamington Spa, UK; Edinburgh, UK; Luton, UK; St Helier, Jersey

W: www.utcaerospacesystemsEFB.com T: Toll Free 1-844-UTAS-EFB T: (844-882-7332) E: efb@utas.utc.com

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • advancedAPM

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Tech Log, Task Cards • Digital Logbook • CAMO (service) • Aircraft Registry (service)

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft performance monitoring • Diagnosis of performance problems • Fuel efficiency analysis • Aircraft/engine benchmarking Aircraft Performance & Fuel Efficiency — Our Passion, Your Savings: We analyze airlines’ flight data to provide the most precise aircraft performance and optimize fuel consumption. advancedAPM: The performance of each aircraft changes over time. If not tracked precisely, planning an accurate amount of fuel as well as executing flights at optimum speed and altitude is a challenge and may easily lead to loss of fuel efficiency. Storkjet advancedAPM is a fully automated, most precise Aircraft Performance Monitoring platform which allows the maximizing of fuel efficiency in these areas.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft log books • Aircraft maintenance task cards • Digital and paperless working • CAMO support • Aircraft Registry support From inception, TrustFlight has been ingrained in the aviation industry. Founded by two commercial pilots with a proven track record at the intersection of technology and business, the business has grown considerably and with stability, having recently celebrated the opening of a fourth office.

Throughout, TrustFlight gained an incredible team with backgrounds spanning different areas of aviation and technology, ensuring a solid presence in the industry. Now offering a range of products and services within the sector, TrustFlight helps to remove costly paperwork and associated errors, preserve aircraft value, and increase efficiency and safety in aircraft operations.

Five values shape TrustFlight’s culture, guide the business’s work and the way it grows. Integrity Transparent and open: offering trust to partners and assuming it from them. Responsibility Owning the work they do and taking responsibilty for it: striving to make it the best possible.

Leadership Leading from within: providing support for the team to do incredible work and drive the industry forwards.

Innovation Products are crafted for the future needs of the industry, going beyond what exists in the market. Excellence Every one of TrustFlight’s values contributes towards the excellence in their products.

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Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Location: Burnsville, MN, USA (Corporate Headquaters Charlotte, NC, USA)

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ULTRAMAIN® v9™ M&E / MRO • ULTRAMAIN Mobile Mechanic™ • ULTRAMAIN Mobile Inventory™ • ULTRAMAIN ELB™ • ULTRAMAIN M&E / MRO: 31 modules including: Configuration Management; Line/Base Mx Planning; Line/ Base Mx Scheduling; GATe; Quality Assurance; Asset Management KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Maintenance & Engineering • MRO • Military Maintenance • Maintenance Planning & Scheduling • Paperless Customer Care on Mobile Devices • Electronic Technical Logbook Ultramain Systems, Inc. develops M&E / MRO and ELB software for the aviation industry and is the only aviation software provider with customers running full, end-to-end paperless operations from the cockpit to the ground.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • “OpsInsight™ Electronic Flight Folder • Tablet-compatible EFB Systems • SmartDisplay® EFB Systems • Aircraft Tracking Capabilities” KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Tablet EFB Systems • EFB Hardware • EFB Applications & Content Management • Flight Tracking Capabilities • Customizable solutions UTC Aerospace Systems provides hardware and software solutions that enable operators of all types of aircraft to access, manage, and use aircraft data to increase operational efficiency and enhance flight safety. Our newest product offering, OpsInsight™ Electronic Flight Folder, is the first app designed around the day in the life of a commercial pilot.

It connects the user to the aircraft via our Tablet Interface Module (TIM®) and Aircraft Interface Device (AID) and integrates flight planning, avionics data, flight performance tracking, and weather data with real-time updates and notifications to enable both in-flight performance improvement as well as long-term route optimization.

ULTRAMAIN v9, featuring Mobile Mechanic and Mobile Inventory enables real-time paperless data collection for the full maintenance and inventory process. Combine ULTRAMAIN v9 with ULTRAMAIN ELB, the easy-to-use electronic logbook, and the entire maintenance process becomes paperless. Contact us to learn what you need to equip your organization with customer mobile devices and see why elite aviation customers around the world are choosing ULTRAMAIN to reduce costs and increase aircraft up time.

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AIRCRAFT IT Operations • JULY-AUGUST 2020 • 89

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DIRECTORY

Viasat

Vistair Systems

Web Manuals International

Yonder

W: www.viasat.com/airlines T: +353 1611 4625 E: hello.ireland@viasat.com

W: www.vistair.com T: 01454 550663 E: info@vistair.com

W: www.webmanuals.aero T: +46 (0)40 694 10 40 E: info@webmanuals.aero

W: www.yonder.info T: +41 43 215 27 94 E: contact@yonder.info

Location: Ireland, USA, India, Australia, Switzerland, UK, China

Location: United Kingdom

Location: Sweden, USA

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • AeroDocs Airline Document Management System • Viasat Wireless IFE • Viasat In-flight Internet • Viasat EFB • Viasat Connected Aircraft Platform

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • DocuNet, CrewNet, SafetyNet, QualityNet, RiskNet

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Web Manuals

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Yonder Mind

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Monitoring • Authoring • Editing • Publishing • Distribution

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Content Management System • Workflow-based Content Distribution • Compliance Tracking • Content-based Learning

Multiple modules available, deployed to meet airline’s specific needs.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aviation Document Management Solution • Aviation Safety Management Software • Aviation Quality Management Solution • Crew Notices and Bulletins Software

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Connected Aircraft Platform • AeroDocs Document Management System • Modular EFB • Wireless IFE • In-flight Internet/Connectivity

Vistair provides document, safety and quality management technology solutions to support the delivery of improved safety, compliance, and operational efficiency that results in significant commercial savings to airline organisations.

Combining technology, development expertise and service delivery, Vistair’s solutions provide both airlines and ground operations with an approach that helps demonstrate a clear link between increased reporting and a change in procedures and behaviours, to drive a safer organisation.

A connected aircraft platform with document control, pilot EFB, wireless IFE, and in-flight internet products and services plus a software platform and mobile apps for aircraft and flight-related data; the right information to pilots, flight ops and passengers. AeroDocs document management is easy-touse in operations of all sizes, globally. It is enterprise-grade, scalable and the only end-to-end system managing the entire document lifecycle while supporting compliance.

AeroDocs is modular, with complete control over editing, distribution and viewing of documents on the ground and in the cockpit. Document control for Flight ops and EFB admins. Customised reporting supports safety and compliance managers, while controlling risk. AeroDocs is designed to transform your airline’s approach to document management, and support strategic business goals.

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Document Management: DocuNet™ is a powerful document management and distribution solution, capable of delivering a complete operational library of all mission-critical content across all platforms,and fleets. It provides a process for airlines to control the intellectual content of manuals, with Vistair handling processes relating to data, publication and delivery, enabling airlines to focus on core business operations.

Safety/Quality Management: SafetyNet™ is an aviation reporting system and investigation solution that drives real change in the management of safety-related occurrences.

It is currently deployed by a number of global airlines including Delta and also counts the military among its user base. Complementing this is RiskNet™ an advanced, change and aviation risk management solution that provides hazard identification. Integrating with both, QualityNet™ is a comprehensive aviation compliance software that enables Quality Managers to manage audit schedules, checklists and non-compliances through an intuitive interface.

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Web Manuals International AB has developed knowledgemanagement solutions for the aviation industry since 2008, with the headquarters in Malmö, Sweden and an office in San Diego, California. Web Manuals is a tool for digitizing manuals to simplify authoring and distribution of company manuals for the aviation industry.

Web Manuals is available as a Software-as-a-Service subscription, with minimal training and configuration required to get started. The service includes support, hosting, availability monitoring, maintenance, and at least two system upgrades per year.

Stay in control of your content and bring reliable, rolespecific information to frontline employees — with one fully customizable content management solution. Yonder Mind is an easy-to-use content management solution designed specifically for controlled information like operation manuals, guidelines, rules, or regulations. Our unique approach allows users to work with dynamic content instead of static documents. Dynamic content will display the right information at the right time, depending on the user profile and on the context of use. A powerful search function further improves end-user satisfaction.

In short, our clients save time and money in editing, publishing and distributing their operational manuals while being able to publish new revisions as often as needed and gain a full control of their documentation and communication systems.

Yonder Mind brings operational documentation and manufacturer manuals together in one solution. Pilots work with the easy to use YM Offline App and enjoy role-specific revision updates instead of having to go through hundreds of revised pages. Editors create and enhance content in the YM Editor while revisions become manageable again thanks to the fully integrated YM Workflow. Company guides (e.g.

Winter Ops Guide) can be created without having to worry about duplicates anymore since information is only contained once in Yonder Mind. And never miss a change in regulation again thanks to our IQSMS Connector.

The Web Manuals Compliance Libraries enable compliance automation by allowing controlled real-time compliance monitoring of company procedures linked to Implementing Rules and Acceptable Means of Compliance in the EASA and FAA regulations, as well as a number of aviation standards such as IOSA, IS-BAO and ARGUS.

We have over 15 years of experience with electronic documentation in aviation that we can leverage to our customers’ benefit. Our team has a diverse background ranging from a former EFB administrator for a large international airline to a long-haul captain knowing, from his own experience, what crews need.

We set the standard for digitizing manuals for the aviation industry by providing an easy-to-use solution enabling endto-end control, compliance, agility and cost-efficiency.

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