Aircraft IT Operations

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

An EFB Special

• A return on investment in 12-24 months • Norwegian Case Study: a year using Class II EFB Real-time BI; for decision makers PIC: pilot or processor in command?

IT systems saving fuel White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting • TFM Aviation • Flight Guidance Case Studies: Bangkok Airways • Norwegian Air Shuttle

WILBUR & ORVILLE MIGHT NOT HAVE INVENTED AIRLINE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS….. ……NEITHER DID WE, WE JUST GOT IT RIGHT

At Flight Focus we know that using the correct tools is essential to get the job done properly The Flight Focus PLATFORM™, an enhanced Electronic Flight Bag, provides flight crew with leading-edge open application hosting of Class 2 software through a certified Class 3 EFB As a fully integrated end-to-end solution, the PLATFORM connects seamlessly with an airline’s Engineering, Flight Operations and Back Office departments On the flight deck, the crew has access to all the latest Weather and NOTAM data and information, including electronic documents and manuals, automatically synchronized and under full configuration management The Flight Focus PLATFORM™ includes an extensive range of secure global communications options: Iridium® SATCOM, 3G / HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and Extended Bluetooth Linking to the ARINC 429 Databus provides airlines with alternative and substantially lower cost communications channels for the receipt and transmission of AOC messages Data from the ARINC 717 Databus provides the vital link to better manage flight operations, especially with integrated fuel analysis tools.

Seamless integration with LPC, OPT and other Performance Analysis tools allow flight crews more options to optimize their Take-Off and Landings, leading to enhanced safety and improved engine life through the ability to perform reduced thrust take-offs Integrating your E-Charts, E-Documents, ETechlog, AMM, FOQA, FDM and CDSS has never been easier with the Flight Focus PLATFORM™ - with no major upfront costs, airlines see an almost immediate return on their investment.

Operations are completely visible right across the airline with client customizable dashboard views – having the right data in the right place at the right time Flight Focus offers 24/7 Customer Support with worldwide Sales and Account teams in place.

Visit www.flightfocus.net for more information Email: sales@flightfocus.net Globally Connected, Always On!

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | CONTENTS | 3

04 An introduction to AircraftIT Operations

Find out about Live online software demonstrations, private demos, Expert online consultancies, software search engine, plus more.

06 Latest News & Technology Updates

The technology that underpins aircraft operations is constantly improving and airlines and aircraft operators need to select and work with the best vendors for their business model. Look here for the latest developments and who is using what IT system.

Editor’s comment Welcome to AircraftIT Operations; key information for operations written by people in the industry.

IT is the new leading edge development in aircraft operations with new and updated IT solutions continually coming to market. They’re all designed to assist the pilot and operations departments in reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving the passenger experience – flying their fleet. But selecting the right solution is not simple; so we’ve harnessed the real-life expertise of pilots and operations insiders to better inform Operations IT decision makers and practitioners.

Innovative airlines and aircraft operators are adopting systems and trying new IT practices with varying degrees of success. In today’s challenging times it is more important than ever that these experiences are shared and discussed to support better understanding and the IT sector’s drive to assist the global industry.

AircraftIT Operations is the platform where Operations and IT come together to exchange expertise and ideas. With this in mind, each eJournal features keynote White Papers written by leading consultants and Industry experts along with case studies from the IT users themselves –airlines and aircraft operators.

In this opening edition, the EFB special, you’ll find a cutting edge EFB case study from Norwegian and a keynote white paper from Flight Guidance as well as superb white papers and case studies from Bangkok Airways, Lufthansa Consulting and TFM Aviation. Thank you to all of our authors for excellent and informative features based on real-life experience.

You, the reader, are invited to continue the exchange of expertise and ideas using the interactive nature of this eJournal to ask questions of the authors or to start discussions by leaving your views and experiences on similar topics after each article.

IT buyers can keep up-to-date with the latest software and upgrades on the market via the latest news and technology section and software directory within the eJournal and take part in live software demo webinars at www.aircraftIT.com (see pages 4 & 5 for full details) Given the subject matter we really had no choice but to go paperless; therefore AircaftIT Operations is only available as an eJournal. This makes a free exchange of ideas even easier so please forward this eJournal onto your colleagues and let the sharing of knowledge begin.

I look forward to receiving your feedback.

Ed Haskey, Editor.

10 White Paper: Designing the Enterprise Solution

T he Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) is a very attractive idea whose time has come but there are a number of options for the way an EFB is configured and its capabilities: one thing is certain; it will work best as part of the whole system Bud Sittig, President and Jim Becker, Partner, Flight Guidance LLC

18 Case Study: EFB: Posing Questions and Offering Answers

The benefits of the paperless cockpit: Myth, Hype or Reality? The classic paper based cockpit procedures has been refined for decades. Is it really worthwhile to change it with possibly immature technology?

John Christian Paulshus, Head of Business Development Operational IT Solutions, Norwegian

22 White Paper: Fuel Efficiency through IT Support

Calculating the right amount of fuel to carry is more than a function of engine efficiency; it is the result of an intelligent enterprise wide application of relevant flight related information and regulations Capt. Marcel Martineau, President, TFM Aviation Inc.

29 Upcoming Live Software Demonstration Webinars

A preview of the Live Software/Hardware Demonstration Webinars from 2 leading EFB Vendors: navAero and AMT coming up in June.

32 Case Study: PIC: Pilot-in-command or Processor-incommand?

There are many things we can do but that doesn’t mean that we always should do them. We know that the technology exists for pilotless airplanes but, for the foreseeable future, there is unlikely to be the markets appetite to use them. That doesn’t mean ‘don’t use technology’; it means use it appropriately Ping na Thalang, Vice President Information Systems Dept, Bangkok Airways

35 Aircraft IT MRO eJournal

An outline of our sister eJournal: AircraftIT MRO

36 White Paper: Business Intelligence: More than just information alone

Like many toys in the business process box, business intelligence (BI) can transform operations from mere functions to vision delivering, customer satisfaction success stories; but it takes more than new IT systems to change a business Gesine Varfis, Managing Consultant, Lufthansa Consulting

42 Event Preview: Airline & Aerospace MRO & Operations IT Conference – EMEA, Frankfurt, 13th & 14th July 2011 Find out which 40+ IT vendors are exhibiting their software solutions.

44 Software Directory

A detailed look at the world’s leading Operations IT systems.

CLICK HERE: Send your feedback and suggestions to AircraftIT OPS CLICK HERE: Subscribe for free

46 Next Issue

What’s coming up in the June/July edition of AircaftIT Operations.

AircraftIT OPS 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 2011 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.

AircraftIT Operations

Publisher/Editor:

E-mail:

Telephone:

Website: Copy Editor/Contributor: Magazine Production:

E-mail:

Ed Haskey ed.haskey@aircraft-commerce.com +44 1403 230 700 or +44 1273 700 555 www.aircraftIT.com John Hancock Dean Cook deancook@magazineproduction.com

4 | WELCOME | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Welcome to aircraftIT Operations The latest developments, ideas and shared experience for aircraft operations IT users and decision makers.

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

An EFB Special

• Realise a return on investment within 12-24 months • Norwegian Case Study: A year operating a Class II EFB Realtime Business Intelligence for Decision Making The Paperless Cockpit – Myth or Reality?

How IT systems can save fuel consumption White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting, TFM Aviation and Flight Guidance • Case Studies: Bangkok Airways

I

Aircraft IT OPS V1.1 April-May 2011.indd 1

and Norwegian Air Shuttle 27/04/2011 11:56

T is the new leading edge development in aircraft operations. There are always new and updated IT solutions coming to market, all designed to assist in making better use of resources and assets through lower costs, increased efficiency, better route planning, enhanced flight deck access to information, better informed ground handling, and improved payload and fuel management. It all adds up to a better customer experience and a stronger bottom line.

But choosing IT software is not a simple matter; after all, it has to address the matrix of needs, priorities and solutions into which this sophisticated market has grown. AircraftIT Operations is an invaluable one-stop reference resource where IT users and decision makers in airlines and aircraft operators worldwide can review all the major systems available, learn from current users’ experiences and consider how different systems might perform in their own businesses.

IT systems are business critical resources for aircraft operations; the right solutions correctly implemented can make that huge difference between an OK performance and game changing excellence. AircraftIT Operations is designed to supply IT buyers with the vital information they need when negotiating the maze of different solutions available, and to support informed decisions using the following tools.

eJournal: Aircraft IT Operations We’ve harnessed the expertise of industry insiders and IT users themselves to provide a comprehensive reference source for the industry with each eJournal including white papers from leading industry experts and consultants, and case studies from real life IT users – airlines and aircraft operators.

The eJournal operates as a perfect platform for the global exchange of ideas and expertise, and you the reader are invited to take part, using the interactive

capability of this publication. At the end of each white paper and case study there will be the option to either ask the author a question or to contribute general feedback and start a discussion – look out for the interactive buttons.

The eJournal is published bi-monthly and is free to everyone, but to receive every issue you will need to register for a subscription:

INTERACTIVE

SIGN UP FOR FREE HERE

CLICK HERE TO LEAVE YOUR DETAILS FOR FREE SUBSCRIPTION. IT ONLY TAKE A FEW MOMENTS.

Software Search Engine The AircraftIT Operations portal (www.aircraftIT. com) includes a powerful software search engine with which you can learn more about IT vendors and the systems they supply. You can Search by vendor or drill down further and search by software or module type, using the Module search facility.

For instance, if you are looking for ‘Electronic Flight Bag’ solutions or information, select the relevant module option and all the system providers will be shortlisted for you.

Live Online Software Demonstration Webinars Every two weeks the AircraftIT Operations portal hosts a live software demonstration webinar, each event delivered by a different vendor. These sessions represent the perfect opportunity to learn about a

software solution in a more informal manner and to quickly gain an in depth knowledge of all the major systems on the market.

The IT vendor provides a live software demonstration of their solution and explains how it can benefit airlines and aircraft operators. Once logged on, online delegates can ask questions via the interactive white board or simply sit back and watch the demonstration. There are two sessions during the day, each differently timed to accommodate all time zones.

Details of the first two live software webinar sessions can be found on pages 29-31 and a full list can be viewed at the AircraftIT Operations portal (www.aircraftIT.com). It is extremely easy to log into webinar sessions and they run on a straightforward to use webinar platform built specifically for the portal.

Private one-to-one Software Demonstrations: Use the AircraftIT Operations portal to arrange private one-to-one internet demonstrations with your vendor(s) of choice, to quickly create a shortlist or to simply find out more about what solutions are available. Whichever you decide to do (do them all, if you wish), the private software demonstrations represent the ideal bespoke solution where all your questions regarding particular software solutions can be answered directly and by experts.

Demonstrations take place using the bespoke AircraftIT Operations webinar platform, and you decide on your preferred date and time for the session. The IT vendor will confirm the session and you will then receive your unique username, password and login information.

Ask the Expert Leading industry consultants and experts are on hand at the AircraftIT Operations portal with informed and impartial advice in response to any questions you may have. As you know Operations IT can be a mine-field, a complex matrix of solutions and options: ‘Ask the Expert’ represents a fantastic opportunity to avoid common mistakes and to ensure that an IT project runs smoothly by ‘picking the brains’ of a leading industry expert.

Ask the Expert works in a similar way to the software search engine, in that airlines, MROs and aircraft operators can search through a list of experts either by name or they can drill down and search for a particular area of expertise, for example: Software Selection or Project Management.

Once you have chosen an expert simply use the AircraftIT Operations portal to send your enquiry and let your expert assist you with the problem – visit www.aircraftIT.com for full details.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WELCOME | 5

IT Conferences/Exhibitions AircraftIT is affiliated with Aircraft Commerce organizer of the world’s leading Aircraft Operations IT Conferences. Over the past six years, Aircraft Commerce events have set the standards in the EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Americas zones, successfully bringing together IT Vendors with airlines and aircraft operators in those regions.

Each event offers delegates from airlines and aircraft operators a wonderful opportunity to review their entire aircraft operations IT platform in just two days and each event follows the same format: • A large exhibition area provides IT vendors with the ideal platform to demonstrate their software solutions while, at the same time, allowing airlines and aircraft operators the chance to try out all the major systems under the same roof over just two days.

• A conference agenda of keynote presentations, IT user case studies and interactive workshops ensure that delegates receive key information on the pressing issues and trends in this rapidly developing industry sector.

• Beyond the structured events, there are also outstanding opportunities for networking between delegates from airlines and aircraft operators to exchange ideas and share experiences.

Upcoming events Airline & Aerospace MRO & Operations IT Conference – EMEA: 13th & 14th July 2011,

Frankfurt, Germany Airline & Aerospace MRO & Operations IT Conference – APAC: 18th & 19th October 2011, Singapore A preview of the EMEA show can be found on pages 42-43.

Latest News and Technology Updates Let AircraftIT Operations keep you up to date with the latest industry news and developments such as who has purchased what system and which IT vendors are offering updated or new solutions. The news stream is constantly updated on the portal and included every two months in the eJournal.

Aircraft IT Operations: it’s YOUR reference tool; feedback needed!

AircraftIT Operations is designed to provide the aircraft operations community with the high quality information needed to navigate the myriad IT systems available on the market and to support properly informed decisions on what has become a business critical process for the industry.

We therefore need your feedback to ensure that we have delivered all the information that you need. Is there anything extra you would like to see covered in AircraftIT Operations? Or is there more information you would like to tap into? Do you have a case study or white paper you would like to share with your colleagues? Get in touch with us at the link below.

! STOP PRESS !

The April-May 2011 issue of AircraftIT Operations includes a special focus section covering the latest developments in electronic flight bag (EFB) solutions along with a articles and white papers about real EFB experience plus the latest thinking about how EFB can add functionality on the flight deck and much, much more as part of an integrated, enterprise wide IT solution.

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CLICK HERE TO LEAVE YOUR FEEDBACK AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS HERE.

Sign up for your free subscription Every part of AircraftIT Operations is free of charge; however, in order to receive the eJournal and take part in the live software demonstrations, leave feedback, etc. you will first have to register as a free member at AircraftIT. Please also forward this on to your colleagues.

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CLICK HERE TO LEAVE YOUR DETAILS FOR FREE SUBSCRIPTION. IT ONLY TAKE A FEW MOMENTS.

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Subscribe for FREE to AircraftIT eJournal Operations today to receive all future eJournals!

• For case studies, keynote white papers, latest news & technology; all the knowledge you need

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

An EFB Spec Anial Anial EFB Spec EFB Special

• Realise a return on investmen • Realisetawithin • Realise tawithin return12-24 on investmen on investmen months return12-24 months t within 12-24 months • Norwegian Case Study:• Norwegian • Norwegian Case Study: Case Study: A year operating AIIyear a Class a ClassAIIyear EFB operating EFBoperating a Class II EFB

Realtime Business Intelligence Realtime Realtime for Business forBusiness for Decision Making Decision Intelligence Decision Intelligence Making Making The Paperless Cockpit – Myth The Paperless The Paperless Cockpit – Myth Cockpit – Myth or Reality? or Reality? or Reality?

How IT systems can saveHow IT systems can saveHow systems can fuel consumptio fuel IT consumptio n n save fuel consumption White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting, TFM Aviation Aircraft IT OPS V1.1 April-May 2011.indd

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White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting, TFM Aviation White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting, TFM Aviation and Flight Guidance and Flight Guidance • Case Studies: Bangkok Airways and Flight Guidance • Case Studies: Bangkok Airways • Case Studies: Bangkok Airways and and Norwegian Air Shuttle and Norwegian Air Shuttle Norwegian Air Shuttle

Aircraft IT OPS V1.1 April-May 2011.indd

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Aircraft IT OPS V1.1 April-May 2011.indd

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27/04/2011 11:56

27/04/2011 11:56

27/04/2011 11:56

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AircraftIT: All about Solutions for Airlines and Aircraft Aircraft IT OPS House Ads 0411 x HP.indd 4

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6 | NEWS & TECHNOLOGY | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

BYTRON announces launch of skybook®eFB on the Apple iPad

I

n response to demand for a more cost-effective EFB hardware solution, UK based aviation system specialists company BYTRON has announced the launch of its EFB application suite skybook® on the Apple iPad. BYTRON is a UK based company that, for 25 years, has been specializing in aviation data systems, delivering weather, operational data and integrated 24/7 flight data management solutions for airlines, airports and air traffic control organizations. skybook®eFB on the iPad was demonstrated at the Aircraft Commerce Airline & Aerospace, MRO & Operations IT Conference, Miami in March 2011, alongside BYTRON’s existing Class I and Class II solutions. The intuitive interface of the skybook® system is enhanced by the leading-edge capabilities of the Apple iPad itself, creating a truly userfriendly and easily rapidly deployed EFB solution.

Aviation Solutions Manager Simon Clayton commented; “We recognise the need for adapting and evolving products in parallel with [today’s] ever-changing technology...” The launch of this solution on the Apple iPad will provide airlines and operators with a costeffective solution through the utilization of an easily available hardware component with which people are becoming increasingly familiar.

OSyS Solution to drive fuel efficiency for Spanair Optimized Systems and Solutions, Ltd. (OSyS), a whollyowned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Group plc, has won a contract to provide operational fuel usage analysis and management to Barcelona based Spanair, the second largest carrier in Spain.

As part of the contract, OSyS will help Spanair meet their ‘green aviation’ goals under the EU’s Emissions Trading System requirements for reducing carbon footprint, by facilitating the airline’s work required for emissions verification and benchmark reporting. Starting in 2012 emissions from all domestic and international flights that arrive or depart from an EU airport will be covered by the EU ETS. Utilizing the OSyS Fuel Management Solution (FMS) will enable the airline to better manage fuel consumption, optimize fuel efficiency and reduce associated costs, thereby improving overall fuel performance.

“The OSyS solution will provide us a better understanding of the complex variables which impact our fuel usage. This will enable us to make better informed decisions throughout the company and help us to maximize our fuel conservation initiatives, said Luke Farajallah, COO of Spanair. “Achieving maximum efficiency in fuel usage will help us reduce our operating expenses.”

Airlines are increasingly focused on operational cost reduction as a means to a healthy balance sheet. OSyS’ fuel management solution enables airlines with any size fleet to reconcile actual operational fuel usage against plan, quantify good and bad practices, and communicate them throughout the organization to effect positive change.

iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Fuel Manager application from Smart4Aviation and TFM Aviation

Smart4Aviation has joined forces with TFM Aviation to offer improved fuel and operations management products. The experience of the TFM experts and the power of Smart FUEL MANAGER and Smart MISSION MANAGER products are both applied to support efficient fuel and operations management.

The joint offer is a three-phase program which will initially benchmark the efficiency of airline’s current Flight Operations, and Flight Dispatch processes and systems, and subsequently provide support and training required to implement the operational initiatives which have been identified to increase overall fuel efficiency of the daily operations. Finally real-time, and post analysis tools will be provided, to help users achieve and maintain the airline’s efficiency goals.

Smart FUEL MANAGER, is a Smart Fuel Management Information System (SFMIS), designed to monitor fuel usage in relation to all measurable factors. The fuel and operational analyses from the system can provide tailored critical information to Flight Crews, Flight Dispatchers and all levels of management in all relevant branches. This insight comes through interactive, online, near real-time charts, graphs, and dashboards, as well as static reports available online or through email.

Flight Focus and Smart4Aviation establish strategic partnership to launch embedded Aircraft Performance solutions Singapore based Flight Focus and Netherlands based Smart4Aviation have announced a strategic partnership. The first fruits of the new joint venture will be the integration of Flight Focus PLATFORM™, an enhanced and connected Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution with ‘open’ application hosting for Class 2 software, and Smart4Aviation’s EFB solutions supporting Aircraft and Runway Performance.

Ralf Cabos, Managing Director of Flight Focus, said; “Our customers will benefit through the integration of Smart4Aviation’s Performance calculator and analysis tools into the Flight Focus PLATFORM™. Flight Focus will also be extending its Outsourced Flight Operations services to include S4A’s ground based Aircraft Performance solutions.”

Dirk Jan Baas, CEO of Smart4Aviation, said “This collaboration is another huge step forward, designed to give our customers full access to all of their airline operations information from any and all hardware platforms, from any location. The virtualization of the AOCC (Airline Operations Control Centre) has been a primary focus for Smart4Aviation; through the Web, Mobility solutions, and now with our new partner Flight Focus, through EFB hardware solutions.”

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | NEWS & TECHNOLOGY | 7 Click here for full SOFTWARE details and for a demo

FuelPlus announces availability of FuelPlus ASP Application Service FuelPlus Software GmbH (FPS) announced the availability, from May 1 2011, of its fuel management application service FuelPlus ASP. FuelPlus ASP, formerly known as FuelPlus One, is a hosted IT application service that provides full support for airline’s fuel management processes in the areas of fuel supply, operations, accounting, and reporting. The web-based application service supports airlines in their day to day activities with a suite of modules including Planning, Tender, Contract, Inventory, Supply Chain, Operations, Tankering, Emissions, Accounting, and Prepayment. The modular design of FuelPlus ASP enables airlines to implement just the modules required to support current business needs with the option to activate additional functions at a later time. hosting.com’s premium data centers in the United States are used to provide a secure and highly available IT infrastructure which, combined with FPS’ implementation and operational services, allows for fast deployment and reliable operations. Data connections between FuelPlus ASP and airline IT systems are implemented using IPSec VPN tunnels which ensure a high standard of data security.

Compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is an important factor for U.S. based airlines. FPS has initiated an SAS70 audit for the FuelPlus ASP application service and will be able to provide SAS70 type II reports by mid of 2011.

Development of Fuel Efficiency Module With airline fuel budgets hovering between 25 and 40% of their operational costs and airlines investing in new modern aircraft, they are trying to minimize this huge expense and still stay competitive.

According to aircraft manufacturers, modern aircraft are 70% more fuel efficient than 40 years ago, and 20% more fuel efficient than 10 years ago. The airlines under the IATA banner have further pledged to increase fuel efficiency by another 25% by 2020, thereby also reducing CO2 emissions.

Taking the above statistics into consideration, not a lot of room remains for improvements.

Additional savings can only be achieved by implementing NextGen engines, like the Ultra High Bypass (UHB) Jet engines but with most airlines suffering financial constraints, money for re-investing in new expensive technologies is limited.

The only remaining option is to optimize operational procedures and maximize current operational fuel efficiency. With this in mind, FuelPlus Software GmbH has developed a Business Intelligence system (BIS) aimed at assisting airlines to plan, monitor and track their various fuel efficiency initiatives.

The FuelPlus BIS solution uses a state-of-the-art reporting solution to display the data already available as part of the FuelPlus implementation as well as additional data supplied by the aircraft systems, in a user friendly reporting dashboard with drilldown capabilities, which will enable the operational analyst to accurately track the airline’s fuel efficiency and operational procedure initiatives. The module uses the IATA FEGA initiatives as basis but also includes other custom reports.

FOCS™

Flight Planning and Scheduling system Flight Operations Control System is the most modern and feature-packed system available for enhanced Flight planning and Flight scheduling. Built for today’s operational demands and for operations of all types and sizes. ` ` ` ` ` `

Real time Flight Preparation Full overview Scheduling Automatic Route Optimisation Tripkits & Driftdown Weather & NOTAM Crew Web Portal

Performance Guru™

Takeoff and landing performance system Performance Guru is a leading tool for the aviation industry providing instant performance calculations and is used on a daily basis by operators worldwide, with more than 6000 airports at its disposal. ` ` ` ` ` `

Takeoff and Landing Performance Engine Failure Procedures Weight & Balance PC, iPad, iPhone, Android FOCS integration Seamless synchronisation

sales@flygp.se (+46) 40 6420010

www.flygp.se

8 | NEWS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Successful implementation of FuelPlus Emission Module by South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) went live on the FuelPlus EU ETS Module at the end of August last year (2010). Although there was not much time for the airline’s staff to familiarize themselves with the system and prepare for compiling the 2010 reports required by the UK authorities, implementation turned out to be a seamless process, reported Clive Manby of SAA. FuelPlus had been proactive, preparing airlines well in advance for what was coming and had catered for these UK reporting requirements in the module.

The advantages of this system for SAA were: • There were no changes required to day-to-day processing of uplifts from what staff were used to in the existing FuelPlus system; • The new module provided a side benefit with improved focus on capturing of shut down fuel for APU burn monitoring; • The built in reasonability checks in the system for suspicious consumption figures, (e.g. MAX) with a breakdown into categories, assisted greatly in identifying issues for correction;

AMT’s Flightman™ EFB Software Selected By ATR

AMT has been selected by ATR to add new software solutions to its Class 2 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). This new offering will remove paper from the cockpit and reduce operational crew workload by ensuring single point data capture.

The extended EFB package offer will include additional applications to record and compute key operational information on board, facilitate the data transfer on and off the aircraft and provide a ground based interface for the management and reporting of EFB data. The solution incorporates the eJourney Log, eTechlog and Aircraft Content Manager applications developed by Ireland’s Aircraft Management Technologies (AMT) as part of their award winning suite of EFB applications, Flightman™.

The eJourney Log is an electronic version of existing flight crew paper forms carried on a commercial aircraft. It captures hours and cycles, crew information, fuel management, delays and landing information together with vendor services used. The application also allows flight crew to complete relevant company reports such as ASRs (Air Safety Reports). The completed logs and reports are transferred off the aircraft electronically and made available via a ground based web interface.

The eTechlog allows the recording of technical data on board the aircraft.

The data captured includes de-icing, fuel, oil and hydraulic fluid uplifts. With the eTechlog application, ground crew can obtain access to real-time aircraft information, thus leading to improved process reliability.

The eJourney Log and eTechlog can be integrated within a comprehensive data upload and download process to get and provide valuable information to the airline back office information system. Upload and download capabilities are embedded within the Flightman™ package to interface and integrate onboard applications within the comprehensive Operator’s information network.

The Aircraft Content Manager is a web-based application enabling the remote distribution and centralized management of all content of the EFB devices. The content is transferred in an efficient, compliant and timely manner and can include manuals, flight crew instructions, charts, and navigational database updates.

Commenting on ATR’s extended EFB offer, Luigi Mollo, Vice-President Commercial in Customer Services, declares: “The new software available in the ATR’s Extended EFB will provide ATR pilots with the most modern tools to record and exchange data with airlines’ back office systems, directly from the cockpit. This will clearly contribute to easing their tasks and saving time.

As a consequence, the Extended EFB offer will remove paper from the flight deck and allow airlines to streamline their operational processes”.

• Development of interfaces from other IT systems, especially for Tonneskm reporting purposes, posed no real challenge and gaps in this new data were easily identifiable; • Reports can be easily downloaded into Excel for analytical review and for presentation to the verifiers; • The final report formats were exactly what was required by the authorities and, although requiring some adaptation, were in the main easily exportable into EU templates; • The only disadvantage, although not really impacting overall annual consumption, is that one ends up with two different bases of calculation with Method B basis replacing the previous FP basis of calculating consumption for all EU flights.

In the words of the Head of Petroleum Affairs at SAA, responsible for the compilation and submission of the reports; “How one would cope with meeting ETS requirements, given the timeframe, without such a system in place beats me!”

Flight Focus announces deals with Air Asia and Dutch Antilles Express

Flight operations solutions and services provider for the aviation industry, Flight Focus Pte Ltd, announced two major deals in January and March 2011.

The first agreement in January was with low cost carrier Air Asia (2009 and 2010 ‘World’s Best Low Cost Airline’ in the annual World Airline Survey

by Skytrax) to install an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution, Flight Focus PLATFORM™, on board the Airline’s entire fleet, including more than one hundred Airbus A320 aircraft. This is in addition to the services already provided by Flight Focus to Air Asia X, where the Airbus A330 and A340 fleets are already operating EFB on long haul flights to destinations in Europe, Middle East, Australia and throughout Asia.

Flight Focus’s Managing Director, Mr Ralf Cabos, said; “We are delighted to have been entrusted by Air Asia to implement the Flight Focus PLATFORM™ across their entire fleet of aircraft, adding the A320 fleet to the A330 and A340 fleets… and we very much look forward to adding more value to their AOC’s based in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.”

Air Asia Flight Crew will have an ‘always on’ and ‘real time’ messaging and alerting system supporting proactive decision making processes and helping to maintain on-time performance.

Air Asia’s Captain Michael Lee, who has spearheaded the project, said; “We have been working closely with Flight Focus for a few years now on the EFB solutions provided to our wide body fleets and customised for Air Asia’s requirements.

In the second case in March 2011, Flight Focus has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Dutch Antilles Express (DAE), a regional airline headquartered in Curacao. The intention is for Singapore based Flight Focus to install an enhanced Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution, Flight Focus PLATFORM, on board the airline’s mixed fleet of aircraft including ATR and Fokker 100.

Flight Focus PLATFORM will be fully integrated with DAE’s Flight Operations, Engineering, Maintenance and Finance Departments’ business processes, and will allow ‘always on’ connectivity between aircraft and ground stations through Iridium Satellite Communications. Flight Focus will also be working with DAE to implement Cabin Wi-Fi and GSM SMS services to enhance the customer experience in the air.

Flight Focus’s Managing Director, Mr Ralf Cabos, said; “DAE Flight Crew will have a real time messaging and alerting system supporting proactive decision making processes and helping to maintain on-time performance.”

Dutch Antilles Express President & CEO Mr Arnold Leonora, said; “As a fast growing airline in the region, we wanted an EFB solution that helps us to streamline our operations, support flight safety, and one that adds value to both DAE and to our customers. With the scalability offered by this system, we can also introduce new features into the cabin that allow passengers to interact with their family, friends or work colleagues from the air”.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | NEWS | 9

navAero wins two European orders Air Canada and

In February 2011, Condor Flugdienst, headquarted in Kelsterbach, Germany, announced the selection of navAero to supply the t-Bag™C22 Electronic Flight Bag system for the airline’s fleet of Boeing 757-300 and B767-300ER aircraft following a successful implementation fleet test in one of the airline’s B757 during fourth quarter 2010. Condor began fleet installations for their B757 and B767 aircraft in March, 2011. The hardware chosen by Condor will include the t-Pad 1500 10.4” display with a navAero EFB CPU configured with the UMTS/HSDPA/3G cellular communications module which enables on-ground data transfer.

Condor will deploy their own application suite with a wireless data manager. The airline will also be using the EFB platform for viewing documents as well as displaying aeronautical charts as provided by the LIDO eROUTE MANAGER charting application.

“Condor is committed to being at the forefront of using technology to improve the safety and efficiency of our operations.” stated Mr. Gunnar Schmidt, Post Holder Flight Operations, Condor. “Our three-month in-use trial evaluation of the navAero EFB system clearly showed us that theirs is the right technology solution for our airline. We were able to remove the 50kg Navkit, which allowed us to realize increased fuel savings all of which helped us toward meeting our corporate goal of reducing our carbon footprint. All in all, the [EFB] demonstrated its ability to meet all our financial and technological requirements [to] deploy the right blend of applications we need to meet our business goals.”

The Condor Flugdienst deal was closely followed just a few days later with the announcement that TUIfly Nordic was to deploy the t-Bag™C22 Electronic Flight Bag system on the airline’s B737-800 and B767-300 fleets.

The contracted architecture includes cross-connected dual t-BagC22 EFB systems with the newly commercialized t-Pad™2000 display. The systems will also include the navAerodesigned, UMTS/HSDPA/3G cellular communications modem module to enable on-ground data transfer.

TUIfly Nordic plans to equip the EFBs with the Lufthansa Lido/eRouteManual software suite and the TUI Group Aircraft Performance Software. TUIfly Nordic will also integrate their operational document browser software on the EFB. This is part of a proprietary solution for the Windows PC, Mac OSX and iPhone/iPad platforms used by flight crews to have offline access and stay up to date with company manuals, briefs and operational notices.

The TUIfly EFB program will be first deployed in one B737 and one B767 aircraft.

Smart4Aviation implement Smart BRIEF Cabin Mobile

The Air Canada team receive their award at International Travel Catering Association’s Mercurys in Nice, February 2011

In January 2011 Air Canada went live with the ‘Mobility’ version of Smart BRIEF Cabin. This is in line with the view that airline operators need access to the latest technologies to deliver high levels of efficiency while improving the work environments for their employees.

Smart4Aviation’s Smart BRIEF Cabin now allows full access to all cabin crew briefing information via a PDA or smartphone, from anywhere, to a group of employees that are truly ‘on the go’. Air Canada’s Smart BRIEF CABIN and its sister application Smart BRIEF CABIN Mobile (known in Air Canada as globe Information System and globe Mobile) won the 2010 International Travel Catering Association’s Mercurys Award in Processes and Systems category. This category is for the entry of Information Systems or other processes that improve efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction.

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“…the EFB is a device to facilitate efficient operating procedures; which means that, just as procedures vary from airline to airline, so will EFB implementations.”

Lawrence A. ‘Bud’ Sittig and James R. Becker, Flight Guidance LLC

Designing the Enterprise Solution Lawrence A. ‘Bud’ Sittig and James R. Becker, Flight Guidance LLC consider the Electronic Flight Bag and connected aircraft technology

T

here are very few remaining opportunities for the airline business to lower costs. The solutions that remain seem to fall into two categories. First are the straightforward physical solutions: make the aircraft more efficient with winglets, newer engines, or totally new airframes and systems. This path is conceptually simple, has been intensely analyzed and offers a well understood return on investment (ROI). The drawback is that the investment ranges from substantial to massive and the timescale for implementation stretches over decades. The second category of cost savings opportunities still available to most airlines is to improve operating procedures through better use of information and information technologies. These solutions range from obtaining departure clearances via Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) to better use of Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) and Flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) data to installing

electronic flight bags (EFBs) to eventually, hopefully, someday using Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast In (ADS-B In) and Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) procedures to make more efficient use of the airspace. All these solutions rely on the use of information technology to lower costs but are conceptually complex, require changing peoples’ behavior and generally have a less agreed upon and less clearly understood ROI than simple physical solutions. However the investment for the IT class of solutions is relatively modest, savings are very real and implementation can be accomplished in few months to a few years.

This article will focus on the use of electronic flight bags (EFBs) and ‘connected’ EFBs to improve operating procedures, thereby lowering costs.

The authors have demonstrated that such solutions are available today, justifiable by cost and will allow an airline to reduce the costs and improve the safety of its operations.

However the EFB solution remains a very flexible and fluid concept. It means different things to different airlines. Essentially, the EFB is a device to facilitate efficient operating procedures; which means that, just as procedures vary from airline to airline, so will EFB implementations. In addition, this class of solution is more of an information technology solution than a traditional avionics upgrade and thus has to be approached differently. Some regulatory guidance is available but not much. Just as the IT infrastructure of airlines will differ, so the EFB implementations among airlines will differ. Fortunately, over the past several years both the components and the understanding of how to implement an EFB solution have improved significantly. We will first describe the components of a complete EFB solution, then discuss the operational changes and improvements that can be obtained through implementing an EFB system and will conclude with a look at the future directions of EFBs.

Electronic Flight Bag systems The EFB came into existence at the same time as portable computers (laptops) became readily available. The electronic flight bag was conceived as a low cost, flexible, COTS (commercial off the shelf) computer that would enable the compact storage and display of the copious amount of paper that pilots have to carry on board. It was quickly realized that if the computer could be connected to some communications channel, it could serve as a terminal with a user interface that would be easier to use and more flexible than the character oriented Maintenance Control and Display Units (MCDUs) in use. The key concepts were low cost, good user interfaces and flexibility to add or modify applications as airline operational requirements required.

The concepts of low cost and flexibility essentially translated into the requirement to avoid certification of the software under Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) DO-178B at any higher level than ‘D’.

It wasn’t long before the FAA noticed the EFB trend and Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) Advisory Circular 120-76A was born which defined both Classes of EFB hardware and Types of EFB software.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: FLIGHT GUIDANCE | 11

Connected EFBs EFBs, like personal computers, have to be connected to sources of data to be useful. Imagine how limited your personal computer would be if it could not connect to outside information.

At an absolute minimum, there has to be a way to connect the EFB to a ground based source of chart and pubs updates. The method of connection can range from ‘sneaker-net’ or manually loaded updates to connecting the EFB in the airplane, via a high bandwidth channel such as a cellular phone data channel (3G or GPRS or the coming 4G networks) or a WiFi network to a ground based server. The server contains the updates and allows the whole update process to run without human intervention. Whatever method is used, configuration control is a significant issue. For sneaker-net solutions, configuration control can be serialized USB sticks or some other manual process. With a network connection, configuration control can be done by software that automatically ensures that each EFB in the fleet has a copy of the appropriate information and easily displays the status of all EFBs in the system.

Once the challenge of updating charts and manuals has been solved, there is still more to be done in the communications area. While not mandatory, there is a very powerful reason to use an additional communication method that will allow the EFB to be electronically connected to the airline operations centers at all times. An ‘always connected’ EFB enables applications that can significantly improve airline operations and lower the cost of doing

business. The connected aircraft becomes a node on the airlines’ network. This enables a real time connection to maintenance and a real time electronic log book (eTechLog). It also allows delivery of flight documents and release packages directly to the aircraft and a real time journey log. The operational improvements that can result from an always connected aircraft are significant and represent the

current ‘cutting edge’ of operational efficiency.

So what are the practical means of connecting an aircraft? For the connection used to update charts and pubs on the ground, your choice is to use either cell phone or WiFi technology. While WiFi’s simplicity and bandwidth are attractive, unless the airline owns its gates or ramp area, WiFi becomes difficult to implement. It is a short range technology,

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Table 1

be comparatively low bandwidth as the amount of data transmitted to/from airborne applications is relatively small.

Components for a complete EFB Solution

navAero Class II EFBs installed in a B737

procedures automatically to update the EFBs. Otherwise you have added another task to Maintenance’s long list of minor tasks and you have saddled yourself with a nasty bookkeeping job.

For the airborne connection, the choices are: 1) Iridium, 2) Inmarsat Sat-Comm or other satellite vendors, or 3) cabin focused networks such as Air-Cell’s GoGo. This connection can

navAero Class II EFBs installed in a B737

the antennae are tricky and the airport is an electromagnetically noisy environment in the WiFi spectrum.

Cell phone technology also has many issues but has been proven a generally reliable solution and the airline does not have to maintain the network. There are trade-offs to consider between using cell phone adapters in each EFB versus wiring the aircraft with a central cell phone system. It is our opinion that any airline considering an EFB program should also invest in the necessary communications infrastructure and

Table 2

So, what does it take to have a complete EFB solution? What are all the pieces you need? This is not to be confused with the process of selecting and building an EFB system which will be discussed in a later section.

There are four major categories of components: • Airborne hardware: this includes the EFB (the display, the processor and the mounts), communications hardware (if any), and any additional kit such as aircraft interface hardware to read data from aircraft buses and/or network storage and server hardware that may be added. The table above gives the standard classification of hardware according to the FAA Advisory Circular 120-76A. (See Table 1).

• Software: both in the aircraft and on the ground. The aircraft software includes all of the EFB applications such as weight and balance calculators, performance calculators, etech logs, journey logs, document viewing programs, communications software as well as all the data such as charts and publications. The ground based software includes any communications interfaces as well as programs that ensure the airborne software is kept up to date. The following table gives the standard classification of software used in an EFB environment according to FAA Advisory Circular 120-76A. (See Table 2 below).

• Communication Links: high bandwidth on the ground and perhaps lower bandwidth while in the air, as discussed above. The links imply service contracts with one or more link vendors.

• Services: this is a required piece of the puzzle and comes in several varieties: • first are integration services.

With the hardware, software and communications all coming from different vendors, someone has to be responsible for integrating the whole solution and making sure everything works, both initially and over the long run; • next you will need chart updating services, the electronic analog to your paper charts and…

• lastly you will need digital publication services either internally from your tech pubs departments or from outside vendors such as InfoTrust Group.

Finally you will need to make choices on the services used in

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“At the beginning of the program it is important to take the time to design the architecture of your system to accommodate the inevitable change that occurs with any IT system. This applies to both the hardware and the software.” implementation of the program—those who will provide the engineering and who will provide the installation services.

As each airline will have a unique EFB program, each airline will make different selections in each of the four categories. One very important fact to keep in mind when planning is that this is an information technology (IT) solution, not an avionics solution. Actually it is an IT solution in an aircraft environment so the solution will be a bit of a hybrid. Several characteristics of IT solutions that are important here include: 1) the hardware useful life is 3 to 5 years, 2) the software will be upgraded almost continually, 3) you never have enough bandwidth and… 4) the vendors with the best solution change over time. This is very different from the avionics environment where you expect 20 years of life from a system and relatively few updates along the way. So the fact that you are dealing with an IT solution affects almost every decision you make, ranging from how to structure the STCs to the choice of vendors to how you wire the aircraft.

At the beginning of the program it is important to take the time to design the architecture of your system to accommodate the inevitable change that occurs with any IT system. This applies to both the hardware and the software.

EFB technology and new operational capability Imagine having your laptop in the aircraft with you, connected to the Internet and fully functional.

Virtually any capability you have on your laptop is now available in a Class II and III EFB mounted on the flight deck and connected to a communications network. Enhanced functionality and capability is brought to the flight deck, Flight Operations back offices and the Maintenance and Engineering division. Software applications and functionality for Flight Ops and Maintenance are growing nearly as fast as new apps from the App Store. A Class II or III EFB solution mounted on the flight deck will provide a direct link to the airline Operations Control Center (OCC) and all the support systems therein. The flight deck crew can check in for their rotation directly from the aircraft and will be entering the flight and journey log data within minutes of boarding. The flight dispatch release, weather package, NOTAMs and all related dispatch data can be delivered from the OCC wirelessly to the EFB providing the crew with necessary documents and data for dispatch. This has been demonstrated in the US and approved under CFR Part 121 Op Specs by the FAA. Additional capability provided by the EFB can include:

1. Performance calculator for take-off, en-route, landing and go-around (data derived from software algorithms); 2. All aircraft flight manuals; 3. Flight Operations Manual (FOM); 4. Company Standard Operating Procedures (SOP); 5. Maintenance manuals; 6. Minimum Equipment List (MEL) and CDL; 7. Navigation charting for en-route, terminal and approach (Jeppesen, LIDO, NavTech); 8. NOTAMS; 9. Weather; 10. Aeronautical Information Publications and Manual (AIP and AIM); 11. Flight Crew qualification logs, flight time/duty time logs, Captain’s incident or safety reporting forms; 12. Flight Attendant Manual; 13. NASA Aviation Safety Reporting forms; 14. Power settings and cost indexing; 15. Oceanic navigation plotting and recording; 16. Electronic checklists; 17. Cabin mounted video for security surveillance camera display; 18. Software applications to support Internet and other operational communications to support

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airline operational control, flight following and position reporting; 19. Maintenance log book (electronic logbook capability) fully integrated with back office maintenance information systems; 20. Real-time data link of aircraft engine and systems exceedances; 21. Data download from aircraft avionics busses directly to Maintenance Control, back office archives and vendor data banks; 22. Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) data wireless downloads directly to the vendor or Flight Safety offices; 23. Cabin discrepancy eLog management and eCabin passenger service interface; 24. Fuel management software and fuel upload reconciliation; 25. Emissions reporting.

While there are no ‘killer apps’ that alone carry the business case, perhaps the capability that approaches that level is the electronic logbook (eTechLog). A well designed eTechLog with software customized to the airline will fully replace the paper technical logbook and all the challenges of paper systems, data entries, archiving and data

A screen from an eTech Logbook from Ultramain

retrieval. The eTechLog can provide real time notification of discrepancies while aircraft are in flight allowing down station maintenance teams to begin managing the discrepancy well before the aircraft arrives. eTechLog software can be customized to well defined fault reporting codes, enhancing user interface and reducing time for pilot or maintenance technician entries while improving accuracy in discrepancy reporting, repair and documentation. Removing paper from the maintenance administrative process can by itself be an extraordinary enhancement to productivity, efficiency and cost control.

The Class II and III EFB on the flight deck can significantly enhance flying safety by displaying ‘own-ships position’ on the ground reducing the potential for runway incursion and ground collision.

Further, the Class III EFB with a certified operating system and certified software can provide ‘own-ships position’ while in flight increasing pilot situational awareness and safety.

Hardware and software vendors continue development work for an ADS-B In solution

hosted on a Class III EFB. Limited application of the ADS-B In functionality is already being demonstrated on EFB’s in the US in prototype installations. Once the ADS-B In capability is fully integrated into the EFB, operators will have another solution for adding this air traffic management and surveillance system mandated by 2020 under NextGen.

Architecture and design phase — the road map The architecture and design of an EFB/Connected Aircraft solution will vary with every Operator.

One of the most critical phases in the evolution of an EFB system in your operation is defining the goals, both short term and long term, of this unique IT system. You will need to ask; what functional areas of the airline will use the system, i.e. who are the major players: Flight Operations; Maintenance and Engineering; Cabin connectivity and Flight Attendant usability; Technical Publications library or Marketing? What business processes will be affected or driven by this technology within these functional areas? It can be easily demonstrated that the broader the application and functionality of the EFB system across the enterprise, the better the business case becomes. If the Flight Operations division drives an EFB solution for only the Flight Ops area to support nav. charting, and performance, weight and balance calculations, it will be difficult to show a return on investment. But designing the system with an electronic log book that provides

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tactical, real time maintenance management in line operations plus a full integration with back office maintenance information systems, rapidly improves the business case and the ROI. Bringing Cabin Services and airline marketing concepts into the architecture further enhances the ROI and can lead to a competitive advantage. Designing a system across the airline that uses open architecture and is scalable will provide greater flexibility in responding to changing business processes and maturing technology over time.

Defining the business case, as in any capital investment in the airline, is the major hurdle for the operator considering the EFB/Connected Aircraft solution. The airline must identify a ‘Champion’, ideally at the Vice President level, to drive the case and define the productivity enhancements, cost savings and capability of the Connected Aircraft.

Selecting subject matter experts within each functional area of the airline will be important. Each SME will need to analyze current business processes against the potential efficiencies and productivity enhancements within their areas to get to a satisfactory ROI in reasonable time to justify the capital spend. Getting the business case for an EFB/ Connected Aircraft solution past the CFO, CEO and perhaps the Board of Directors will make the rest of the installation and integration phase of the project look easy.

Once the business case is made and funding is allocated, it is decision time for selecting software,

“It cannot be overstated that the operator’s regulatory oversight team (Principal Inspectors under the FAA) must be a partner in the EFB/Connected Aircraft solution from the early design stages” hardware and communications systems that will support the goals and business processes identified in the design phase. The industry vendor list supporting these areas has grown in recent years as EFB solutions have gained traction in the industry.

Selecting a vendor who will become a committed partner in achieving the design goals for your airline will be important to the longer-term success of the project. Service and support negotiated into the commercial agreements will ensure long term commitment for a technology that is continually evolving.

As decisions are reached in software, hardware and communications infrastructure, the implementation phase begins with engineering and software integration and development. Here is where the vendor teams will come together to solve the challenges of integrating hardware systems with a variety of software applications communicating through a common network that is both airborne and ground based.

Process change happens quickly as installation and implementation bring the technology to line operations. Training programs for all functional areas need to be in place to support the end users of the EFB/Connected Aircraft technology. At the end of the day, all of the design, hardware, software, communications network and procedures must receive approval from the Regulatory Authority. It cannot be overstated that the operator’s regulatory oversight team (Principal Inspectors under the FAA) must be a partner in the EFB/Connected Aircraft solution from the early design stages. A steep learning curve awaits everyone embracing EFB technology. Regulators must be an integral part of the process as they build their knowledge base of the technology that the airline will implement. This limits surprises and delays in approval of the airline’s Operations Specification (OpSpec) authorizing the use of wireless and paperless electronic media when the program is fully operational.

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Implementation Challenges As with any major capital project, countless challenges will be encountered in the design, integration and implementation of an EFB/ Connected Aircraft solution. These challenges can be mitigated with a well thought out design embraced by all stakeholders. Key areas for emphasis as you begin the design phase of the EFB/Connected aircraft project include: • Building a cross functional team.

Generally, one division of the company will emerge as the advocate for EFB technology and will become the driver for the early study and research. But other functional areas should be brought into the study phase to ensure support across the enterprise. This becomes critical as the business plan is developed and broader application of the connected aircraft potential can be demonstrated. At a minimum, the team will include Flight Operations, Maintenance and Engineering, IT, Technical Publications, Cabin Service and Marketing. And don’t leave out the Regulators. Flight Operations is frequently the early driver in adopting EFB capability within the airline but one of the most powerful capabilities offered to the enterprise is the electronic logbook software that can revolutionize the Maintenance and Engineering way of conducting line operations and back office data management.

• Building a strategic plan: from the architectural phase to final implementation. A well thought out strategy based upon cross functional goals will ensure buy-in with everyone pulling in the same direction to get the technology in place. An open architecture with scalable design will provide flexibility and growth potential as this ever changing technology matures over time.

• Developing the business case that will sell the solution. The broader the functionality designed into your airline’s EFB/ Connected Aircraft solution, the easier the business case is to make. Using EFB only for nav. charting and performance calculations on the flight deck will be hard to sell but add an eTechLog capability and connect the aircraft through a communications infrastructure and the case will show worthwhile return on investment while enhancing and revolutionizing business processes across two operational divisions.

• Establishing an EFB Office led by a subject matter expert and advocate for EFB technology. While cross divisional support is essential, one area needs to lead the charge for the strategy all the way through implementation. A Champion at the executive level will be critical for sponsoring this complex plan through business case development and up the corporate approval chain to full funding.

Further, the regulators will want a single point of contact to deal with at the operational level. The EFB Office will become that focal point.

• Leading change management. A comprehensive, fully integrated EFB/Connected Aircraft solution will bring change across the operating units of the enterprise. ‘The way

we’ve always done it’ syndrome will need to be overcome. This is a leadership issue and one that can be managed by good communication and thoroughly developed training programs for end users. No paper on the flight deck and digital sign-offs of the airworthiness log on the flight line, among countless other wireless/paperless enhancements will pose challenge for many who have operated in conventional ways for much of their careers. Leadership and training will be the key to overcoming resistance to change.

• Dealing with the Authorities. The Regulatory Office holding your airline’s certificate should be involved with the plan from the earliest stages of design. These are the Principals who will ultimately approve the architecture, implementation and operational use of the solution. The complexity of the solution requires active engagement of the authorities throughout the development of this revolutionary technology.

At the end of the day, Op Spec approval will come much easier when the principals are knowledgeable and confident of the technology, training and execution plan.

Future directions in Electronic Flight Bags If you had asked us a year ago, we would have said that a traditional, purpose built Class II EFB solution with a high bandwidth connection while on the ground and a low to medium bandwidth connection while in the air was clearly the way to go. Several vendors are offering excellent Class II solutions and the software is getting better both in terms of functionality and overall reliability.

However in the past year two new trends have developed; one that drives the EFB solution more towards a traditional avionics program and one that significantly lowers the cost of an EFB solution while offering potentially Class I or II functionality.

The first trend is driven by the need to retrofit ADS-B In functionality into the fleet of aircraft. A large portion of ADS-B In functionality requires a display in the cockpit to present information about surrounding traffic. The benefits of this technology only occur when a high percentage of the fleet is equipped; and delivering these benefits is central to both the NexGen and Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) programs in the US and Europe. Both the FAA and EUROControl are discussing the possibility of using EFBs, connected to the traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) avionics, to display this information in order to create a solution that can be retrofitted.

UPS is demonstrating some of this functionality at Louisville and jetBlue is also equipping a portion of its fleet to test and demonstrate ADS-B In capabilities. It requires a Class III EFB running operating software that has been developed according to the requirements of DO 178B, level C. This eliminates EFBs that use Windows as their operating system and creates significant issues when mixing uncertified Type A and B applications with certified Type C applications on the Class III device. These issues are solvable with either hardware or software solutions and various vendors are working on the new products that meet these enhanced requirements. So one possible

path an operator can take is to purchase and install one of these new Class III systems, run Type A and B applications on it to achieve the efficiencies in their operation and then, when the ADS-B In applications are ready, upgrade the system to run the Type C applications as well. The good news is that the price of Type III systems has come down substantially and that one gets a very solid, purpose built unit that may last a long time.

The second trend is driven by the introduction of the iPad and other tablet computers. The iPad, from a user’s point of view, is almost an ideal EFB though it does not provide the fully integrated Connected Aircraft solution. However, the combination of low cost, compact form factor and great functionality is very tempting. Geo-referenced en-route charts and approach plates are already available in the iPad and are being used by GA pilots. In the US, the FAA has approved the iPad for use in some Part 135 operations. We have talked with several Part 121 operators that are considering the iPad for various roles. It makes the perfect back-up for conventional EFBs should one or both fail. This can simplify the process for developing MEL dispatch relief if EFB systems become degraded. Create the right mounting bracket and power cables and the iPad can become a suitable, low-end Class II unit.

There is a valid question about the iPad’s ability to stand up to everyday use but even with a one year life cycle, you are probably ahead of the game financially. Assuming all the issues with the tablets can be solved, a Class II EFB with a base price of $600-$800 will be tremendously attractive. An iPad or similar tablet computer can provide an entry point into EFB/Connected Aircraft technology with scalable growth to a more sophisticated wireless/ paperless capability.

An iPad displaying approach plates. The future of EFBs?

EFBs are like IT solutions in another way. If you wait a year, there will be better ones available.

However, you will have missed a year of lower cost structure and more tightly coordinated operations.

The key is to embrace an open architecture that provides flexibility for future upgrade and functionality. View EFBs as another step in building out your IT infrastructure. Build a plan, fund the plan and get started.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: FLIGHT GUIDANCE | 17 Click here for full SOFTWARE details and for a demo

JIM BECKER

Jim Becker is the former President and co-founder of Wingspeed Corporation, a company that delivered integrated, connected aircraft solutions through EFB hardware, software and wireless communications networks that connected airline fleets with back office support functions. Jim and his Wingspeed team installed and operated integrated solutions for FEDEX, ABX Air Cargo, Lynden Air Cargo, World Airways, Skybus, and Evergreen International Aviation among others. Jim spent eight years flying C-130s worldwide for the United States Air Force, with the first three years on active duty with a tour in Vietnam and then for 5 years with the Reserves.

He first soloed in 1965 and has piloted aircraft ranging from supersonic jets to helicopters. He taught flying at the local airport while going to graduate school. Jim developed and patented the first digital VOR and his graduate thesis won the RTCA William B Jackson Award.

BUD SITTIG

Lawrence A. ‘Bud’ Sittig is a consultant in the aviation industry with a broad background in airline operations. He has keen interest in advancing a wireless / paperless cockpit environment and in the deployment of Class II Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) technology across the industry.

Most recently, he was Vice President of Operations for Skybus Airlines.

Captain Sittig had operational oversight of Skybus’ Flight Operations including pilots, flight attendants, flight dispatchers, crew resources, technical publications library, operations technology and all corporate training.

As the Vice President of Operations, he led the FAA Air Carrier Certification process for Skybus spanning over two years. While leading the 121 certification, he built the airline infrastructure to support a Flight Operation designed to grow to 75 aircraft. He was the architect of a revolutionary flight deck technology design that established the airline on the cutting edge of Class II EFB and a paperless document management system.

Prior to joining Skybus, Captain Sittig held the positions of GM Flight Operations, Chief Pilot and Director of Flight Safety at Delta. He has accumulated over 15,000 flying hours in his years of military, airline and sport aviation adventures.

About Flight Guidance LLC Flight Guidance, LLC is a consulting firm focused on airline operating efficiency improvement. Consultancy support is provided to airline operators in the design, development and implementation of Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solutions, airline operational improvements and the integration of multiple vendors for a connected aircraft strategy. Flight Guidance works with airline operators at all stages of planning for and implementing EFB, connected aircraft programs. They can assist with initial planning, business case development, vendor selection, policy and procedure development, program implementation and regulatory approval. The Partners of Flight Guidance have extensive experience in both the airline operational issues and the multiple hardware, software and communications technologies needed to implement a successful connected aircraft strategy. They provide vendor neutral, experienced based advice and can both shorten the time to implement your program and increase the probability of success.

Ask the Expert In addition to being available now to answer any questions you have arising from this White Paper, both Bud Sittig and Jim Becker are available all year round for one-to-one consultancies via the Ask The Expert feature at www.aircraftIT.com. They specialise in EFB technology and connected aircraft programs and will be happy to assist you with your queries.

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18 | CASE STUDY: NORWEGIAN | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

EFB: Posing Questions and Offering Answers John Christian Paulshus, Head of Business Development Operational IT Solutions at Norwegian sets out the experience after running EFB on the entire fleet from Q1 2010.

P

roject start-up: In 2005, we initiated a project to consider and, if appropriate, introduce an EFB (electronic flight bag) to Norwegian. The scope of the project was to investigate and identify sources for improving business, identify the related costs, and make a cost-benefit analysis. Some of the questions raised were to consider whether use of an EFB could: • Increase revenue through increased Payload; • Reduce paper hardcopy and revision requirements; • Reduce some keying labour/administration; • Reduce the maintenance/engineering burden; • Improve and ensure operational control during expansion; • Reduce the workload during turnaround; • Improve fuel control and statistics; • Save engine life time; • Improve safety; • Create value added information for operations.

Our first consideration had to be which type of installation would best suit the needs of Norwegian. The table below shows how the three classes of EFB available differ from one another.

“The software that was to be deployed on the EFB was the same software already used for handling performance related activities, M & B and charts, so only required slight adaptation for EFB use.”

John Christian Paulshus, Head of Business Development Operational IT Solutions at Norwegian

Determining Class I, II or III? Class I

Class II

Class III

• Commercial-off-theshelf (COTS)-based systems including laptop computers.

• Fully portable.

• Must be stowed for takeoff and landing.

• No airworthiness approvals.

• ‘Purpose-built’ systems and also COTS-based systems adapted for use in aircraft.

• Removable without tools.

• Can be used in all phases of flight.

• Airworthiness approval required for mount, power & connectivity.

• Installed equipment – part of the aircraft (just like any other piece of avionics equipment).

• Airworthiness Approval required.

As per FAA AC 120-76A & JAA (JAR-OPS)

Class I has the benefit of being the cheapest and most quickly implemented of the three alternatives and it would be sufficient to cover some of the issues, for example saving engine life time. On the other hand, it cannot be used in all phases of flight, it must be stowed away, may have problems with power and charging, may more easily get physically lost or stolen and cannot be expected to be fit for all issues.

Class II can be used in all phases of flight. It is easily accessible without being a nuisance. It can communicate through 3G and facilitate complex functionality. A Class II device, ideally, never leaves the aircraft.

Class III is the most expensive alternative. It is potentially locked to the CPU at delivery, and performance and hardware upgrades may prove difficult. There are also questions regarding its communication capability – for example use of 3G, may be restricted.

Norwegian decided to implement a Class II solution, with some spare Class I units for special cases (dry lease, delivery flights, etc.) We selected a NavAero system for testing; it was was one of the first EFB class II systems available with an STC for our aircraft. Then we had to wait… and wait, for the STC (supplementary type certification). You may wonder how hard it can be to get an STC. From our experience it’s potentially a real issue but you shouldn’t try to establish a project time schedule without it.

To ensure proper control, the project was divided into phases.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | CASE STUDY: NORWEGIAN | 19

Phase 1 Phase 1 ran from the first Quarter of 2009 until the first Quarter of 2010 with an evaluation process, following implementation of EFB across the entire fleet.

Phase 1 Scope • Implement the project using a structured approach of scoping, planning, implementing and evaluation.

• Implement the fleet-wide installation of hardware, EFB Class II, and 3G based communication equipment.

• Design procedures for EFB use with the related training programs and activities.

• Identify and process documentation suitable to be presented in an electronic format.

• Implement EFB applications supporting work processes related to: • Performance; • Mass & balance – loadsheet; • Charts.

• Implement a functional EFB portal/ content management server.

• Secure authority approval.

Phase 1 Scope, reinvented.

By the time that the STC was finally approved, we were already at the beginning of 2009, and the CO2 tax regime for EU and EFTA countries (most European countries) had been decided on. Because 2010 was the first test year for the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) annual emissions and ton per kilometer

reporting, the handling of EU ETS data was subsequently incorporated in the Phase 1 scope. The software that was to be deployed on the EFB was the same software already used for handling performance related activities, M & B and charts, so only required slight adaptation for EFB use.

Phase 1 Planning The plan was to test the NavAero product over three months and that was successfully completed with specific targets and design requirements set up for areas covered by the different applications.

Importantly, software applications suppliers were helpful in adjusting the functionality of their standard applications to fit the special requirements of the EFB environment.

We looked around the market for standard software applications that could meet not only the Phase 1 needs, but also most areas where EFB could be used; then a GAP analysis was undertaken to identify areas requiring development, either internally or by the suppliers. Finally, procedures and training material were produced.

One of the things that we discovered was that, if you are breaking new ground, you should share your vision with your suppliers so that you can work together on a system that supports the changed work processes (don’t pave old roads, build new highways). If you are implementing a work process already supported by standard systems, think carefully before you ‘customize’ it.

Phase 1 Implementation Procedures were publicized, and training was delivered. These included the EU ETS functionality, which was covered by an internally developed report, and EFB versions of standard applications.

The EFB portal (content management system) was implemented and the use of EFB received authority approval in August 2009.

“…some software application updates, such as for charts, require large data transfers.

All data, even large data volumes are transmitted over 3G today, making for example USB sticks obsolete.”

Phase 1 Evaluation There were some challenges to be overcome. For instance, at the outset, some of the crew regarded using the EFB as a hassle. However, quite quickly this changed as they became more accustomed to EFB procedures than paper based routines. Also, we realised that we had to differentiate between what updates could be handled through 3G and what must be handled through physical media.

For instance, some software application updates, such as for charts, require large data transfers.

All data, even large data volumes are transmitted over 3G today, making for example USB sticks obsolute. Another important question was, how to handle the hardware. After all, only the brackets are aircraft parts: the displays and the CPUs can be logistically treated any way you want. From our experience, we would recommend involving the technical department and, in particular, the logistics department.

It wasn’t all challenges; we identified some areas that would clearly benefit from operating the EFB. On the performance front we found that derating engines during take-off helps to achieve longer engine lives. Also, the paper loadsheet was replaced with an electronic loadsheet. When ground storage of the electronic loadsheet was confirmed, the paper version did not need to be filled out. One thing we did learn was that we needed an improved strategy for updating applications and data.

20 | CASE STUDY: NORWEGIAN | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Phase 2 Phase 2 ran from the second Quarter of 2010 and was a natural extension of the preceding phase 1. Most of the planned issues identified in the scope were achieved with software deployed in the first Quarter of 2011, but some remaining issues, such as weather information, are still in the test phase, for release during the third Quarter of 2011.

Phase 2 Scope • Increased process support, including pre-population of data.

• Adding EFB Software for the following areas: • Extended reporting for, among other things, ground handler monitoring; • Extended document library; • Weather information, to deliver more updated information; • Flight plan data for information, pre-populating and Q&A issues.

• More specific CMS (content management system) control.

• Better methods for updating applications and data.

• Reduced some keying labour/administration. EFB reduces the need for double keying of data.

• Reduced maintenance/engineering burden. This issue will be handled with the introduction of electronic tech log.

• Improved and secured operational control during expansion. Operational control has been improved through immediate electronic feedback and reporting.

• Reduced workload during turnaround. Pre-population of fields, automatic calculations and reduced paper handling all contribute to reduced workload during turnaround.

• Improved fuel control and statistics. Electronic registration automatically provides quality checks for validity of data.

• Improved engine life. EFB delivers the possibility to set engine operational parameters that would be virtually impossible to manage manually.

• Improved safety. Information is more easily accessible so is more likely to be accessed and applied.

• Generate value added information for operations.

The report information creates possibilities to monitor crew related events, flight incidents and handler performance.

Phase 2 Planning An API (application programming interface) was provided by the flight planning system supplier for displaying data which the shell EFB Shell. The pilots main menu. supplier used for showing the actual GUI (graphical user interface) with weather and flight plan information.

The EFB portal implemented changes to fulfil the needs for structuring the EFB information and to keep control over the EFB updates. It was planned that applications would mainly be updated through use of ‘images’ which could easily be deployed.

Before deployment the images had successfully passed the test stages.

Again, it was decided that updates Reporting fuel on departure. Remaining fuel is registered in the landing of application data should be through report part 3G for all volumes of data. Report formulaes were planned, developed and tested internally.

Phase 2 Implementation New versions were implemented using ‘images’ of the hard disk. SMEs (subject matter experts) tested each area before procedures and training material were updated.

Phase 2 Evaluation The operation is now running smoothly and the planned goals for phase 2 have been achieved.

Project summary Evaluation of initial goals The extent to which the program has met the initial goals set for it?

• Increased revenue through increased Payload.

There is no conclusive information to suggest that revenue has increased through increased payload.

• Reduced paper hardcopy and revision requirements. Certainly the amount of paper has decreased. Two of three sets of documentation have been removed from the aircraft, and paper handling, such as loadsheets, and fuel reporting, has become electronic.

Conclusion

As things stand, we had estimated the payback time for the project to be 10 months and that has been close to the actual payback time achieved.

The EFB has played a key role in collecting data for EU-ETS, and there is a continuous program being implemented to improve functionality and ensure better data quality.

For the future, we plan a number of phased developments including in-flight broadband through satellite which is already installed on six aircraft. By the end of 2012, it is planned that all aircraft will have in-flight broadband installed and there are further plans to connect the EFBs to this broadband. Beyond that, we are working towards a number of enhanced functionalities including an electronic tech log, offline incident reporting, cabin reporting and reporting training events. We also plan to add in crew roster changes and confirmations, fuel and service requests (airborn) and video surveillance as the new system evolves.

Based on our experience, there are a few things that we would recommend to others considering implementing an EFB. The first question to ask is ‘do the benefits apply to our company?’ A fleet of 737 Next Generation aircraft has a lot to gain regarding engine EFB Admin Portal, Syncronisation status. The software and the data must performance, while a fleet of 737 be up to date. This screen is available only to EFB Portal users.

Classic may have little to gain by implementing performance software.

You also need to ask, can your company realize the potential gains? What is the benefit in measuring ground handler performance if it is not related to a penalty or a bonus? Lastly, but very importantly, does your company have the resources to implement and support an EFB solution? Even though the EFB will free resources within the company, by eliminating the need of double keying or making document publicizing EFB Admin Portal, electronic transferred loadsheets. The electronic easier, the freed resources will most loadsheets are the primary source. The paper version is not needed when likely not possess the skills needed to the electronic loadsheet is confirmed transferred to the EFB content management server. This screen is available only to EFB Portal users. support the EFB solution.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | CASE STUDY: NORWEGIAN | 21

For information, these are the suppliers that we used Application

Supplier

Performance

NavTech

Mass & Balance

NavTech

eCharts

NavTech

Weather/Flight plan info

Flight Deck Software AB and Airsupport

Shell

Flight Deck Software AB

EFB/Content management server

Flight Deck Software AB

Hardware EFB class II

NavAero

Report module (Tidy cockpit)

Norwegian

A brief company specific time-line for the installation of EFB in Norwegian 2005 Project Start Up È È È È È 2008 Hardware STC Approved È È È È È 2009 Q1 Phase 1 Planning È È È È È 2009 Q1 Test Installation Hardware È È È È È 2009 Q2/Q3 Phase Implementaion È È È È È 2009 Q3 Authority Approval È È È È È 2010 Q1 Phase 1 Evaluation È È È È È 2010 Q1 Hardware Installation Complete È È È È È 2010 Q1 Phase 1 Evaluation È È È È È 2010 Q2 Phase 2 Planning È È È È È 2010 Q3/Q4 Phase 2 Development È È È È È 2011 Q1 Phase 2 Implementation

JOHN CHRISTIAN PAULSHUS John Christian Paulshus is the Head of Business Development Operational IT Solutions for Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA since 2007. His considerable experience in the usage of the IT tools and the management of the software business has made the Norwegian work processes much more efficient and progressive. John Christian has been the principal driver behind a number of key Norwegian IT projects such as the development of the bespoke TIDY system and the MRO system replacement. John Christian holds a Master’s Degree in Science in Electronics and Business Administration.

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22 | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Fuel efficiency through IT support Balancing safety, service quality, efficiency and relative costs within the operational envelope, explains Captain Marcel Martineau: President and CEO TFM Aviation Inc. is everybody’s concern

A

s Airlines continue efforts to improve fuel efficiency, both in terms of consumption and impact on the environment, plus to take heed of the European Union’s recent publication of limits for Airlines’ CO2 emissions, the need to maintain the focus on efficiency is more important than ever.

This article details some IT tools that will assist in reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions while supporting enhanced safety and operational efficiency.

The recent and sudden rise in fuel costs has renewed concentration on operational efficiency because fuel represents the major portion of an airline’s total budget. Recent international events, political upheavals or environmental disasters, reinforce the point that the price of oil is beyond the control of the airline industry and that each airline must have a proactive fuel management program in place to mitigate the effects of price volatility. While the cost and environmental impact of fuel consumption are high, they must be weighed against other considerations such as on-time performance, misconnections, customer service, etc.

Fuel Management and Safety Managing fuel accurately will not only reduce waste and improve the environmental impact of an airline’s operation but it will also improve safety. An airline will need to acquire tools to track fuel consumption throughout the operation and ensure that every stakeholder shares a clear understanding of how fuel is to be managed. The availability of accurate data and proper statistics will increase overall awareness of fuel management while reducing the risk of unplanned diversions or landings caused through inadequate fuel reserves.

Saving fuel can make the difference between profit or loss Historically, airline operating margins have been small. To realize one dollar in profits, airlines that are fortunate enough to have a 4% return on investment must generate at least $25 worth of sales while spending $24 dollars to provide the service. Every dollar saved in fuel costs will go straight to the bottom line. The most successful airlines today have an adequate fuel and

“Managing fuel accurately will not only reduce waste and improve the environmental impact of an airline’s operation but it will also improve safety.”

Captain Marcel Martineau: President and CEO TFM Aviation Inc. operational management program that involves not only the Flight Operations Department but all company departments and personnel who can impact fuel consumption.

Ground Services, Maintenance and Engineering are just a few of the departments that should be involved in this decision making process.

Many Airlines feel comfortable with their present level of fuel efficiency.

The problem is that airlines are sometimes unaware of where and how much fuel is wasted. Also, interdepartmental rivalries and poor communication often prevent the cooperation that is required to operate efficiently throughout the Company.

One such example is where Ground

Services may cut back on ground support equipment maintenance resulting in an excessive use of onaircraft auxiliary power units (APU).

It is only by requesting independent advice from professionals that an airline can really be certain that it has a balanced approach to fuel and operational management.

Organization and Communications The Integrated Operation Control Centre (IOCC) is responsible for the daily operation of the airline. This department must be able to track every flight and be empowered to take the most appropriate decisions while maintaining good customer

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | 23

service and protecting the company’s interests. Proper IT systems are essential for the efficient and safe operation of the airline.

The IOCC must be able to communicate instantly using a real time on-screen messaging and alerting system connecting with every flight as well as all departments including Flight Dispatch, Crew Scheduling, Maintenance, Aircraft Route Control, and Weight and Balance. All communications must be automatically routed and redirected to appropriate users and archived as required. Instant communications are essential especially during irregular airline operations where time is of the essence. Dispatchers must be able to immediately uplink and downlink messages to and from aircraft.

Having immediate access to flight information, operating times, briefing packages, aircraft mechanical condition, the flights’ fuel state, and instant messaging will improve reaction times while minimizing costs by supporting the best decision(s) under critical conditions. Irregular operations cost airlines dear, in addition to creating hardship for passengers. The situation can very rapidly become confusing, therefore being able to assess the situation quickly will improve decision-making and minimise the operating costs and flight disruptions.

Having adequate flight tracking will not only allow the airline to manage its operation efficiently but also it will reduce recovery time and cost. Missed connections in addition to reducing customer service will result in seat spoilage, lost revenues and reduced overall efficiency in terms of fuel per seat kilometre.

Fuel Policy An airline’s fuel policy is an extremely important document that not only regulates fuel usage but also ensures safe operation: airlines must always ensure that their fuel policy is up to date. The EU OPS fuel regulations provide excellent guidance allowing airlines to benefit from appropriate IT fuel management tools permitting the use of statistical contingency fuel, noalternate flights, lower landing limits based on the aircraft and airport landing capabilities, and en route decision point planning where the contingency fuel can be reduced.

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24 | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

“An adequate fuel management tool is not simply an accumulation of data, but it must have the business intelligence capabilities to facilitate use of the strategic information on a day-to-day basis.” adequate fuel management tool is not simply an accumulation of data, but it must have the business intelligence capabilities to facilitate use of the strategic information on a day-to-day basis by the airline’s managers and operating personnel. Statistics on flight burn variations from plan for instance must be readily available to allow pilots and dispatchers to assess the risk associated with a particular city pair and take the most appropriate decision when boarding extra fuel.

This will not only reduce wasteful practices but will also minimize the chances of unplanned diversions.

Flight Planning Flight planning systems are at the heart of an airline’s operation. Many airlines have upgraded their flight planning systems and the return on investment (ROI) is relatively short especially when the enhanced systems’ capabilities are introduced promptly.

Also, dispatchers must be properly trained to utilize the capabilities of the improved flight planning system and there is a requirement to increase the proactive role of flight dispatchers.

In today’s ever more complex and dynamic operating environment, pilots often do not have access to all of the

appropriate information or the time to properly optimize the extra fuel to be carried and perform adequate risk management.

Some airlines take advantage of their advanced flight planning system capabilities to pre-compute flights several hours before departure, performing an initial assessment of the impact of winds and other weather factors on their operation.

Flight planning systems that can pre-calculate flight profiles will reduce the dispatchers’ workload during final evaluation of flight plan profile options. In the case of North Atlantic flights for example, pre-calculating routes via the North Atlantic tracks, then avoiding the tracks along with other random route options, assessing various speeds, vertical profiles and load options, will improve optimization and reduce operating costs. Once the initial flight options are integrated to the Gantt chart, the IOCC Manager will be able to perform a pre-assessment of the operation and coordinate with dispatchers to select the best options, after assessing the potential for delays on the rest of the operation.

Taking advantage of Cost Index optimization will reduce operating costs and improve on-time performance: Cost Index is a factor that balances the cost of time with the cost of fuel. Once the cost of time (i.e. crew costs, maintenance costs and delay costs) has been calculated, the cost of time in dollars per minute (e.g.

US$ 30/min.) is divided by the cost of fuel in dollars per kilogram (0.75 US$ per kg); this will yield a Cost Index, in this case, of 40. In other words, as long as the flight burns less that 40 kg of fuel to save one minute, the airline is ahead in terms of total cost.

Since the price of fuel can change from airport to airport or the cost of fuel can vary significantly over short periods of time, it is important to adjust the flight Cost Indices frequently in an effort to minimize operating costs.

One important factor when calculating Cost Index value is to measure the cost of arrival delays and, in this, it is important to understand that the cost of delay is not linear.

The initial delay minutes might not be overly expensive but as soon as connections start to be affected,

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | 25 Click here for full SOFTWARE details and for a demo

“…initial delay minutes might not be overly expensive but as soon as connections start to be affected, delay costs can escalate rapidly” delay costs can escalate rapidly. That rapid escalation in the cost per minute will justify the use of much higher Cost Indices for delayed flights. However, this must not be done in isolation and the impact of the delay must be viewed in terms of the overall airline operation. It might be possible in some cases to hold the connecting flights and then accelerate them or to accommodate passengers on subsequent flights, assuming of course that seats are available. Other considerations when calculating delay costs are passenger goodwill, hotel and meal costs, gate costs, staff costs, and the impact on subsequent flights. The system must be forward looking and include multi-segment costs for delays.

As airlines increase their ability to fly long distances, it is essential that they optimize flight routings, speeds and altitude profiles, payloads and over-flight costs. Planned flight times should be adjusted when necessary to minimize delay costs. The airline’s flight planning system must be capable of calculating variable speed flights using proper Cost Index speed optimization and vertical profiles to minimize overall flight costs. With proper delay costing tools, it is possible to determine a target arrival time that will result in the minimum overall cost for the airline by trading the fuel cost of acceleration against the costs of delay.

Note that accelerating flights should be a last resort and all possible measures should be taken to minimize delays on the ground. Flights can also be slowed to save fuel by using reduced Cost Index based speeds to avoid early arrival costs such as gate conflicts or ground service personnel issues.

To properly optimize flights an accurate flight planning system is required and many factors can impact on the accuracy of a system. Advanced planning systems will select departure and arrival runways in addition to the proper departure and arrival procedures.

Additionally, the system must be able to accurately calculate the flight times and profiles for optimized Cost Indices values.

A system must also include accurate fuel burn biases: while a new aircraft might perform close to the flight plan calculations (even new aircraft fuel burns can vary from the system calculations) it is not unusual to find a variation of as much as 5% between new and older aircraft. Some aircraft types may initially lose up to 1% in burn per year, depending on the flight hours and cycles. One can easily imagine the impact of inaccurate fuel burn biases on long-range flights. A B777 operating between Asia and North America will consume approximately 100 tons of fuel.

A 5% burn variation will have a significant impact on payload and revenue opportunities. The only way to ensure accurate flight planning is to track fuel burn with an adequate fuel management tracking system.

Properly planning long-range flights can save airlines several thousand dollars per single flight by optimizing payload, route, arrival time, over-flight charges, alternate selection, use of decision point planning (reduced contingency fuel) or redispatch procedure, fuel top up procedure, centre of gravity optimization, etc.

A major issue affecting many airlines is the accuracy of the Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW) estimates. Because of these inaccuracies, dispatchers will tend to over-estimate the ZFW and pilots will add fuel since they do not have confidence in the accuracy of the ZFWs. Not only is extra fuel boarded but also the flight profile will not be optimal, further increasing fuel consumption. Properly tracking ZFW accuracy will help identify departure stations with the greatest variations from actual ZFWs.

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26 | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011 Click here for full SOFTWARE details and for a demo

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Along with an accurate flight planning system, an accurate takeoff performance calculator will improve safety and ensure the safe carriage of maximum payload. For accuracy, this system should be fully integrated with the flight planning system.

Airlines are reluctant to operate flights without selecting alternate airports in case there is a need to divert the flight. In North America, some airlines are planning a high percentage of their flights without selecting alternate airports. The conditions under which airlines can operate without designating an alternate are well documented and provide a level of safety equivalent to any day-to-day operation when an alternate is used. The weather conditions have to exceed such a high limit that there is little chance of weather diversion. Two independent runways with appropriate approach aids must be available. Today, flights often operate to airports with a single usable runway and the alternate airport might also only have a single runway available. In this case, while it is perfectly legal, the landing opportunities are not any greater than the no-alternate option especially when the destination and alternate airport weather is close to operating limits. In the case of dispatching without an alternate, the second independent runway basically satisfies the alternate requirements and alleviates the need to designate a distant alternate while maintaining a high safety factor. A modern fuel management system will permit the tracking of no-alternate potential flights by analysing the times such an operation was possible at an airport compared to the number of times the procedure was used. The cost of carrying unnecessary alternate fuel can be quite significant.

Having an appropriate fuel management system will also help when monitoring the use of excessively distant alternates.

Re-optimizing flight plan profiles after departure is another option for minimizing delay costs. Airlines must have the appropriate tools to analyze the cost of late arrivals and recompute the flight times once the flight is airborne. Developing such procedures involves several departments whose efforts must be coordinated to ensure all of the airlines activities are focused on minimizing delays. In the case where a flight has been initially accelerated due to specific operational requirements but where time is gained during the departure process (such as early push back or shorter taxi out time), the flight speed can then be reduced to minimise fuel burn. In some cases, connecting flights might also be delayed therefore reducing the delay costs and the need to accelerate the flight. To accomplish this, an airline must have the ability to dynamically monitor delay costs while considering all operational factors.

Dynamically managing flights requires a very professional and well-trained team along with adequate procedures, communications and alerting systems, which will keep key stakeholders focused on the operation. Airlines desiring to operate dynamically and efficiently must acquire advanced flight planning systems, appropriate communication tools and expertise to permit these operations.

Flight Briefer Needless to say an advanced flight briefer system will go a long way to ensure that the most complete and up to date information is available to flight crews during flight planning. Timely information along with graphical display of flight track reporting points plus the ability to superimpose winds, turbulence report,

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | 27

significant meteorology, icing, cloud formation, oceanic tracks, and satellite weather display, is essential. Due to the dynamic nature of an airline’s operation, it is important that crews are able to access the most up to date information at departure time; otherwise, inaccuracies will result from change of zero fuel weights or excessive alternate fuel will be carried as the weather often changes rapidly.

Winds and forecasts will be out of date and crews will lose confidence in the accuracy of the flight plan information resulting in the carriage of extra fuel. Having adequate briefing information is important if an airline wants to reduce the carriage of unnecessary fuel. Briefing information should be available via the Internet so that crews can access the complete flight plan information from literally anywhere in the world while away from their home base.

Figure 1: IT Systems and Fuel Efficiency

Fuel and Operational Management System A Fuel and Operational Management system is an essential tool to manage a major portion of the airline’s resources, providing critical information and necessary statistics to efficiently manage the day-to-day operation. The system must be fully integrated to a communication and alerting system, which highlights to the users any variation from plan, and guarantees the integrity of the data. The fuel management system must be interfaced with all other operational systems and collect the most accurate data on a continuous and

timely basis. The system must also be capable of monitoring the operational efficiency of key stakeholders such as Flight Operations, Flight Dispatch and Ground Operations.

Managing the specific fuel consumption of each aircraft in the flight planning system is essential if crews are to trust the flight plan accuracy. Otherwise, they will make their own corrections and carry extra fuel. On the other hand, if the burn correction factors are too high, excess fuel will be boarded on each flight at great cost.

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28 | WHITE PAPER: FUEL SAVING SYSTEMS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

“Pilots, in the current economic environment, must be accountable in a similar manner to other managers within the airline. Properly tracking individual pilots will enable an airline to focus on proper training and sensitization.”

Accurate taxi times are critical not only for predicting accurate block time but also for boarding the correct amount of taxi fuel. Airlines that proactively manage arrival times will require accurate statistics on taxi times.

Accurate data is also required if an airline wants to take advantage of using statistical contingency fuel. In addition, airlines wishing to use the decision point planning procedure (reduced contingency fuel) will have to demonstrate the accuracy of their flight planning system. Only after proper analysis (completed by the Fuel Management Information System) will the accuracy of the flight planning system be certified to qualify the airline for such a procedure.

The pilot fuel consumption can vary widely. Most pilots will admit that it is possible to reduce fuel consumption by applying various fuel saving techniques. Unless the airline has a sophisticated fuel management system, it will not be possible to track fuel consumption variations between individuals.

Pilots, in the current economic environment, must be accountable in a similar manner to other managers within the airline. Properly tracking individual pilots will enable an airline to focus on proper training and sensitization.

While fuel burn variation from one flight might not be significant, over an extended period of time it will be possible to establish meaningful trends between individual pilots.

The same trend analysis can be applied to flight dispatchers whose role is moving from a clerical function to one of manager. Efficient dispatchers can save an airline many times their wages by focusing on efficiency and accuracy.

Managing accurate zero fuel weights, selecting the most cost effective routes, optimizing the Cost Indices and arrival times, optimizing payloads, selecting the most appropriate alternates and finally managing the extra fuel boarded are all factors that will improve the dispatcher’s efficiency. Tracking flight dispatchers’ efficiency and providing them with appropriate operational statistics will only be possible by using an appropriate fuel management system with advanced business intelligence capabilities.

ACARS and Other Communication Systems In today’s environment, it is extremely important to be able to communicate with aircraft during any phase of flight. The most common system used by airlines at this time is Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) although many other system are coming online such as Gate links, satellite links, 802.11, etc. Most systems have advantages and limitations.

We will focus on ACARS for now, although the list of data link systems is exhaustive and beyond the scope of this article. The point is that, if an airline is to operate effectively and collect accurate and timely operational data, the aircraft must be able to transmit data automatically throughout the flight and the data must be stored in a usable format.

Some airlines use ACARS very effectively, which greatly improves operational efficiency. In addition to receiving and sending important operational messages, ACARS can be used to upload flight plans, request weather information, upload data (such as wind information) directly to the Flight Management System (FMS), upload flight plan information, send messages throughout the airline’s organization or to other aircraft, communicate with Air Traffic Control and obtain Automated Terminal Information System (ATIS) information and clearances, communicate with Maintenance, update arrival times and so on; communications are critical for any airline wishing to operate efficiently. An additional important aspect of ACARS is the system’s ability to provide the data for a fuel management system as discussed above. Quality and timely data is essential for an efficient operation.

Conclusion As can be seen, advanced IT tools will contribute significantly to improving operational efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and improving safety. This is in addition to improving customer service and minimizing the environmental impact of airline operation.

MARCEL MARTINEAU

After graduating in Engineering at the Royal Canadian Military College, Marcel started flying in 1968 as a fighter pilot for the Canadian Armed Forces, flying CF101 Voodoo All Weather Fighter aircraft. He then joined Air Canada, where he flew for 32 years retiring as a Senior Captain on Airbus 330 and 340 aircraft. Over his career Marcel accumulated in excess of 18,000 flying hours.

In addition to his line experience, Marcel spent 20 years working for the Canadian Airline Pilots Association in flight safety and industrial relations and seven years as part of Air Canada’s Management Team, five of which were in the capacity, Manager Flight Operations Fuel Programs and Flight Dispatch Liaison.

Marcel is recognized within the aviation industry as an expert in the field of fuel and operational efficiency. Having participated in more than 50 airline reviews over the past 5 years to improve the quality of the airlines’ daily operations, Marcel has had a positive impact to decrease overall fuel consumption which not only increases profitability but also has a positive impact to the environment.

As well Marcel has been involved with numerous projects including teaching Fuel Management and Operational Efficiency Courses for IATA and the Arab Airline Company Organization, developing an Environmental Gas Emission software tool for Transport Canada Development Centre, and providing consulting services for both Airlines and industry.

Most recently, Marcel has participated in a joint venture with Smart4 Aviation BV to develop a Fuel Management Information System, which is fully integrated with the Airlines operating systems. This Business Intelligence software solution integrates all of the operational data sources to create a unified data mart accessible via the web by key departments within the airline.

About TFM Aviation Inc. TFM, a Canadian company, employs highly experienced industry specialists with over 150 years of combined experience with major airlines in the fields of fuel management and operational efficiency.

The TFM Team members have participated in operational efficiency business process evaluations at more than 70 airlines and have first-hand knowledge of fuel management challenges facing the airline industry. The Team able is to identify critical operational efficiency issues and develop a strategy to implement changes, which will improve the overall efficiency of your airline.

Whether assisting in developing a strategy to reduce fuel consumption or improving the overall operating efficiency, TFM Aviation has the experience and expertise, to not only to develop a plan but also to execute the project.

Ask the Expert: Fuel Saving Solutions In addition to being available now to answer any questions you have arising from this White Paper, Capt. Martineau is available all year round for one-to-one consultancies via the Ask The Expert feature at www. aircraftIT.com. In addition to your IT queries, Capt. Martineau can offer invaluable advice on all aspects of fuel consumption.

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APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WEBINARS | 29

Upcoming Live Software Demonstration Webinars at www.AircraftIT.com this June Sign up to free live online software and product demonstrations for a perfect introduction to two of the world’s leading EFB software and hardware vendors and to learn how they can assist and add value to your operations

E

very two weeks AircraftIT Operations Portal hosts a live software or product demonstration webinar; each event delivered by a different IT vendor. These sessions provide the perfect opportunity for you to learn directly, from the major IT Vendors serving airlines and aircraft operators, about different Operations software solutions available in the market and how they might add real, across the board value to operating your fleet.

During each online webinar session, the host IT vendor delivers a live software or hardware demonstration of their solutions and explains how it can assist airlines and aircraft operators.

You, as an online delegate, can ask questions via

“…learn directly, from the major IT Vendors serving airlines, MROs and aircraft operators, about different MRO software solutions available…” the interactive white board or simply sit back and watch the demonstration. There are two separately scheduled sessions during the day to accommodate all time zones.

Following the theme of the eJournal each of the first two webinar sessions will offer a complete overview of a fully functioning EFB system, with a major hardware and software vendor demonstrating their solutions.

Click on the links below for full details about each session and to sign up. navAero and AMT will confirm your participation and you will receive your login details with full instructions on how to enter the Webinar sessions.

For a full list of upcoming live software demonstration webinar sessions visit | www.aircraftIT.com for full information and to plan which sessions you wish to attend.

IT Vendors: want to get your message out?

Want to publish your latest news and technology updates where they’ll be seen?

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• Host Live Software Demo Webinars or receive Private Demos • Educate the aviation IT world about your products

ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

An EFB Special

• Realise a return on investment within 12-24 months • Norwegian Case Study: A year operating a Class II EFB

Realtime Business Intelligence for Decision The Paperless Cockpit – Myth or Reality? Making How IT systems can save fuel consumpti on White Papers: Lufthansa Consulting, TFM Aviation Aircraft IT OPS V1.1 April-May 2011.indd

and Flight Guidance • Case Studies: Bangkok Airways

and Norwegian Air Shuttle

1 27/04/2011 11:56

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30 | WEBINARS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Live Software Demonstration Webinar: navAero’s EFB Computer Display System n Session 1: 16th June 2011, 5am GMT n Session 2: 16th June 2011, 3pm GMT n Duration: 1 hour plus Q&A.

navAero – The move is on to Electronic Flight Bags

n Session Agenda z Why an EFB? What system is right for you and what to consider in selecting an EFB Solution z An overview of the navAero solutions including t·Bag C2² EFB and the t·Pad 800; z The General Features z Success Stories and Case Studies. navAero provide an outline of their Live Product Demonstration Webinar and what you can expect to see during the session.

E

veryone is seeing the tremendous advantages of using electronic flight bags and eliminating paper from the cockpit. navAero presents the first truly affordable Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) computer/display system for general, corporate and commercial aviation.

With the introduction of our t·Bag C2² EFB and the t·Pad 800, navAero has redefined the electronic flight bag. Our systems are built for the cockpit environment for all sectors of aviation to help improve situational awareness, reduce hours of

flight planning and preparation and improve cockpit efficiency, productivity and safety.

This webinar session will walk you through the huge benefits that can be gained from using an EFB system in your fleet. Case studies, like the one you have just read from Norwegian and from other navAero customers such as Continental will be interspersed with product demonstrations to show you the real benefits of an EFB solution and why your company should be using one and joining the connected aircraft revolution.

We look forward to welcoming you to the webinar sessions on the 16th of June and showing you the exciting possibilities an EFB solution can open up for your operations.

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APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WEBINARS | 31

Live Software Demonstration Webinar: Flightman™ Electronic Flight Bag n Session 1: 30th June 2011, 5am GMT n Session 2: 30th June 2011, 3pm GMT n Duration: 50 minutes plus Q&A.

The complete EFB software solution n Session Agenda z How to optimise an airline’s operational performance through EFB Applications z A live demonstration of a complete EFB Software Solution.

Aircraft Management Technology (AMT) provide an outline of their Live Software Demonstration Webinar and what you can expect to see during the session.

I

n today’s competitive environment, airlines are constantly seeking ways to improve their operational performance and obtain significant cost savings. Electronic Flight Bag technology has revolutionized how airlines operate today by streamlining airlines’ processes and enabling the ‘connected aircraft’.

AMT are hosting a free webinar to address the following EFB discussion topics: • Optimizing Airlines’ Operational Performance through EFB Applications – the presentation looks at the application of lean techniques to achieve efficiencies in airlines’ operational processes and how the EFB plays a key roles in realizing the savings.

• Demonstration of a complete EFB software solution. This includes the following key modules: • Electronic Flight Folder; • eJourney Log; • Performance Calculations; • Weight & Balance; • Large Content Manager; • Integration with 3rd Party Chart Provider; • Forms Designer; • eTechlog; • Business Intelligence Tool; • Ground Administrative Manager.

Speaker: Joe McGoldrick, Chief Executive Officer, Aircraft Management Technologies Join the ‘connected aircraft’ revolution and sign into this webinar session today!

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32 | CASE STUDY: BANGKOK AIRWAYS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

PIC: Pilot-In-Command or Processor-In-Command With the advent of ever more complex IT systems, including the concept of the ‘paperless’ cockpit, Ping na Thalang, Vice President Information Systems Dept, Bangkok Airways, poses the question – who is actually in command of the aircraft? Forget ‘paperless’, how about ‘pilotless’?

Photo: Dreamstime, Global Hawk in Flight, AJ Tooley

A

“It is said that if aircraft technology had advanced at the same rate as computer technology, one could buy a Concorde for a hundred dollars, or carry thousands of passengers on a round trip to the moon for just a few bucks. OK, maybe I exaggerate a little, but the explosive growth of digital technology in a last few decades has been clear to any computer user.”

Ping na Thalang, Vice President Information Systems Department, Bangkok Airways

viation is one operational field where error is not an option: it is not as forgiving as land or sea transport. The fact that we can carry hundreds of shirtsleeved passengers at near supersonic speeds more than 10km above the earth’s surface, is a feat that defies nature. If we get it wrong, nature, through the pull of gravity, will reassert its influence in a devastating instant.

In that context, it’s no accident that air travel has become the safest mode of transport. Ever since the first casualty from a 1908 fixed wing airplane accident, knowledge gleaned from air accident investigations has contributed progressively and cumulatively to the safety levels that aviation enjoys today. Disaster from the air creates tremendous damage aloft and on the ground, whether intentionally (through war or terrorism) or accidentally. Therefore, all appropriate human skill and knowledge must be applied to ensure that air transport remains the safest way to travel. However, in that, aviation may become a victim of its own success when the public takes air travel for granted, demanding more journeys to more places than ever before.

Each new generation of aircraft is designed to carry greater payloads over longer distances and in less time than its predecessors while, at the same time, being more energy efficient and environmentally friendly — a complex and contradictory set of parameters. It would be impossible for a human pilot, however skillful and knowledgeable, to manage one of these complex

21st century flying machines unaided. Technology supplies the key to ensuring that the apparently contradictory requirements of modern flight can all be met. Onboard automation systems are designed to assist the pilot in flying the aircraft. But automation in aircraft is nothing new: it has been around since Lawrence Sperry invented the first gyroscopic autopilot in 1912. Although the early Sperry autopilot and artificial horizon were analog devices, they prepared the ground for the digitized avionics systems that followed decades later.

It is said that if aircraft technology had advanced at the same rate as computer technology, one could buy a Concorde for a hundred dollars, or carry thousands of passengers on a round trip to the moon for just a few bucks. OK, maybe I exaggerate a little, but the explosive growth of digital technology in a last few decades has been clear to any computer user. Therefore, it is fair to voice the big question on many people’s minds: will the computer continue to play the role of ‘assistant’ to the pilot, or will it, one day, be the leading flyer of the aircraft.

First let’s look at the technical possibility.

Digital computer power is mainly derived from three capabilities: data warehousing, processing/ communication speed, and analytical processing power. The first two (huge data storage and retrieval with rapid communication of data, voice and video) are what most people associate with computer power. However, it is the third, the analytical processing of information, which could elevate the

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | CASE STUDY: BANGKOK AIRWAYS | 33

A380 flight deck On Board Computer

“Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”

Captain A. G. Lamplugh, British Aviation Insurance Group, London. c. early 1930’s. computer from ‘follower’ to ‘leader’ in the cockpit.

Almost all modern aircraft — commercial, military and general aviation — have onboard computers of some kind. The most basic automation is an autopilot to help reduce pilot workload. But there is also fly-by-wire; digitized flight control, replacing heavy cabling (and direct human access to flight control surfaces) with lighter data connectivity and a smart box between the human and the flight control surfaces. Not only is flight control now computerized but also the navigation aspect of flight is digitized. The Flight Management System (FMS) manages almost all phases of flight, taking input from various sources (ground stations, satellites, other self-contained systems and pilots) to feedback the processed information via the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS).

The powerplant is another key component now under computerized control through Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC). Engine complexity (i.e. more thrust with less fuel and emissions, etc.) demands digitized control of all its parameters.

Again, FADEC helps lighten the pilot’s workload when it comes to engine management. Unlike the autopilot mechanism, however, FADEC has no manual override should the pilot want to take full

command of the engine.

A further manifestation of onboard digitization is the EFB (Electronic Flight Bag). Pilots usually carry heavy bags of documents, including charts, manuals, references, checklists and more. The time involved searching for a particular piece of information in one of these brick sized documents can be considerable and frustrating. Now, systems can manage all of those texts and graphics in a digital format conveniently packed into a lightweight notebook computer carried onboard or, in some versions, built into to the flight deck.

The ultimate testimony to digital flight management is the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and the ultimate UAV is the Global Hawk that flew from the USA to Australia in April 2001 without any human intervention. That was the technology of a decade ago when a computer could fly an aircraft across the Pacific. Computer power grows exponentially, so one can only imagine what a digitally managed machine could achieve today.

One obvious question regarding automation is ‘can a computer fail?’ The answer is, yes, it can: not through its own mistakes but because of human error in design, coding, testing, documenting, implementing, maintenance, etc. of the machine.

Photo: Dreamstime, Aircraft Navigation by Sportster883

34 | CASE STUDY: BANGKOK AIRWAYS | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

It all comes back to ‘human error’; but now that’s not pilot error. However, computer error becomes rarer by the day with better standards, education and training, development, and testing, plus more rigorous and systematic certification criteria.

To the question of whether digital automation can technically replace human pilots, I would answer a definite ‘yes’.

But, a more important question is, ‘do we want to replace pilots with computers?’ That is a tougher one to answer. The first thing to consider is the flying public. Without the result of any scientific survey, I’m going to guess with reasonable certainty that most people will prefer to have a living, breathing human pilot on board. We also have to consider the pilot community and I’m pretty sure that they would want to still be in the picture. The key issue in the future (or, at least, the immediate future) is how the human pilot and the powerful computer can safely co-exist on the flight deck. The issue in the future won’t be so much about machine failure, nor human failure per se. It will be about human-machine interface failure or human failure to manage the complexity of the airborne computer.

In the past, pilots were expected to use their ‘gray matter’ as the primary source of information and processing. They were trained and drilled to work in an emergency, where instruments and equipment had failed. But pilots with too much of the ‘seatof-the-pants’ approach might resist the demands of

“An airplane may disappoint a good pilot, but it won’t surprise him.”

Anonymous

modern technology and refuse to acknowledge the inner workings of a digital computer. Against this, today’s young iPad generation pilots may embrace new technology much better than older colleagues but, if they over embrace it, when there’s a computer malfunction, they won’t be prepared to take the command and make their own decisions in time.

The pilot is only good as the aircraft allows him or her to be. It’s a well known difference between Boeing and Airbus that they hold opposite views in this regard. The US airframe maker believes the human pilot should have final authority to fly the aircraft, while its European rival believes the computerized ‘control laws’ should have final say in preventing pilots from maneuvering the aircraft in, what it deems, risky and dangerous ways.

It’s interesting to note that Brazilian maker Embraer (for its future ‘Legacy 500’ business jet) takes a hybrid approach, allowing pilots to maneuver aircraft in certain risky situations, while preventing them from taking the aircraft into other, what Embraer considers, dangerous configurations.

As you can see, there’s no absolute right or wrong approach. The key factor is the training pilots receive compared to the type of the aircraft they will fly. For pilots trained to exercise final authority; if flying an aircraft that won’t allow them to do that, there would be a problem. On the other hand, pilots well trained in managing the automated systems, but lacking the skills for manual flying will experience a problem if required to fly an aircraft that anticipates some level of manual control in certain circumstances.

Until the day when there are only two buttons on the flight deck that say ‘start’ and ‘stop’, the key to safe flight will be the attitude of the human pilot toward his or her equipment. The right attitude comes from right kind of selection, the right kind of

A Bangkok Airways A320 Flightdeck

Bangkok Airways Flightdeck Systems

The systems Bangkok Airways primarily use to assist pilots are: 1. Sabre AirCenter Dispatch Manager - which is used on ground before flight; and 2. LPC (Less Paper in Cockpit) system which is an EFB Class 1 - used by A319/A320 pilots in the flightdeck.

education and the right kind of training.

“Hey — what’s happening here?” were the last recorded words from the captain of Eastern Flight 401 before it crashed into the Florida everglades on 29 December 1972. Those words of bewilderment did not stem from a direct miscommunication with the digital system, but they could be the last words of any pilot who doesn’t have a full grasp of their digital co-pilot.

The flightdeck environment and surprises don’t mix. When the flight is uneventful, and everything goes well and according to the flight plan, human and machine co-exist peacefully. But when an emergency arises, there must not be any question nor doubt of who is in command — PIC (Pilot-InCommand) or PIC (Processor-In-Command).

PING NA THALANG

During his tenure with Bangkok Airways, Ping has been part of the team that underwent several ICT challenges such as development of inhouse ecommerce/eticketing/ webcheckin systems, switching of the core CRS, the move of company headquarter to a new location, the construction of a new company owned airport (Bangkok Airways owns and manages three airports in Thailand) and the move of Bangkok’s primary airport amongst other projects.

Prior to joining Bangkok Airways, Ping has been a computer instructor, freelance programmer, freelance systems analyst and computer consultant for over 14 governmental agencies, local and multinational companies in Thailand, Indonesia and USA from 1983 until 2001.

Ping graduated witha BA in Computer Science from the College of Wooster, USA and attended the Aviation Management Program at Central Missouri State University. He has published over 390 articles on ICT and Aviation ICT in the Bangkok Post, Business Day and MIS Asia. He is member of IEEE Computer Society, AOPA and holds Private Pilot License (FixedWing Land Airplane with Instrument and MultiEngine Ratings). Ping is currently the Vice President of Information Systems at Bangkok Airways.

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ISSUE 1 • APRIL/MAY 2011

Are you ready?

Selecting and implementing an MRO solution

True ERP software for airlines?

Joined-up thinking: Linking multip le solutions Fast MRO Implementation: the benefi ts MRO IT: mapping the future White Papers: SAKS Consulting • Conduce Consulting Case Studies: Gol Linhas Aereas • Kingfi sher Airlines • Sol Linhas Aereas Aircraft IT MRO V1.1 April-May 2011.indd

1

Interested in IT systems for MRO? Click here to read the AircraftIT MRO eJournal.

Case Study BoB & ERP: Working together IT Works: Replace one old system with two new ones, integrate them both with the business’s ERP and apply all changes to two recently joined businesses: a study in good project management.

Fernando Moura de Lucena, Manager Business Solutions IT at VRG Airlines (Gol Group)

White Paper Are you ready for an Enterprise Wide MRO System? Selecting the right MRO system can help to

transform performance but executives and businesses have to first know which are the correct questions to ask, then listen to the answers, even when they are challenging Sharhabeel Lone, Partner Global Business Strategy at SAKS Consulting

Case Study Aircraft Maintenance Management and Control Software Systems do not require long

implementation schedules: IT systems are not simple affairs but their implementation need not be a lengthy process if proper preparations are made both of the business and the people who’ll have to use the system. Working with you vendor can deliver a fast and effective implementation process.

Aer. Eng. Gustavo Daneri, Maintenance Director, Sol Lineas Aereas

White Paper What’s up with Aviation IT? Managers have woken up to the fact that IT can be a business enabler for

airlines and MROs. However very few aviation IT departments have moved forward from the status of internal vendors who monopolize the ‘computer problem’.

Paul Saunders, Director, Conduce Consulting

Case Study Can airlines pull IT all together? Airlines are complex operations working with state-of-the-art technologies and

yet, in running their own businesses, they still rely on a diversity of function specific software solutions. They need a single ERP solution.Vishok Mansingh, Asst. Vice President-Eng Logistics & Systems, Kingfisher Airlines

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36 | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Business Intelligence: More than information alone Smarten up your operations with real-time business intelligence for inter-operative collaborative decision making, says Gesine Varfis, Managing Consultant, Lufthansa Consulting.

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he end of operative reporting as we know it?

Neither mention of IATA delay codes, nor the discussion of delay reports are likely to raise a cheer among airline personnel: the same could be said for other ‘operations and maintenance’ key performance indicators (KPIs). Indeed, some people may become stressed when simply thinking about delay codes: Gesine Varfis, Managing Consultant, Lufthansa Consulting they relate delays with exhaustive operations delay limited. Moreover, delays are still reported and measured in static reports review meetings, where cause after cause of delays have been discussed. Others either generated via individual systems, or manually gathered and recorded. might relate them to massive amounts of paperwork, Excel spread sheets or Power This leaves airlines with a lot of information in different data marts. Worse Point presentations to be prepared on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. still, some of the data available cannot even be gathered via standard reports Nevertheless, while delay codes and reports may well be unexciting, the and therefore cannot be used. operative challenges that they flag up are about reducing delays: and delays cost Today’s IT focus is on hosting legacy systems, the IT landscape and money — about €3.500-€4.000 per hour’s delay — plus, as importantly, delays architecture. Many organizations still expend a lot of time and effort optimizing cost reputations and can lose customers. their current operations IT landscape. But the real question is, what should Airlines have implemented a range of IT solutions to assist in the be adapted: operations to the tools, or are the tools customized to meet the management of irregularities or delays: for some airlines there will be as many business specifics? Above all it is about return on investment (ROI), interfacing, as 200 to 400+ operations related applications. Today’s IT solutions focus on automation and migration plans. Due to their complexity these migration plans the reduction of complexity to allow fast collaborative decisions. Operative require a lot of effort, sometimes up to a year of planning, to manage upgrades solutions focus on real-time operations management, interfaced and integrated or an exchange of systems. as well as complemented by state-of-the-art planning systems. Although IT The Figure 1 shows the IT evolution layers for OPS solutions. Many of today’s systems are key elements in the improvement of performance, they are only a airlines are still optimizing in the grey area. They are in a stage where OPS part of what is needed to ensure operational excellence. Today’s state-of-thesystems are in the focus and static reporting is applied. Also, many airlines art operations are about balancing and, at the same time, optimizing operative still optimize their basic operation tools, whereas the leveraging that creates standards, processes, the organization, culture and infrastructure. However competitive advantage is in business and operative intelligence solutions. good these operations applications are, their business intelligence value is

“Although IT systems are key elements in the improvement of performance, they are only a part of what is needed to ensure operational excellence.”

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | 37

“It is and will be Operations where preventive actions based on business intelligence will create a competitive advantage.” functionally in inter-operational applications to support management while also smartening up real-time Competitive advantage decision making. What supports Today’s invest priorities • Infrastructure • Logistics • ERP Systems • Translation of island management in decision making can’t solutions into warehouse solutions • Finance solutions • OPS legacy solutions be bad for operative decision making.

Figure 1: The IT evolution path from operative excellence towards operative intelligence Today’s data, KPIs and delay codes make their way into operations control centers to support real-time decisions.

Today, market cycles are growing ever shorter while customer expectations With real-time KPI systems, management and staff will apply the same KPIs: increase at an accelerating rate. At the same time the cycles of the developed one target, one company for one goal. With BI, Operations gets empowered to competitive advantages get shorter as the competition goes low cost and hybrid. manage the business, while managers focus on development of staff and the Cost cutting and flexibility have reached their limits and the industry now generation of competitive advantage. strives for ideas, innovation, exceptional products and services that supplement the continuously applied costing initiatives. To stay in the game, flexibility with fast operative and strategic decision making are crucial and they are expected to be fact based. This is why business intelligence (BI) solutions are gaining increasing presence in the aviation industry: BI handles massive amounts of data in seconds while, at the same time, allowing users to focus on analytics instead of data and information gathering.

Leadership and competitive advantage are generated or lost in Operations.

Operations needs more than operative IT systems supporting operational excellence: Operations needs business intelligence — operative intelligence.

Operations and performance management are the keys to success, they are where commercial, products and service strategies meet and come alive: this is where exceptional customer management can make a difference. Operations are also where the passenger meets the airline’s strategy; it is where you can tip a customer’s choice.

Airlines transport passengers from A to B, but they sometimes forget that their most important customers fly so often that they become very familiar with the airports. A frequent flyer arriving on, say, ‘stand A401’ may need to Figure 2: Catching the high hanging fruits with BI beyond reporting know whether he or she is going to make their connection: but it can seem that nobody else cares. The crew may not know the airport that well and will advise Today, leading airlines correlate their company objectives on a cross-functional their customer to contact ground staff at the gate. It is exactly in this sort of level by linking customer satisfaction with commercial, service and operative situation where operative intelligence, with the knowledge and data available, excellence. This cross functional approach allows the generation of further can generate exceptional customer experiences. Today’s solutions will calculate potentials: the season for catching the high hanging fruits is open. walking time from this ‘stand A401’, via the terminal to the stand where the connecting flight is waiting — with alternative routes: they can even compare a ramp transfer against terminal transfer assistance, instead of leaving a frustrated passenger to their own devices. It is and will be Operations where preventive actions based on business intelligence will create a competitive advantage.

Today, business intelligence is not only ‘nice to have’; it is a ‘must have’. BI starts with: ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’... but BI is more than that. BI is: ‘if you do not know your business you can’t be competitive’, ‘if you do not know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you will be developing strategy in the dark’. And if you develop strategy in the dark how can you serve today’s and tomorrow’s customers? Business intelligence is more than a tool for gathering data, it is more than smart analytics, BI has revolutionized and will continue to revolutionize management decisions, because smart analytics will even make delay codes ‘sexy’ to apply. They are the basis for early warning indicators when conflated with trend analytics and forecasting Figure 3: BI benefits and supports a cross functional management of performance capabilities. Now is the time to roll out BI in Operations and apply it cross-

38 | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

The prerequisite for moving from business excellence to business intelligence is a software and hardware package that allows real-time data management, trend analytics, etc. BI technologies provide historic, current, and predictive views on operations. Standard BI technologies cover reporting, analytics, data mining, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, and predictive analytics. However, forecasting and simulations capabilities will the differential factor.

Figure 4: How BI technologies can support competitive advantage

Leveraging to create a competitive advantage, and tackle complexity and competing company objectives, is not defined by state-of-the-art solutions or tools. It is about the definition of performance metrics, concepts and methods to improve business decision making. Intelligence is not provided by the systems: rather, it is defined by the knowledge of the people working in the business and developed further via business analytics. Therefore the operative intelligence needs to be defined from within the company as a cross functional approach and it has to be supported by a progressive operations culture.

The consequence for delay reporting is that the units which have produced the delay codes and reports for management will be the same ones that will use re-engineered performance KPIs in their daily work to support decision making.

Tomorrow’s static MIS will be translated into flexible real-time BI applications covering early warning indicators (EWI) or key disruption indicators (KDIs) integrated in dash boards.

“Airlines and MROs should be launching their business intelligence plans right now: it’s not a matter of following or adapting established BI best practices, at a later more mature stage.” implementation. Therefore the IT vendor is made responsible for provision of a best practice solution. Many vendors provide reporting models, even during the sales pitch; they use the same reporting structure for this purpose. If such a BI solution is implemented, neither specifics nor specification of business requirements is taken into account. The responsibility for the BI concept — the business intelligence vision — is with the airline not the vendor. For best practice BI, airlines need a concept phase supplemented by a business process re-engineering (BPR) approach. At the same time, staff and management, working in cross-functional workshops, should develop analytics which support the business model of the operation. The concept needs to comprise and support an innovative, exceptional improvement management culture.

Airlines and MROs should be launching their business intelligence plans right now: it’s not a matter of following or adapting established BI best practices, at a later more mature stage. Neither is it a matter of waiting for a better BI upgrade to reach the market. Business intelligence is about continuous learning and improvement based on the data and information available in the company and, specifically, in Operations. A strategy of waitand-see would leave the business as a sitting duck. Business skills, know-how and capabilities are within the company, not with a third party. Therefore the intelligence can only be translated into bankable results, if it is developed and continuously improved within the enterprise.

Best practice solutions need a holistic real-time concept for the company as a whole, and, specifically, for Operations control and Operations management. In the end the IT solution is selected based on the concept specification.

APPROACH

“Modern BI systems are powerful; however, many airlines fail to generate bankable results with BI because a holistic BI strategy has not been developed before launch.”

Challenges and how to bridge them when going to BI Modern BI systems are powerful; however, many airlines fail to generate bankable results with BI because a holistic BI strategy has not been developed before launch. A BI strategy should comprise more than just a new KPI reporting structure with a solid data and data warehouse model behind. In fact many airlines end up with the duplication of their current structures, while transferring their current data and reporting into a state of the art Management Information System (MIS) with faster and more automated aggregation of data instead of going to BI. Changing this takes a lot of effort, which adds nothing to the fruitless reporting implementation.

Many describe their MIS implementation as a BI solution, since everybody goes BI. But changing the word does not turn the ‘i’ in MIS into intelligence; it still stands for reporting ‘information’. BI benefits are only generated and sustainable if the BI concept is embedded in the corporate culture — making BI a living system which engages everyone, from top management to the loader, for the same goals. BI is about progressive management by objectives embedded in a learning organization, an organization which asks employees at all levels to contribute to change, innovation and best practice, and be eager to learn from mistakes.

The other main challenge is about the lack of any guiding concept; the challenge is how the concept should be developed. Most of the time airlines plan to buy BI best practice solutions; the BI project is managed as an IT

Figure 5: BI concept needs to translate corporate starategy into a BI concept

The BI Solution Market Although BI has developed a strong and growing market presence in different industries over the last decade, BI solutions within the aviation industry are in their infancy. The solutions the industry applies have been individually and sporadically developed for specific analytical scopes. At many airlines, BI systems have been implemented based on the specific needs of certain business units, e.g. engine monitoring solutions, MIDT data analytics, etc. For the aviation industry this need not simply be a case of lagging behind the development of other industries; instead, it should be used as a chance to go not just for an IT solution, but for a holistic, integrated business intelligence concept.

In general BI solutions have been driven by IT departments. The motivation behind them was to gain advanced technical solutions to manage data and information. In most cases it wasn’t a business driven solution. BI solutions were also initiated by Finance for financial reporting, whereas Operations has not, traditionally, considered BI. This is why classic ERP providers like Oracle or SAP have a major stake in the BI solutions market. However, the result has been that traditional BI platform implementations have been top down and the solutions have been modeled in semantic layers. The focus was on reports and KPIs as

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | 39

well as dashboards / grids.

Today’s business has become intelligent. In general the decision to implement a BI solution has shifted towards the needs of the enterprise. It is the business which starts looking for solutions to deliver better visualization and analytics.

Gartner, one of the world’s leading information technology research and advisory companies, states that the market shows that, for BI solutions, the ‘ease of use’ is so compelling that they get implemented despite the risk of creating fragmented silos of data, definitions and tools. Moreover, BI purchasing decisions are taken with or without the IT department’s consent. If BI is bought without consensus it works against the BI benefit of reducing complexity.

If not contained and managed, BI solutions will add to complexity and not reduce it, creating business, strategy and performance islands, with different approaches and targets. As a consequence this would hinder the business performance instead of enhancing it: the need for a BI solution implementation complemented with a BI process, culture, organization and change concept grows increasingly compelling.

According to Gartner, IT organizations need to back away from a singleminded pursuit of standardization through one vendor. A more pragmatic portfolio approach would need to be developed to allow the generation of BI benefits. The challenge has been the integration of the new enterprise information management architectures and how to develop methodologies, and governance processes to accommodate and bridge the gap between the different buying centers, architectures and deployment approaches. According to Gartner, the target is a BI portfolio driven enterprise where IT departments and the business’s units support the integration of the different segments into an enterprise BI portfolio. The leading vision needs to be that both business user and enterprise requirements are met at the same time.

Gartner also states that a shift from measurement to analysis, forecasting and optimization takes place. This indicates that the competitive advantages shift from reporting to optimization. If airlines have not managed to structure their data and KPIs they will fall behind in analytics and even worse they will not develop the capability to develop that analytics driven corporate culture which is crucial for success.

Figure 6: Development stages of MIS towards BI

However, the application of the basic BI capabilities, like interactive visualization, predictive analytics, dashboards and online analytical processing (OLAP), is still increasing. Based on the Gartner research it is business users who push for analytics, forecasting and the optimization of the business processes. The market on the other side invests in statistical capabilities, predictive analytic modeling and forecasting algorithms.

For a market overview of BI solutions, Gartner is the source of information. Annually Gartner publishes an evaluation of vendors in terms of completeness of vision and ability to execute. However good this guideline is, BI has reached a level where more and more BI software providers are entering the market with a range of solutions and concepts in addition to what is represented in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Today’s BI market offers not only numerous

tools and concepts but also differential license fees, maintenance and operating concepts, with the consequence that the evaluation and selection of a BI solution becomes increasingly complex. However the Gartner rating of the leading BI solutions in the market gives an excellent indication.

Figure 7: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for BI platforms * Source: Gartner (January 2011)

In terms of BI trends, Gartner assumes that organizations will apply BI tools for smarter, more agile and more efficient business performance. Therefore BI solutions will support companies with the analysis of large, volatile and diverse data in the future. Moreover, BI will serve as a knowledge base where Googlelike users and analysts will explore vast amounts of increasingly diverse data types to detect patterns and optimize business processes and decisions. At the same time the need for information delivery systems will grow further. However, successful BI solutions will be embedded in the business process; BI will support real-time decisions, planning, simulation, and forecasting beyond what the basic dashboard and scorecard can deliver. For further details, refer to the Gartner report: ‘Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms’ (issued 27 January 2011 by Rita L. Sallam, James Richardson, John Hagerty, Bill Hostmann).

Translating this into the aviation industry BI will be the tool with which airlines can differentiate their service, and commercial and operational excellence; giving each airline the flexibility and the option to customize a management tool to its needs. Operational tools will develop into basic tools to run Operations. However, the intelligence will be in the customized intelligence portals combining knowledge management, innovation management, safety and quality management with the company’s strategic goals that everybody follows.

BI will change today’s Operations management and will determine the intelligence of tomorrow’s Operations control. It will forecast equipment changes, the cost and consequences of equipment changes, etc. and will be the future real-time supporting tool in operations control centers — hub (HCC), maintenance (MCC), operations (OCC), ground services (GCC) and airport (ACC) control centers.

It will be the airlines with the right IT, BI and operations concept who will lead the business. Those organizations that need to work collaboratively will especially gain from applying BI solutions for inter-organizational and inter-operational decisions. For airlines there are two different options available in the market for going BI. There are providers who offer the BI solution as a control panel integrated in the OPS system via an enterprise service bus (ESB). Going via an ESB, data flows can be fast tracked, offering one data model and giving airlines the flexibility and openness for innovation while ensuring operational stability. At the same time increasing numbers of BI providers are entering the aviation market and offering real-time capable BI solutions as an add-on solution.

40 | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Repetition of history — a comparison of adopting BI against adopting ERP As we understand it, the more BI solutions / island / silo solutions are added into a business, the more complex the BI and operative solutions management will be. Therefore the development of a holistic cross-functional business concept complemented by an IT strategy and architecture concept is essential.

Repetition of history? Today the IT landscape at MROs and airlines is extremely complex. To reduce complexity, ERP solutions have been introduced with the argument that ERP solutions integrate all departments and functions across a company into a single computer system that can serve all those different departments’ particular needs, thereby changing the company from a subsidiary / departmental (silo) approach to an enterprise one.

ERP solutions have added a lot of value to business. However, a lot of ERP implementations failed due to the lack of accompanying concept, business process re-engineering, change management, etc. Existing structures, processes, etc. have, too often, simply been transferred into the ERP systems without enhancements. There are companies that have not bought an ERP solution, but an expensive accounting system with not much value added compared to the cost. The thesis is that BI will face the same fate, if BI island solutions are not integrated into a strategic enterprise concept comparable with an ERP solution concept.

Figure 8: Exemplary structure for real-time BI options

BI will leverage performance management initiatives. It will not only revolutionize IATA delay code reporting: tomorrow’s airlines will apply complex models for event and trend simulations, planning and forecasting. Airlines will apply predictive analytics with target thresholds for KPIs, early warning indicators and KDIs to allow analytics based alternative action management. The companies who manage to complement their BI by a performance driven and innovative corporate culture will outperform their peers.

“Without a holistic BI concept and process re-engineering approach the complexity will not be manageable and the optimization benefits will not be as high as they could be.”

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | WHITE PAPER: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | 41

Airlines and MROs need to adopt BI now with a holistic real-time concept to outperform the competition and grasp a unique opportunity to create a continuous competitive advantage. Therefore the implementation needs to go beyond traditional IT / BI implementation workshops. BI needs to be complemented by a progressive change management concept, using the opportunity of going intelligent and innovative at the same time. Innovation is about thinking outside the box in a cross-functional company approach: however, tomorrow’s ideas will be generated by thinking outside the building, with the company plus third party partners.

TEAMING UP FOR BI EXCELLENCE

Figure 9: ERP objectives compared with BI objectives

Today, many airlines and MROs add individual BI solutions to their IT landscape without a holistic concept. This situation is comparable with the situation for ERP solutions ‘before ERP’. In a worst case scenario, the complexity is further complicated, because different BI solutions are added for single analytics (for one OPS system a BI reporting / analytics is added) and at the same time BI solutions are added on a cross-functional level (numerous OPS data sources are aggregated into a single BI reporting and analytics system).

Without a holistic BI concept and process re-engineering approach the complexity will not be manageable and the optimization benefits will not be as high as they could be.

GESINE VARFIS Gesine Varfis heads the Operational Excellence Department at Lufthansa Consulting which focuses on performance improvement, fuel management, cost reduction programs, profitability management and business intelligence solutions. She is an expert in the areas of Ground Handling, Operations Control and Management Accounting. In addition she was responsible for route analyses, route profitability, market potential analyses and business plans, which is based on her long experience in management accounting, budgeting, performance and cost management. In general she is specialized in activity based costing, reporting (MIS) and balanced score card issues.

Gesine was involved in several controlling projects, where she re-designed controlling concepts and defined cost cutting potentials for our clients.

As a project manager, she was responsible for restructuring projects, activity based cost cutting, the design of a cost and revenue simulation tool, the redesign of customer feedback management and different Operations Control and on time performance projects. Her broad aviation process and product background in operations, IT applications, CRM, traffic forecasting, market potential analysis and business planning for airlines, ground handler, maintenance and engineering and airports allows a comprehensive analytical approach

Figure 10: Teaming up for BI with vendors and consultants

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Before working for Lufthansa Consulting, Gesine was a process and operations’ consultant for ABB Airport Technologies. She focused on sales consulting, after sales implementation, and customizing of ABB’s airport management systems. Gesine was part of the team which established the complete IT network for Athens new International Airport and the implementation of Athens airport readiness program. Furthermore, she was responsible for the operational evaluation and product enhancements. For Globe Ground, Gesine was working as a financial controller. Some of her major responsibilities were: preparation of operational and productivity reports; monitoring of key performance indicators; and development of operational and financial benchmarks. Her projects with Globe Ground involved cost cutting programs for the operational divisions, quality assurance and the development of a balanced scorecard for the company.

She gained her Master of Business Administration from the Free University Berlin, where she also earned her BA (Bachelor of Arts) in North American Studies. She also gained a Commercial Air Transport Certificate with a focus on marketing, management and operations.

About Lufthansa Consulting Lufthansa Consulting is an aviation and management consulting company which is dedicated to globally assist clients from

the aviation industry and related industries to successfully meet the challenges of the future. As an entirely owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Aviation Group we are in the unique position of developing and offering customized management consulting services and comprehensive business solutions for all participants of the aviation industry such as air carriers, airports and airport authorities, governments, investors, financial institutions, manufacturers and other industries as well as services related entities.

As a management consultancy with confirmed aviation background we are able to offer a combination of proven industry expertise and skilled professional staff from 17 countries to support clients proactively.

Ask the Expert In addition to being available now to answer any questions you have arising from this White Paper, Gesine Varfis and her colleagues at Lufthansa Consulting are available all year round for one-toone consultancies via the Ask The Expert feature at www.aircraftIT.com. Lufthansa Consulting specialise in all aspects of commercial aircraft operations as well as IT related issues and will be happy to answer your queries.

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42 | EVENT PREVIEW | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

Airline & Aerospace MRO & Operations IT Conference – EMEA Frankfurt, 13th & 14th July 2011 The world’s leading aviation IT conference for MRO & Operations solutions returns to the EMEA zone for 2011

“You cannot afford to miss this type of conference otherwise you will miss out on learning about the latest advances in technology.”

Kuwait Airways

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ircraft Commerce and AircraftIT are delighted to be returning to Frankfurt this July for the EMEA event in the hugely successful MRO & Operation IT Conference series. The conference has been running with great success in the EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Americas zones for the past six years; bringing together IT Vendors with the airlines, MROs and aircraft operators in those regions.

The July 2011 event promises to be bigger and better than ever before with more IT vendors exhibiting their software solutions, IT case study presentations and interactive workshops addressing key issues and challenges.

MRO & Operation IT Conferences offer airlines, MROs and aircraft operators a one-stop opportunity to review their entire IT platform, over just two days, for both aircraft maintenance and flight operations through: • Demonstrations of the latest software solutions from over 40 major MRO and Operations IT vendors, all under the same roof; • Cutting edge knowledge gained from attending keynote presentations and case studies plus

interactive workshops; • The chance to network and exchange ideas with their peers in hundreds of other airlines, MROs and aircraft operators throughout the EMEA region.

This information and shared experience driven program has made MRO & Operation IT Conference a must attend event for airlines, MROs and aircraft operators looking to select and install new MRO or Operations IT Systems; learn about the latest system upgrades and add-on solutions with how to incorporate them into their current IT System; or simply on a fact finding mission to learn about the whole process.

Demonstrations of the latest Software from over 40 major IT Vendors A who’s who of IT vendors will be exhibiting their latest solutions in the large exhibition area making it possible for airlines, MROs and aircraft operators (under the same roof and in just two days) to try out and see demonstrations of all

“Very good – a nice balance between workshops, case studies and vendor sales activities. Also a very useful networking opportunity. I feel I learned about the vendors’ current software solutions and common issues problems in the MRO world.”

Virgin Atlantic Airways

the major software solutions on the market. The software on display includes: MRO IT Solutions: • Best of Breed MRO IT Solutions; • Fully Integrated MRO Systems linked to Enterprise Wide Solutions; • Supply Chain Solutions; • Digital Documentation Management; • Content Management Systems; • Documentation Scanning Solutions.

Operations IT Solutions: • Paperless Cockpit Solutions; • Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs); • Electronic Technical Logs (ETLs); • Flight Planning Solutions; • Operations Cost Management; • Fuel Saving Software; • Emissions Trading Solutions.

Agenda of Keynote Presentations, Case Studies & Workshops There will be a two day agenda of presentations by industry experts plus case studies from airlines and MROs where the latest key issues and trends in this rapidly developing sector of the industry will be discussed. Separate one hour ‘interactive workshop’ sessions are included in the agenda to ensure delegates receive key, varied and fresh information.

Keynote Presentations & Case Studies • MRO – Implementing software or managing cultural change? How to manage comlpex transitions with minimal risk.

• The pros and cons of a fast MRO software implementation.

• Using IT systems to optimize your supply chain.

• MRO system replacement: from selection through to phased implementation.

• Is tablet technology the future for end users in the hangar and the cockpit?

• Current trends in fuel efficiency improvement programs.

• A real-life EFB case study – Norwegian review of a year using a Class II EFB. • eTechlog linked to EFB – advanced technology enablers for data management.

APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | EVENT PREVIEW | 43

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platform for sharing ideas and expertise amongst IT users working in similar environments.

VIP Delegate Places for Airlines, Aircraft Operators & MROs Due to the current financial climate, and how this has impacted on airlines, aircraft operators and MROs throughout the EMEA zone, Aircraft Commerce has introduced special VIP delegate places which include subsidised accommodation, taxi transfers to and from Frankfurt am Main Airport and conference passes.

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In 2010, more than 300 executives attended the event including key IT, MRO and Operations executives from over 80 different airlines, MROs and aircraft operators. Following on the theme of AircraftIT, the conference provides the perfect

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Network with key IT executives from airlines, MROs and aircraft operators from throughout the EMEA zone

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There are a number of specialist workshops / masterclasses running concurrently with the main agenda of presentations and case studies. Delegates are invited to sign into their preferred sessions prior to the conference.

The workshops offer an interactive forum covering key topics and are each limited to 40 attendees.

They are one hour in length and include: • An EFB masterclass; • A Business Intelligence (BI)masterclass; • An ACARS masterclass; • A masterclass on independent auditing of MRO implementations; • A masterclass on IT industry collaboration (hosted by Microsoft).

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Boeing, SAKS Consulting, Lufthansa Consulting, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa Technik, Atitech, HAITEC Aircraft Maintenance, Qantas Airways, ATC Lasham and Condor Airlines.

VIP delegate places are designed to provide as many airlines, MROs and aircraft operators as possible with the option to attend MRO & Operation IT Conference. However, there are only a limited number of these valuable places available, so please book your delegate places as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

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An EFB Spec Anial Anial EFB Spec EFB Special

• Realise a return on investmen • Realisetawithin • Realise tawithin return12-24 on investmen on investmen months return12-24 months t within 12-24 months • Norwegian Case Study:• Norwegian • Norwegian Case Study: Case Study: A year operating AIIyear a Class a ClassAIIyear EFB operating EFBoperating a Class II EFB

Realtime Business Intelligence Realtime Realtime for Business forBusiness for Decision Making Decision Intelligence Decision Intelligence Making Making The Paperless Cockpit – Myth The Paperless The Paperless Cockpit – Myth Cockpit – Myth or Reality? or Reality? or Reality?

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44 | SOFTWARE DIRECTORY | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | APRIL-MAY 2011

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

From Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) to Fuel Management Systems; From Flight Planning Solutions to Operations Cost Management — the leading IT vendors below can cater for all requirements.

Aircraft Management Technologies

W: www.flightman.com T: +353 1 8061000 E: info@flightman.com

Company formed...................................................................2000 Office Location.............................................Dublin, Ireland (HQ) Name of Product Marketed • Flightman™ Electronic Flight Folder Number of Modules..................................................................11 Five Key Business/Software Areas • Flightman™ connects aircraft to airlines’ backend systems via onboard EFB software applications and provides airlines with significant costs savings in both Flight Operations and Maintenance • Flightman™ runs on all classes of hardware (FAA EFB Class 1, 2, or 3) • Is independent of hardware vendor • Supports all aircraft types • Is able to host third party applications and is independent of operating system AMT (Aircraft Management Technologies) was founded to address the need in the market for an electronic means of capturing and reporting data between aircraft and central back office systems. Flightman™ represents a common sense application of emerging technologies that can automate existing processes in the cockpit, cabin and on the ramp, in turn reducing costs. AMT’s Flightman™ product is a complete Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) software solution. Flightman™ enables airlines to be compliant in all aspects of onboard flight operations in a cost effective manner and provides a platform for future revenue generation applications in the cabin. AMT’s patented, award-winning Flightman™ software comprises three main elements: 1) a set of onboard software applications, 2) a ground server for the management of EFBs, and 3) capabilities for optimized communications between the onboard software and ground systems.

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Aviaso Inc.

Flight Focus

W: www.aviaso.com T: +41 55 422 0000 E: info@aviaso.com

W: www.flightfocus.net T: +65 6419 5299 E: sales@flightfocus.net

Company formed...................................................................2003 Office Location........................................Pfaeffikon, Switzerland Name of Product Marketed • Fuel Efficiency, EU-ETS, Airline Portal, ART - Aviation Reporting Tool, CCP - Crew Capacity Planning Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Fuel Efficieny • EU-ETS • Airline Portal / Intranet • ART - Aviation Reporting Tool • CCP - Crew Capacity Planning

Company formed...................................................................2007 Office Location......................................Singapore (HQ), Jakarta, Bandung, Kuala Lumpur Name of Product Marketed • The Flight Focus PLATFORM™ Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Electronic Flight Bag • Avionics Systems Integration • Flight Operations Support Services • Applications Services Provider (ASP) • Flight Operations Consultancy

Aviaso is an international software company developing products exclusively for the aviation industry. The first product – the Airline Portal – has been deployed at Belair Airlines in 2003. Since then, the product-portfolio has been continuously extended into various areas of the aviation industry.

Besides developing its own products, Aviaso is also developing custom-specific software and realizes system integration projects for aviation companies. Furthermore, Aviaso maintains datacenters in Switzerland and Sofia and provides customized hosting-solutions for aviation companies.

Aviaso has its head office in Switzerland and software development centers in Sofia/Bulgaria and Kharkiv/ Ukraine.

Please, visit our website www.aviaso.com for more information about the Aviaso products and services.

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BYTRON

W: www.bytron.com T: +44 (0)1652 688626 E: info@bytron.aero Company formed...................................................................1984 Office Location.................... Kirmington, North Lincolnshire, UK Name of Product Marketed • skybook®eFB, skybook.aero, skylightES, Slot Management, Fuel Monitoring, AIS Notam Management Number of Modules....................................................................6 Five Key Business/Software Areas • Electronic Flight Bag • Pre-flight Briefing • Airport CDM • Flight Data Management Systems • Air Traffic Control & Operational Management Systems BYTRON is a UK based company specialising in aviation data systems that provides totally integrated flight data management solutions, delivering operational data reliably to aircraft operators, airports and air traffic control. We provide a wide range of products and solutions, including EFB (Class I & II) solutions, Airport CDM, and much more.

The company’s design philosophy is, and has always been, to provide highly flexible, technically innovative, and compliant user-oriented solutions. With over 25 years of experience supplying aviation systems, we are experts at getting the right data, to the right place, at the right time.

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Flight Focus has been a supplier of innovative, leading edge Avionics and Electronic Flight Bag solutions and associated Flight Operations Support Services to the global aviation industry since 2007. Flight Focus employs over 130 staff who are engaged in a wide range of activities directly related to the design, development and delivery of its avionics solutions; this includes hardware and software design & development, manufacturing and maintenance, Flight Dispatch services & support, and global Sales & Marketing teams.

Headquartered in Singapore, Flight Focus has further office locations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Indonesia (Jakarta and Bandung) dedicated to research and development, software and hardware design, and technical support.

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Flygprestanda AB

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

Company formed...................................................................1969 Office Location...................... Malmö/Sweden, Connecticut/USA Name of Product Marketed • Airport Analysis, Performance GURU, FOCS Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Aircraft Performance Services • Flight Planning Software • Performance Engineering • Special Performance Calculations • Engine Failure Procedures Flygprestanda AB, a pioneer in aircraft performance calculations, was founded 1969.

For over 40 years Flygprestanda has been in the forefront of providing aircraft operators of all kind 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, Performance GURU and Flight Operations Control System (FOCS).

High quality performance calculations for take off and landing are essential for safe flight operations and a modern flight planning solution is the key to achieve the most cost efficient operations possible.

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APRIL-MAY 2011 | AIRCRAFT IT OPERATIONS | SOFTWARE DIRECTORY | 45

FuelPlus Software GmbH

W: www.fuelplus.com T: +49 (511) 496050 E: info@fuelplus.com

Company formed...................................................................2000 Office Location........... Hannover (Germany), Brasov (Romania), Johannesburg (South Africa), Boston (USA) Name of Product Marketed • FuelPlus Number of Modules..................................................................15 Five Key Business/Software Areas • Fuel and Operational Analysis • Emission Monitoring & Reporting • Fuel Supply Management • Fuel Operations Support • Fuel Accounting FuelPlus, a leading provider of fuel management IT solutions for the global aviation industry, enables airlines to implement and operate sophisticated fuel management processes which improve internal efficiencies, and achieve substantial savings.

FuelPlus consists of a set of modules to handle fuel planning, tendering, contract management, inventory and supply chain management, operations, tankering, EU ETS emissions monitoring and reporting, prepayment, and accounting.

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G-AERO division of GrandTrust InfoTech Pvt Ltd

W: www.g-aero.com T: +91 9995801266 E: raju.v@grandtrustinfo.com

Company formed...................................................................2008 Office Location.........................................................Cochin, India Name of Product Marketed • G-COMS Airline Cost & Contract Management System • G-RPS Airline Route Profitability System • G-ARMS Airport Revenue & Contract Management System • G-GRMS Ground Handling Services Revenue & Contracts Management System Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Airline Contract Management • Airline Cost Management, Budgeting and MIS/ Dashboard Reporting • Airline Route Profitability • Airports / GHA Contracts Management • Airports / GHA Revenue Management G-AERO offers a suite of innovative software products for Airline, Airports and Ground Handling Agents for their Contracts, Cost and Revenue Management. G-AERO product suite not only helps to implement proven industry best practices but also assures direct financial benefits.

G-AERO uses latest, secure Microsoft .Net technology in developing its solutions. G-AERO believes in providing best value for money for their customers and there by ensures quick ROI.

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navAero

Sheorey Digital Systems Ltd.

W: www.navAero.com T: +46-60-66-41-00; 305-358-0065 (USA) E: info@navAero.com

W: www.sds.co.in T: (+91-22) 2281 9198/ 2281 1086 E: rohit.jha@sds.co.in; vicky.sheorey@sds.co.in

Company formed...................................................................2002 Office Location............. Sundsvall, Sweden; Miami, Florida USA Name of Product Marketed • t Bag™ EFB System; t Bag™C22 EFB; t Pad™ Display; t Pad™ 1100; t Pad™ 1500; t Pad™ 2000; t Cam™ Cabin Surveillance System; t Manager™ EFB Communications Management Software Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Low cost-of-ownership retrofit EFB computer and display platform suitable for most any aircraft type with high operational reliability • Software-neutral Windows™-based operating system allows the operator to decide on software applicable to their needs • Experienced Airport Moving Map integrator • Advanced EFB features: optically enhanced LCD displays, solid state components, multiple wireless connectivity options, certified ARINC 429 bus connectivity systems • Experienced Integrator with more Supplemental Type Certifications (FAA and EAS) for the navAero EFB systems than any other EFB manufacturer

Company formed...................................................................1993 Office Location...........................Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore Name of Product Marketed • ARMS®: Airline Resource Management System; ARMS® Lite: Aviation Resource Management System-Lite; InfoPrompt®: Integrated Document Management System Number of Modules....................................................................8 Five Key Business/Software Areas • Commercial Planning Sub-System (ARMS® - CPSS) / Flight Operations Sub-System (ARMS® - FOSS) • Flight Planning & Dispatch Sub-System (ARMS® - FPDS) / Crew Management Sub-System (ARMS® - CMSS) • Digital Flight Data Recorder Analysis Suite (ARMS® - DFDR-AS) / Charter Sales Manageent Sub-System (ARMS® Lite - CSMS)* • Computerized Reservation & Requisitioning Sub-System (ARMS® Lite - CRRS) • Departure/ Boarding Control Sub-System (ARMS® Lite DCSS)

navAero is the industry leader in providing Electronic Flight Bag Systems to commercial airlines around the world and is the platform-of-choice for the deployment of Airport Surface Area Moving Map applications on a Class 2 EFB system. The navAero tBag™C22 is a robust yet affordable EFB that features the latest in technology and communications interfaces. navAero’s EFB systems are designed and manufactured to the highest levels and meet aerospace industry standards and are certified to all applicable sections of RTCA/DO-160E insuring high reliability. For more information, please visit: http://www.navAero.com.

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Optimized Systems and Solutions (OSyS)

W: www.o-sys.com T: +1 703 889 1300 E: osysaviation@o-sys.com

Company formed...................................................................1999 Office Location............................... HQ Reston, VA; Houston, TX; San Diego, CA; Indianapolis, IN; Derby, UK; Bristol, UK; Gateshead, UK; Singapore; Qatar Name of Product Marketed • Fuel Management and Optimization; Emissions Trading Scheme MRV; Electronic Flight Bag (EFB); Asset and Equipment Health Monitoring; MRO Business and Parts Management; JetSCAN® Engine Health Monitoring Number of Modules................................................................ n/a Five Key Business/Software Areas • Fuel Management/Optimization • Emissions MRV • Electronic Flight Bag/EFB • Equipment Health Monitoring • MRO Business and Parts Management With a heritage of providing IT value-added services for the Rolls-Royce aftermarket, and delivering services commercially since 1999, Optimized Systems and Solutions (OSyS) has proven solutions for commercial aviation and defense. OSyS provides a complete range of best-inclass aviation services to enhance fleet performance and business operations.

OSyS monitors more than 9,000 engines belonging to hundreds of civil aviation customers, helps meet compliance requirements with our products and services.

Customers are able to increase availability of their critical assets, minimize risk and operational disruption, simplify data management to gain more value from IT investments, and improve operational efficiency.

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Sheorey Digital Systems Ltd., (SDS), is an established, fast growing, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Software Company, focused on providing Software Solutions to the Aviation Industry.

ARMS® is an internet rich, current-generation, state-ofthe-art Information Technology System that effectively addresses the extremely critical and cost sensitive nature of Commercial Airlines/ Air Transport operations. It is a unique combination of (a) an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) (b) Decision Support System (DSS) (c) Workflow Automation Solution (WFA) (d) Executive Management Information System (EMIS) (e) Integrated Document Management System (IDMS) viz., InfoPrompt®.

These cutting-edge information technologies are seamlessly interwoven to provide the civil aviation industry with a cost-effective integrated solution, which is modular, scalable & highly user-customizable. ARMS® is a robust and wellproven system..

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Smart4Aviation

W: www.smart4aviation.aero T: +31 20 654 1824 E: info@smart4aviation.aero Company formed...................................................................2009 Office Location.............................Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Kraków, Poland; Gdansk, Poland; New Delhi, India Name of Product Marketed • Smart BRIEF, Smart BRIEF CABIN, Smart NOTAM MANAGER, Smart FUELING, Smart VIEW, Smart MET, Smart OPS, Smart DOC, Smart EFF, Smart EFB, Smart eFORMS, Smart PERFORMANCE, Smart ALERT, Smart COMM, Smart VIEW+, Smart ULD MANAGER, Smart LOAD, Smart HUB, Smart ONTIME, Smart FUEL MANAGER, Smart MISSION MANAGER Number of Modules..................................................................21 Five Key Business/Software Areas • Smart BRIEF • Smart COMM • Smart FUEL MANAGER • Smart EFB • Smart PERFORMANCE Smart4Aviation was founded to provide web based products and services to optimize, simplify and improve airline operations. The Smart4Aviation’s goal is high quality, cost-effective solutions backed up with 24/365 support service. It offers 21 modules which are interoperable, compatible and can be freely composed into the one system as well as software developed on demand, which are used with success by pilots, crew, dispatchers, ground ops and many different departments. The modules work as basic building blocks that can be used to build the system that will meet exactly customer’s requirements, that are tailored to the customer’s needs.

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What’s coming up in the June/July 2011 edition of AircraftIT Operations Available 14th June at www.aircraftIT.com White Paper A review of IT systems used to monitor EU-ETS. Guido Harling, Managing Director, ETSverification

Case Study SCREEN GRAB OFfuel WEBSITE How to promote savings through your EFB Solution.

Capt. Joachim Scheiderer, Manager Flight Operations Engineering, Lufthansa CityLine

White Paper Taking a holistic view of airline data sources, how to better monitor your aircraft data.

Shaun Rattigan, Director, Aviation Intelligence

Case Study An analysis of Thai Airways’ award winning ‘Cabin Attendant Pre-flight Study and Briefing System’.

Jatooron Suwannarut, Head of Operations IT, Thai Airways

White Paper ACARS: getting the most out of real time data to cut operating costs, and increase efficiency and safety.

Sergio Martins, President, LinkSMART Plus: Latest News and Technology Updates, Preview of upcoming Live Software Demonstration Webinars, Latest Industry Vacancies (New Feature), Software Directory...

Click here to subscribe for free now to reserve your copy Contact us for further details Visit: www.aircraftIT.com email: ed.haskey@aircraft-commerce.com or call +44 1403 230 700 / +44 1273 700 555