AirAsia Group’s A320 and A330 fleets to be powered by Skywise Predictive Maintenance Services

• Encompassing AirAsia and AirAsia X’s fleets across all of the subsidiaries in Malaysia, Thailand, India, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia
• Extending current usage of Skywise core platform                                                                                         

AirAsia Group has confirmed that its existing and future A320 and A330 fleet will be powered by Airbus’ Skywise Predictive Maintenance services. The scope encompasses AirAsia and AirAsia X’s fleets across all of the subsidiaries in Malaysia, Thailand, India, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. The airline currently has around 230 aircraft in service. This is complemented with an order backlog of around 470 Airbus aircraft – which includes 66 A330neos and over 400 A320/A321neos yet to be delivered. All of these aircraft will thus become Skywise-enabled.

The sheer breadth of aircraft information which AirAsia will soon be able to unlock thanks to Skywise, will be used to gain deep insights, create bespoke recommendations and apply state-of-the-art analytics for enhanced decision-making. In turn this will allow AirAsia to anticipate, with higher levels of accuracy, the needs for maintenance before an event happens, and thus maximise the operational reliability and utilisation of its aircraft assets. As part of the five-year contract, AirAsia’s entire fleet will be equipped with *FOMAX – a new on-board data-capture / transmission module, which is a key enabling component of Airbus’ Skywise Predictive Maintenance services.

In addition to this new premium predictive maintenance service, AirAsia continues to benefit from Skywise Core – a cloud-based environment that offers unparalleled visibility into its fleet operations.

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia, commented: “We eagerly look forward to unleashing the power of Airbus’ Skywise big-data analytics and predictive technology to obtain superior operational advantage for AirAsia Group’s entire A320 and A330 Family fleets. Skywise will enable us to reach new insights into the operation of our aircraft, optimise our maintenance, engineering and flight operations decision-making and reduce our costs.”

Marc Fontaine, Airbus Digital Transformation Officer, commented: “We are honoured to work with AirAsia with their forward-thinking approach and for helping to shape our vision together in this digital adventure. As the aircraft ‘architect’ and integrator, we naturally thrive in our role of building digital continuity across the aviation ecosystem.”

Eric Schulz, Airbus EVP, Chief of Sales, Marketing & Contracts said: “This is a very significant endorsement for the Skywise platform. In particular we are excited that this will enhance further the economics of the future A330neo fleet at the airline.”

Airbus launched its new aviation data platform Skywise in collaboration with Palantir Technologies – pioneers in big-data integration and advanced analytics – during the Paris Air Show in June 2017, after experimenting with the substantial benefits when applying its technologies to its own internal processes for two years. Skywise aims to become a leading user-centric open data platform for all major aviation players to improve their operational performance and business results and to support overall aviation digital transformation. The deliverables will be tailored for each user and will include scalable services (such as analytics, apps and APIs) that can be used by Airbus, customers, and suppliers – ensuring complete data continuity with benefits across the entire value chain.

In addition, please see below a quote from Eric Schulz, Airbus EVP, Chief of Sales, Marketing & Contracts:

“I have been very pleased to sit down with the AirAsia X team to share the initial A330neo flight test data and to review the aircraft operational performance forecast on the airlines’ routes, covering both the existing and projected network.

“All the analysis has confirmed the superiority of the A330neo versus the competition. The combination of airframe improvements, including the hard work done by our teams on cost optimisation, the innovative Skywise application and digital benefits, coupled with the Trent 7000 new engine technology performance and associated maintenance cost optimisation, deliver unprecedented economics to our customers.

“Air Asia Group is the leading low-cost carrier in the fastest-growing aviation market worldwide and the A330neo is a fantastic value proposition, in particular for the very promising long-haul low-cost segment in the 300-400 seat category.”