Airbus confirms its digital leadership with a growing number of Skywise contracts

• Allegiant Air becomes first US customer to join the Skywise club of airlines
• WOW air, Small Planet and Primera Air among the new airlines connecting
• Bringing the total number of aircraft to be connected to Skywise to over 2,000
• Maximising aircraft availability thanks to state-of-the art predictive maintenance
  

Allegiant Air, WOW air and Small Planet Airlines have signed for Airbus Skywise Predictive Maintenance services. In addition, Primera Air is also officially joining the group of airlines connecting to the Airbus open data platform Skywise. When including the recently announced deal with easyJet, this brings the total number of aircraft to be connected to Skywise to 2,000.

Marc Fontaine, Airbus Digital Transformation Officer said: “I am extremely proud to see that our digital strategy is resonating with an increasing number of our customers. Our vision at Airbus has always been to embark on a collective digital journey as an industry to learn and grow together. This process is allowing us redefine our relationships with customers and suppliers as co-owners of valuable data and insights, which in turn opens up endless exciting opportunities.”

These deals follow the recent announcements with easyJet on Skywise predictive and builds on the network of already connected airlines. In total, 12 airlines are now connected to the platform, including five via the shared value agreement Skywise Core (Bangkok Airways, Peach Aviation, Emirates, Primera, LATAM) and seven via the premium Skywise Predictive Services (easyJet, AirAsia, Asiana Airlines, Etihad Airways, Allegiant Air, WOW air, and Small Planet Airlines).

Laurent Martinez, Head of Services by Airbus business unit said: “I am very pleased to see more of our customers opting for Skywise Digital Services. Our mission in services is to invest in new solutions and discover new territories to bring more value to our customers, and this is exactly what is happening with Skywise. Beyond data analytics and algorithms, the whole point is to unleash the power of collaboration and help our customers improve their operational performances while helping us improve the performance of our fleet.” 

Airbus Skywise’s model is twofold:

• Skywise Core provides airlines with a cloud-based platform under a “shared value” arrangement: airlines that agree to share operating data from their Airbus fleet can access the platform at no cost. Airlines using Skywise Core can integrate their own operational, maintenance, and aircraft data into the Skywise cloud, so they can store, access, manage, and analyse selected Airbus data together with their own data and global benchmarks without the need for additional infrastructure investments. This resulting value will give them new insights at aircraft, fleet, company, and global levels while allowing them to enhance their operations through access to OEM expertise and global fleet context.
• A premium access for enhanced services, e.g. with the Skywise Predictive Maintenance module. Building on Skywise Core, the premium option can be used by airlines to gain deeper insights, create bespoke recommendations and apply state-of-the-art Skywise analytics applications for enhanced decision-making. In turn this will allow them to anticipate, with higher levels of accuracy, the needs for maintenance before an event happens, and thus maximise the operational reliability and utilisation of their assets.

More data means more valuable and accurate insights. Airbus also developed in partnership with Rockwell Collins a new on-board data-capture and transmission module that provides greatly expanded volumes of recorded aircraft data called FOMAX (from only about 400 aircraft parameters up to roughly 24,000 for an A320). The first installation of FOMAX in linefit and retrofit will start in Q2 2018.

Airbus launched the Skywise aviation data platform at the 2017 Paris Air Show, in collaboration with Palantir Technologies – pioneers in big-data integration and advanced analytics. Skywise aims to become the platform of reference used by all major aviation players to improve their operational performance and business results and to support their own digital transformation. In time, Airbus aims to extend Skywise to become aerospace’s data platform of reference, with a service offering adapted not only to the aviation ecosystem but also to defence customers and helicopter operators.