Airbus has collaborated with Palantir Technologies for Skywise, a new data platform. Airbus said it provides users with one single access point to their enriched data by collecting it from multiple sources and depositing it into one secure, cloud-based platform. There are multiple airlines worldwide that Airbus considers “Skywise early adopters,” including AirAsia, Delta Air Lines, easyJet, Emirates, Hong Kong Airlines, jetBlue and Peach.
“Our relationship began with a focus on Airbus-internal operations — manufacturing, engineering, services — and we’re expanding now to bring this same analytical acumen directly to airlines,” said Dr. Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies. “The potential for collaboration between the world’s top engineering firm, Airbus, its airline customers and Palantir’s software is unprecedented.”
Emirates and easyJet use Skywise for predictive maintenance. The former uses Airbus real-time health monitoring, while the latter uses a customized system.
Airbus said that so far, the health-monitoring solution has caused a gain in operational reliability of 1% of Emirates’ fleet. The easyJet solution came from collaboration between the manufacturer and the airline, and the two addressed easyJet’s top 100 operational issues. An application was then built to allow actions to be performed that prevent unnecessary delays.
Delta Air Lines is also working with Airbus for predictive solutions. Last year, Delta deployed Airbus’ prognostics and risks management application, with focus on its A330 fleet. Now, Airbus is working to expand its capability by migrating those models onto Skywise.
In working with Airbus, AirAsia has been able to deploy component reliability, “rogue component” and repetitive-fault applications for at-scale analyses. AirAsia also has been training on Quiver, a Skywise application that allows users to visualize and analyze large-scale sensor data for flight-ops analysis, predictive maintenance and troubleshooting. Quiver is also being used by easyJet.
Hong King Airlines is working with Airbus and its subsidiary Navblue to develop a new data analytics tool that would prevent the overuse of fuel on descent and approach. Called “Idle Factor Optimization Tool,” it is part of a new suite of applications within Skywise. It automatically adjusts the flight management system’s flight plan computation to fit the aircraft’s performance in real-time.
In 2016, JetBlue and Airbus worked together to deploy Maintenance Mobility, an application to support line and base maintenance activities. The two parties are currently working to deploy Scheduled Maintenace Optimizer for heavy maintenance planning and costs in the next few months. JetBlue’s work with Skywise helps to integrate data to develop new capabilities with engineering investigations, component reliability analyses and enhancing maintenance operations.
Peach is benefiting from Skywise’s ability to enable quick reporting. The quality monitoring process can be automated, allowing it to produce key metrics grouped by Air Transport Assn. chapter and aircraft in seconds, Airbus said. Peach is also using the platform to interactively visualize flight paths using the app, Flight Path 360. Airbus said the app can “drill-down on select parts of a flight based on key sensor data measurement.”