Air France To Start Transmitting Airbus Health Data

[Guest]

Air France To Start Transmitting Airbus Health Data Immediately Post-Flight

Air France has collaborated with Sitaonair since 2014 in finding a solution to transmit aircraft performance data immediately upon landing for analysis.

Chris Kjelgaard | May 26, 2017

Air France has contracted Sitaonair to deliver all aircraft-related data recorded inflight from all of the carrier's Airbus aircraft immediately after landing. This should enable Air France to optimize its flight and maintenance operational quality assurance programs.

The deal calls for Sitaonair to provide all of Air France's Airbus aircraft with its new e-Aircraft DataCapture solution, which will allow the high-quality aircraft performance and systems health data to be transmitted from each aircraft to the airline's operations and maintenance departments upon landing.

Sitaonair 's e-Aircraft DataCapture system works by collecting, compressing and encrypting the data collected by an aircraft’s Quick Access Recorder (QAR) or Digital ACMS Recorder (DAR) and transmits it automaticallyafter landing, using 3G, to a ground server provided by Sitaonair.

The complete data set is then sent to Air France’s data analysis system for analysis and response.

In announcing the deployment of e-Aircraft DataCapture solution throughout Air France’s Airbus fleet, Sitaonair cites the Air France project leader for the deployment as saying, “It will enable us to complete the deployment of automated QAR/DAR data collection across our Airbus fleet for our Flight and Maintenance Operational Quality Assurance programs. Sitaonair has been instrumental in the integration of the solution into our existing on-board hardware and ground systems.”

Sitaonair began deploying its e-Aircraft DataCapture system in Air France’s Airbus aircraft in January.

Many airlines manually collect aircraft post-flight aircraft performance and systems health data as part of an overnight maintenance regime. However, under such regimes, the airline's operations and maintenance technicians often only retrieve the data hours after a flight has landed.

Sitaonair says that replacing manual collection with its automatic e-Aircraft DataCapture equips airlines with instant detailed insight into how well their aircraft are operating and allow carriers to investigate incidents and perform maintenance diagnostics promptly.

“With our Cloud-based solution, our intention is to provide an end-to-end, expert data management service at business continuity level, freeing up airlines to focus on their core operations and engineering priorities,” says Pierre-Yves Benain, head of portfolio and strategy, e-Aircraft at the company.