Industrial Internet data and analytics help reduce operating costs, increase aircraft utilization

• EVA Airways and Garuda Indonesia select GE’s fuel management service

• Green Skies of Brazil aims to reduce GOL operating costs by $100M over five years

Minds + Machines, Chicago, IL – GE Aviation today announced new customers for its Flight Efficiency Services business which uses the Industrial Internet to provide business intelligence and actionable insight to significantly improve an airline’s overall efficiency.

EVA Airways and Garuda Indonesia Airlines have selected GE’s Flight Efficiency Services business, which support airlines in fuel management, flight data analytics, navigation services and fleet synchronization to optimize airline operational efficiency. The entire fleet of both EVA Airways and Garuda Indonesia Airlines will specifically utilize GE Aviation’s fuel management services.

“GE’s Flight Efficiency Services collects real-time data generated by the aircraft and applies proprietary techniques that use historic intelligence to help drive airlines’ business strategies,” said Alan Caslavka, president of Avionics & Digital Systems for GE Aviation. “Aircraft performance analytics are used to reveal patterns, transforming data into actionable insights that improve operations.”

Through its contract with EVA Airways, GE is providing consultation and evaluation services with the aim of reducing the airline’s fuel consumption and carbon emissions. GE is also designing and implementing custom solutions for EVA and performing on-going efficiency measurement. The Garuda Indonesia program will commence in October and GE will provide all phases of fuel management including the consulting, analytics and business intelligence in order to make informed decisions for improved flight operations.

“As part of our Quantum Leap initiative to be the best airline and global player, Garuda Indonesia continuously seeks ways to improve its services and operation, including improving the efficiency. The fuel efficiency solution from GE will help us operate more efficiently, save fuel cost and reduce carbon emission, which are important for our sustainable growth,” said Emirsyah Satar, president & CEO of Garuda Indonesia.

GE Aviation’s Flight Efficiency Services is harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet and using software and analytics to make its machines smarter and more efficient. Specifically, GE Aviation helps airlines to achieve higher levels of efficiency in four areas:

Fuel management:  Helps airlines find efficiencies that can reduce up to 2 percent of their annual fuel bill. GE has been working with Brazil’s GOL Airlines since early 2010: As “partners in fuel conservation” the GOL / GE team established a culture of operational efficiency founded on continuous improvement best practices that has reduced fuel consumption significantly. Similarly, GE has been collaborating with the airline Alitalia since 2011 in using data to identify and realize fuel efficiencies.  By providing project implementation support, and automated reporting and analysis of daily fuel usage GE helped Alitalia identify over 1.5% savings in its fuel costs within the first year – a saving of $15 million.  Alitalia and GE have gone on to save a total of Euro 34M ($46M) in fuel savings since the program began.

Navigation services:  Provides Performance-based Navigation (PBN) flight path design and consultation to reduce track miles flown for significant fuel and emissions savings and noise reduction. GE’s multi-year collaborative program, Green Skies of Brazil, aims to improve airspace efficiency at 10 Brazil airports. GOL will be the first airline to launch the program this year.

At Brasilia International airport alone, GOL could potentially save an average of 22 track miles, 7.5 minutes, 77 gallons of fuel and 1628 lbs. of CO2 per approach compared to the conventional paths, totaling more than $24 million in operational savings over five years.  Green Skies of Brazil aims to reduce GOL operating costs by at least $100M over five years.

Watch a video on the program here.

Flight analytics:  Provides quality assurance tools and turns flight and operational data into business intelligence.  For Green Skies of Brazil, GE’s flight data analytics platform used detailed airspace, airport and airline operational models to evaluate the efficiency of historical flight operations, identify areas for improvement, and quantify the potential efficiency gains. As a result, GE’s Navigation & Fuel Management experts quantified the value of deploying Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures to airlines in Brazil.

Fleet synchronization:  Provides traffic flow and aircraft sequence management to reduce hold times at landing and increased predictability. GE Aviation was selected by Emirates airline to provide GE’s airline-based flow management system for an 18-month validation at Dubai International Airport. GE and Emirates are working together to optimize traffic flows, reduce fuel and delay costs and improve their hub passenger-connection schedule.  The trial is still underway and initial results are demonstrating reductions in arrival and holding delay times. Watch a video on fleet sync here.

GE Aviation press release