Airbus and Delta Air Lines are forming a digital alliance to develop new predictive maintenance and health-monitoring solutions for airline customers worldwide from 2020. To be accessed via a unified portal through the Skywise platform, the cross-fleet solutions will harness each member’s expertise in airframes, systems and engines. Delta Air Lines will be the first user of the enriched predictive maintenance solution.

Don Mitacek, Delta’s SVP Technical Operations, said: “This partnership with Airbus will further develop predictive maintenance capabilities, bringing the deep analytical prowess of Airbus’ Skywise platform in conjunction with the rich technical and operational knowledge of the Delta predictive maintenance team. We look forward to significant enhancements of prediction accuracies through this combination.”

Norman Baker, Airbus’ SVP Head of Digital Solutions, said: “This digital partnership with Delta is a world first, encompassing the major skills needed by airlines to keep their aircraft operationally ready.” He added: “Predictive maintenance, powered by Skywise, is now widely proven with our customers as the best way to achieve comprehensive insights into aircraft operation issues, enabling them to maintain higher levels of fleet availability.”

This partnership builds on an already successful platform of technical collaboration between Airbus and Delta: In October 2018, Delta entered into a multi-year contract with Airbus to apply Skywise Predictive Maintenance to its A320 and A330 fleets – covering around 400 aircraft. Moreover, in June this year, Airbus and Delta joined forces to offer A220 component repair and material services for Airbus’ A220 Flight Hour Services (FHS) programme.

Release and photo Airbus