- GE Digital and Qantas join forces to enhance flight prep for pilots
- FlightPulse adds a combined pre- and post-flight app; New Pre-flight module allows pilots to be better informed before they fly
SAN RAMON, Calif. – March 9, 2021 – GE Digital today announced the release of a new version of FlightPulse®, an app and flight analytics tool developed in collaboration with Qantas, to help improve safety and operational decision-making for airline pilots. Through the use of airline-specific and pilot individualized historical data, FlightPulse allows pilots to access their individual operational efficiency metrics and trends after each flight, helping to make better decisions and reduce risk and fuel consumption.
FlightPulse is a fully configurable, modular mobile app that becomes a part of a pilot’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Data from GE Digital’s Event Measurement System (EMS) is organized specifically for the needs of a pilot. The Pre-flight module provides rich aggregated data for pilots to identify any safety-related or general traffic flow considerations for more informed fuel decisions and departure briefings. The Post-flight module provides secure access to a pilot’s individual flight history allowing them to analyze their own operation of the aircraft in relation to peers and review areas to optimize personal operations and efficiency.
Partnering with a long-standing customer, Qantas, GE Digital saw an opportunity to unlock access to data, empower pilots, and drive improvements to efficiency and safety for airlines around the world. Working closely with Qantas pilots, FlightPulse was created to provide pilots with secure access to personal analytics and flight data. Qantas pilots started using this access to data not only to review how they had previously operated, but also to plan and prepare for upcoming flights.
“FlightPulse will enable pilots to operate safely and efficiently while empowering them to make more informed decisions,” said Andrew Coleman, General Manager of GE Digital’s Aviation Software business. “This is another example of putting aviation data to work with software that enables airlines around the world to enhance operator safety and efficiency, reduce operational disruptions, improve passenger experience, and streamline business effectiveness.”
Qantas Group Executive John Gissing said the app had already become a vital tool used regularly by more than half of the airline’s pilots.
“The FlightPulse app revolutionizes the way the aviation industry uses flight data,” said Mr. Gissing. “The new pre-flight module will further empower our pilots by giving them access to more data at their fingertips before they even enter the aircraft. “Our pilots have been heavily involved throughout the development process providing input and feedback to ensure the app has broad usability across the industry.”
Qantas has already achieved some significant business outcomes. In the first year alone, Qantas avoided 5.71M kg carbon emissions and saw a 15% increase in adoption of fuel-saving procedures.
FlightPulse provides four key operational benefits:
- Safety – familiarize pilots with common threats and events through a user-friendly intuitive interface that displays easily digestible information
- Efficiency – understand fuel impacts of operational changes with access to historical data for operations decision-making and individualized flight metrics relative to de-identified peer statistics
- Mobility – secure app, private insight at your fingertips in the pilot’s EFB
- Empowerment – create self-learning moments and enable continuous improvement
FlightPulse is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Azure gives organizations the productivity, scalability, and access that they expect from the cloud. As new services, customizations, and features are rolled out, airlines will be able to take even better advantage of Azure compute, data, and security services. What this means for pilots and airlines around the world is that the troves of data collected from historical flights can now be easily leveraged via an iOS app.
"With Microsoft Azure, GE Digital will enable pilots worldwide to turn flight data into relevant business insights to help reduce the environmental footprint, save costs, and enhance the inflight passenger experience," said Ulrich Homann, corporate vice president Cloud + AI, Microsoft. “As software is becoming a critical success factor for resilient operations and growth, our goal is to empower aviation companies to deliver scalable digital services to their customers faster.”
More information about GE Digital’s Aviation Software solutions can be found here.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Ellie HolmanProduct & Technology Communications
GE Digital
[email protected]
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