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AIRCOM® FlightTrackerMeeting the challengeof inflight safety

AIRCOM® FlightTracker

Contributors: Igor Dimnik, Director, Airline OCC & Crew Application PortfolioDominique El Bez, VP, Product & Strategy

Deliver Precision.Enhance Awareness.Reinforce Safety.UNLOCK POSSIBILITIES TODAY.

GADSS: FLIGHT-TRACKING’S CHANGING SKIESSince the high profile incidents involving flights MH370 in March 2014, and AF447 in June 2009, flight tracking practices rightly remain in sharp focus. By learning from the past, addressing operational limitations, and recognizing the fundamental importance of recovering flight recorder data quickly post-incident, aviation has maintained relatively high levels of safety.

The ICAO’s Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) recommendations are the result. GADSS spans three phases, aimed at improving the overall ability of aircraft manufacturers, operators and safety organizations to respond in the event of catastrophe. Driving the new standards – requiring operators to report aircraft positions at least once every 15 minutes since 2018 (once a minute from 2021) – is the need to drastically refine search areas. Subsequent GADSS phases will promote Autonomous Distress Tracking and Post Flight Localization and Recovery or Timely Recovery of flight data.

Did you know that in the last 70 years, 100+ aircraft have disappeared and never been found?

The high profile tragedies of Air France AF447 and Malaysia Airlines MH370 have prompted aviation authorities to evaluate their flight tracking practices. With new International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) flight tracking requirements, operators will be expected to declare their aircraft positions at least once every minute.

For airlines this presents a fresh challenge. How can they establish reliable flight tracking, without a major aircraft overhaul, or avionics upgrade?

SITA FOR AIRCRAFT has developed the solution, with AIRCOM® FlightTracker.

THE CHALLENGE

From November 2018 the ICAO requires airlines to track their aircraft at least every 15 minutes globally

How do you meet industry standards for flight tracking?

The airline challenge

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“SITA FOR AIRCRAFT ENABLES AIRLINES TO MEET THE ICAO’S REQUIREMENTS WITH OUR AIRCOM® FLIGHTTRACKER, AND ITS GLOBAL, REAL-TIME CAPABILITIES.”

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SPACE-BASED AIRCRAFT TRACKINGThe application aggregates the best available inflight position data from myriad sources – including cutting-edge spaced-based ADS-B provided by FlightAware and Aireon using the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation – on a single aircraft position display.

Dimnik says: “The availability of space-based ADS-B is a fundamental game-changer for airlines. With it, conventional transmissions from ADS-B Out transponders, already fitted to most commercial aircraft, are captured by receivers on new Iridium NEXT satellites, instead of groundbased.

“Most significantly, we can track these aircraft from take-off to touchdown anywhere globally, including remote, oceanic or polar regions. The addition of space-based ADS-B means FlightTracker is also equipped to provide one-minute tracking ahead of 2021, further enhancing operational awareness and control.”

ACHIEVING 15-MINUTE FLIGHT-TRACKINGAlready adopted by airlines operating 250,000+ flights a month, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT’S AIRCOM® FlightTracker is a ground-based software system delivering vital global real-time aircraft position alerting to airline operations teams.

The solution enhances situational awareness through all stages of a flight. As well as capturing an aircraft’s real-time location, it automatically monitors all flights to ensure position reports are received within the ICAO’s 15-minute interval, significantly reducing the manpower otherwise needed to maintain that level of compliance.

Igor Dimnik, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT Director, Airline OCC & Crew Application Portfolio says: “The ICAO’s key initial requirements centered on the need for operators to have 15 minute flighttracking capabilities anywhere in the world. SITA FOR AIRCRAFT enables airlines to meet the ICAO’s requirements with our AIRCOM® FlightTracker, and its global, real-time capabilities. Furthermore, we are doing so in line with our original design objective of harnessing data already provided by existing aircraft systems.”

While the ICAO flight-tracking requirement came into effect on 8 November 2018, some individual aviation authorities – the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the European Aviation Safety Agency – passed their own GADSS-compliant legislation ahead of deadline. AIRCOM® FlightTracker makes it as easy as possible for airlines to comply with all these standards.

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“WE’RE INCREASINGLY SEEING AIRLINES ADOPTING FLIGHTTRACKER NOT JUST TO MEET BEST-PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS, BUT FOR ITS ADDITIONAL BENEFITS.”

Dimnik says: “Position data from these various sources doesn’t always come in sequence, and integrating all that data in a seamless way is a complex challenge. FlightAware has significant experience in terms of dealing with multiple data sources, and it manages all the data that we provide, enabling us to present it to the airlines in a totally cohesive way, using AIRCOM® FlightTracker.

“It means that the airlines’ ground staff don’t have to worry about when information is going to come in, and in what sequence. They can just get on with their operations, while FlightTracker continually monitors their flights.”

HOW AIRCOM® FLIGHTTRACKER WORKSAirlines already equipped with SITA FOR AIRCRAFT’s AIRCOM® FlightTracker have found it easy to meet the ICAO’s 15-minute requirements. It gives them access to multiple sources of position data, spanning ADS-B, ACARS and FANS (including ADS-C, AFN and CPDLC). Furthermore, the addition of space-based ADS-B data provides a global and consistent source of data and far more frequent position reports to aircraft operators. AIRCOM® FlightTracker uses these sources to actively track the aircraft, and take automatic actions to generate another source if otherwise unavailable.

Not only does this give peace of mind to airlines that they can track their aircraft wherever they are in the world, AIRCOM® FlightTracker also ensures they do not have to worry about the complexity of managing position data from a variety of sources. SITA FOR AIRCRAFT has partnered with aviation software company FlightAware to ensure this data is presented to airlines as effectively and accessibly as possible.

OUR SOLUTION

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While AIRCOM® FlightTracker has been developed primarily to enhance aircraft safety, it also offers airlines significant operational benefits, even on flights where no alert is issued.

One example would be when an aircraft enters a holding pattern as it nears its destination airport.

El Bez says: “Typically just before its arrival, an aircraft will trigger an ACARS report, telling the ground staff to get ready – for example by readying required wheelchairs – as the plane is coming in to land. However, quite often, as soon as that message is sent, Air Traffic Control will put the aircraft into hold.

“With FlightTracker, the tracking data is good enough to see when the aircraft is going into hold, and it can give position updates every couple of minutes.”

Dimnik adds: “Airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, operate a very tight schedule and every minute counts. They cannot afford to waste time preparing for a flight that is actually not yet able to land. We are increasingly seeing airlines adopting FlightTracker not just to meet best-practice recommendations, but for its additional benefits.”

RESPONSIVE TO CHALLENGES FlightTracker offers a range of features to help airlines respond to challenges during a flight, including displaying a wealth of weather data.

Dominique El Bez, Vice President, Product & Strategy, says: “Undoubtedly the most significant feature of AIRCOM® FlightTracker is its alerting capability. This ensures that if, for example, an aircraft deviates from its flight plan, or there is an unexpected change in altitude, the ground staff will be notified automatically.”

Dimnik adds: “The effort involved in watching each and every flight for its full duration is colossal, even for relatively small fleets. It makes an automated alerting system absolutely crucial, and this is a key differentiator for SITA FOR AIRCRAFT’s AIRCOM® FlightTracker.”

Airlines can pre-define the parameters that would cause FlightTracker to issue an alert. When an alert is issued, the solution helps airlines through its particular internal escalation processes, by, for example, automatically sending the pilot a request for further information, or providing notifications to other key staff.

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them identify the root cause of these alerts, and this process also helped us to tweak our understanding of how FlightTracker should work.

“For example, in order to comply with the 15-minute recommendation, we asked aircraft to give their position every 14 minutes. However, with aircraft often using satellite communications when they are outside VHF coverage, it can sometimes take more than one minute for the aircraft to respond.

“This delay sometimes caused alerts to be sent to Singapore Airlines, which their operations team then needed to escalate. However, in reality, the only reason for the alert was that it was taking a while for the aircraft to respond. Our solution was to instead request position data every 10 minutes.”

Every airline has its own internal processes for escalating an alert, but AIRCOM® FlightTracker automates these processes. Each stage of escalation, from making an initial position request via ACARS, through to making a voice call to the pilot, can be initiated via FlightTracker.

El Bez says: “We were able to implement this solution for Singapore Airlines very quickly and install it in the SITA cloud, so the airline didn’t have to install anything locally.”

AIRCOM® FlightTracker is now deployed across the entire Singapore Airlines group, including Scoot and SilkAir.

Dimnik adds: “We were able to provide Singapore Airlines with not just the software, but also the understanding and support to make it work for them.”

SITA FOR AIRCRAFT has a long-standing relationship with Singapore Airlines. In 2001, the airline became the first AIRCOM® Server customer.

In 2014, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT held a series of workshops with Singapore Airlines to discuss its requirements for flight tracking and alerting technology, ahead of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore’s 2016 introduction of a requirement that all Singapore-based carriers should be able to track their aircraft every 15 minutes.

Dimnik says: “We talked through the concept of what we were looking to develop and their requirements, and developed a road map.

“AIRCOM® FlightTracker is a complex product and continuously evolving. We captured everything that we discussed with Singapore Airlines in our very first meeting.”

Singapore Airlines’ two key technology requirements were the ability to automatically manage requests for an aircraft’s position data, and an alerting capability. The close working relationship ensured that SITA FOR AIRCRAFT was able to shape AIRCOM® FlightTracker to meet those needs.

AIRCOM® FlightTracker automatically generates alerts when an aircraft has deviated from its flight plan, or has not reported its position for a given period. When airlines first use FlightTracker, this can initially lead to a high number of alerts being generated if the aircraft does not have the right software or avionics to provide position reports.

Dimnik says: “We worked with Singapore Airlines to help

SINGAPORE AIRLINES: A CASE STUDY

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“WE WERE ABLE TO PROVIDE SINGAPORE AIRLINES WITH NOT JUST THE SOFTWARE, BUT ALSO THE UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORT TO MAKE IT WORK FOR THEM.”

AIRCOM® FlightMessengerHelps airlines manage their air-to-ground data communication in a costeffective way, by integrating and translating data into a format that seamlessly feeds into an airline’s IT infrastructure.

AIRCOM® FlightPlannerHelps airlines reduce fuel, time and navigation costs by calculating the most efficient and cost-effective flight plan, using analysis of aircraft performance, weather data and route validation.

AIRCOM® Information ServicesProvides operational data inflight to help cockpit crews make informed decisions about a route, assess obstructions, and communicate journey times with passengers and ground support.

AIRCOM® Network ServicesTrusted by the air transport industry for more than 20 years, AIRCOM® Network Services provides aircraft data and voice services to help unlock significant cost savings and efficiencies.

AIRCOM® applications and services

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© SITA 2020 All trademarks acknowledged. Specifications subject to change without prior notice. This literature provides outline information only and (unless specifically agreed to the contrary by SITA in writing) is not part of any order or contract.

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SITA AT A GLANCE

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Through information and communications technology, we help to make the end-to-end journey easier for passengers – from pre-travel, check-in and baggage processing, to boarding, border control and inflight connectivity.

We work with about 400 air transport industry members and 2,800 customers in over 200 countries and territories. Almost every airline and airport in the world does business with SITA.

Our customers include airlines, airports, GDSs and governments.

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In 2018, we had consolidated revenues of US$ 1.7 billion.

For further information, please visit www.sita.aero

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