The Allplane Podcast #69: multiple ways data helps airlines fly better, with Kemal Ahmed (SITA)
In the fourth and last episode of this airlines and software cycle, produced in collaboration with SITA for Aircraft, I would like to present a comprehensive, holistic view of how digital, data-driven tools have become increasingly important to get further efficiency improvements out of airline operations.
Sometimes it’s a relatively small thing, such as not having to carry several kilograms of paper in a flight bag, sometimes it’s truly sophisticated stuff, such as predicting the presence of ice crystals along the flight path with millimetrical precision or calculating the exact optimal flight path among tens of thousands of possible alternatives, but in any of these cases algorithms are the ultimate performance booster.
Our guest today, Kemal Ahmed, leads Digital Day of Operations applications at SITA for Aircraft, covering several areas of importance for airline operations, from aircraft to ground communications to weather-optimized flight planning. Kemal provides us with an overview of his work in this field and how the contribution of software to make airline operations more sustainable can not be overlooked.
Tune in for a comprehensive overview of the multiple ways in which big data and the right software can help airlines be greener and more efficient!
Download this episode from:
Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher
Things we talk about in this episode:
How small inefficiencies in operations can result in significant financial and environmental costs
How can software can help airlines become more efficient
Which areas of airline operations are more suitable for operational improvements
Is a holistic, multi-function approach to operational efficiency needed?
How SITA family of products tackles different aspects of airline operational efficiency
What are the expected environmental benefits of a more efficient airline operation
Resources:
Our episode about eWAS Pilot
Our episode about eWAS Dispatch
Our epidsode about OptiFlight/OptiClimb
Podcast Music: Five Armies by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3762-five-armies
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Interview Transcript:
(please note that, although we strive to make it as close as possible to the original recording, the transcript may not be 100% accurate)
Hello Kemal! How are you?
Hi, Miquel. Yes, I'm very good. Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to speaking to you today.
Likewise…you’re joining us from London. Is that right?
Yes, that's correct. Well, a small village just outside London close to Heathrow Airport.
Very convenient…
Yeah, yeah, very convenient.
Yeah, I'm amazed how you guys have SITA for Aircraft, have such a decentralized team, I've been talking with people that are based in all different locations across Europe.
Yeah, I think is something which has emerged fairly organically, with the placement of where product development has been, and where some of the major SITA for Aircraft offices have been. And especially over the last year or so, because everyone's become so good at working together remotely. It's something that just works really well. Now,
Indeed, I think we are all getting used to it, some of us were already kind of used to remote work before, before the pandemic. But that's definitely become much more widespread. You are the head of applications portfolio at Sita for Aircraft, I'm going to ask you to explain a little bit what this means. Because at SITA for Aircraft, you are structured in different products and solutions. So, from your title, I assume you're sort of kind of managing all of them. So I guess you can give us a good idea of all the different technologies you guys have.
Yeah, of course. At SITA for Aircraft, we are split into several different departments and, and the portfolio of products which I manage is what we call Digital Day of Operations applications. So the the software or software as a service solutions, which we have for managing managing flight operations, managing the flight operations, so that's dispatching flight tracking EFB applications, cabin crew applications for example, so anything that is a software product like that, which is used to manage the operations of a flight or, or manage collaboration that falls sort of under my remit. And, and that's what I'm gonna be talking to you about today. And hopefully, we can go into a little bit more detail. So that's, so that's what I do, and that and it really involves the development of those products. So figuring out where the industry is going, what our customers want, and, and creating features to support and help them.
Yeah, actually, you know, there is a topic that really find really interesting. And I hope that the audience does as well. And that's sustainability. Aviation sustainability. That's really has been a big focus for us here in the podcast. And basically, there's an area of sustainability that I think it's sometimes underreported…I mean, obviously, all the new propulsion technologies, new types of fuel, new types of engines and aircraft, they get all the attention. But there is also so much that can be done as well through the optimization of the current processes and operations. And that's a topic I would like to discuss with you. Because I guess from your position, you have a very good vantage point of what's possible with today's technology, software and different applications that help airlines be more efficient.
Yeah, I mean, it's such a big topic at the moment, obviously, and I think it will be for well, for many, many years, you look at what the reports airlines are putting out at the moment. And not just airlines, like most companies, their sustainability reports are reaching back to 2015. And this topic is clearly going to run, you're totally correct, like hybrid engines, like sustainable aviation fuel, those sorts of things are great. And they may be a solution to the problem at some point. But there's a real demand from airlines, from airports, from whoever may be said to have something now like that can really have an impact. Everyone knows that the burning fuel on takeoff is extremely bad in terms of co2 emissions. But let's look at the airport itself and the processes around managing aircraft, there's so much efficiency that can be found there. And the carbon footprint around airports and those processes is also large, and it's something that needs to be tackled. And I think what airlines are looking for is a way to measure that, like how do you measure what you're doing in terms of sustainability, but also to find whether it's efficiencies or changes in what they're doing that increase their sustainability and their footprint on the world?
Actually, I wanted to ask you because I guess you have a good panoramic view of all the different processes involved, you know, around operation, what are the parts of the, let's say, of the whole flight operation that are more taxing on their environment? Because as you mentioned, it's not just the flight but also lots of emissions for example happen on the ground, getting rid of extra weight, for example, through paperless operations, which is a kind of a subtle, lots of different subtle ways that are not too visible that can help to reduce this carbon footprint. So what would you say are the most taxing on the environment? And which are the areas that can be tackled with existing technology? Like the one you guys do, the ones you guys develop at SITA?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, as I said, like, everyone knows that, like, the burning of jet fuel is always going to be the thing, which is most taxing on the environment. And I mean, that's clear. I think that's fully understood within the industry. And for that point, the takeoff, part of the of the of the operations is always going to produce the most co2 and have the biggest impact. But it's not just that, I mean, they say that aviation contributes 2% of the co2 emissions. But, I mean, in reality, this number is not really that accurate. There's a huge amount of industry and infrastructure that revolves around aviation, which also has an impact on the environment, like maintenance, for example, if you if you can avoid maintenance, or unnecessary maintenance, the maintenance of parts for an aircraft, the delivery of those parts, all of that has a huge impact on the environment is not just co2 emissions, this is everything that comes around with that comes around that that infrastructure, and these are things where slight changes or use of different products, like weather avoidance, if you can avoid bad weather and therefore avoid some, some maintenance, unnecessary maintenance. The impact is not going to be small, it's going to be incremental, but this is going to have an impact on the environment. And that's I think that's a really key thing. And maintenance is one because it's an easy one to understand. But it's not just there is let's say if if you're able to to improve the communication, say between the aircraft, and the ramp manager or the person that's managing the fuel fly aircraft, you're able to improve that communication or improve the data flow so that there's a real time understanding of what the fuel levels are, what the required fuel is for for the next leg, you can, you can really improve the accuracy of fueling decisions and the fuel ordering to make sure that you're not dumping as much fuel maybe or your aircraft isn't as heavy, you have a more optimal amount of fuel. And just because you can you can communicate better with the person on the ground, there's no miscommunication. Like a simple thing like miscommunication can really add weight to an aircraft or make you have to dump fuel before arriving. And that that type of stuff has a big impact if you build things and if an airline works with sustainability in mind, in all parts of the process, those small incremental things can really make a big difference.
Yeah, actually, I spoke with one of your colleagues recently about, for example, the weather, bad weather avoidance, what you were saying about maintenance… I assume you're referring, for example, to cases where maintenance, extra maintenance is avoided. Basically, you are avoiding the causes that create these needs. Like for example, I was surprised to learn that if an airplane flies through very heavy turbulence, then it might require some extra maintenance, because of the sort of tensions it's gone through when flying through the turbulence. I assume that's the sort of thing you had in mind.
Yeah, I mean, that's one example. Yeah, if I could fly through some strong turbulence and same if you need to do a go around because of poor visibility. If that poor visibility isn't something that's not straightaway then extra maintenance is required in that event.
What about communication? What would be the sort of situation for example, you mentioned that poor communication between the different parties involved in managing your flight can result in a higher, let's say, environmental costs or higher fuel expense for that flight? What would be that case? For example?
Yeah, that's an interesting one as well. There's two types of communications to think about there’s communication, which is actually like physical or verbal or text communication and making sure you're able to contact someone with the right information at the right time. And there's the other sort of communication, which is the web which is more like the flow of information, so, people that need to see real time information, say about the aircraft are able to see that and therefore are therefore able to take action on things efficiently. And I think we spoke about like the airport environment…there's a large carbon footprint there but if you're able to, to really streamline the communication, like say around the the turnaround of an aircraft…turnaround is so tight, the timings on it are really, really tight, and the knock on effects of over delays turnaround can have a huge sort of future impact for the airline whether it's delays to future flight, issues with passengers, but also things like use of an APU unit. For example, If your turnaround is extended because you haven't been able to manage it properly, the APU power unit will be on for a longer period of time. And that has an impact on the environment. And that's a measurable impact someone was yeah, it was quite established,
I just need to make a parenthesis here. For people that might not be familiar, the APU is the auxiliary power unit. So that's basically when you are supplying power to the aircraft when he's on the ground.
That's absolutely correct. Yeah.
So, a sort of generator to put it in plain words, I don't know if that's technically the right description. But, yeah, the sort of a piece of equipment that can supply electricity power to the aircraft when it's on the ground.
Yeah. And they'll use it in the turnaround, like, even if it's just vacuum cleaners to clean the aircraft. But, if your turnaround is extended longer there's an impact on the environment, if you're using the power unit stay on for too long, less time. And by improving the communication and bringing everyone into one place to be able to communicate around the turnaround, allowing everyone to see okay, the aircraft has landed now, okay, it's going to be on this date at this time. Okay, we need to be there at this time, then, to do what we need to do. By giving that to everyone involved it can really drive efficiencies in that area, and you don't have your catering truck idling, waiting around, powered up with nothing to do, you can use it more efficiently, people able to manage their processes more efficiently. And this has a big impact on the carbon footprint on the ground, which is a key thing. And I think we mentioned it before, communication as well, in terms of fuel… fuel is the main issue in terms of sustainability. If you're able to communicate more accurately your fuel requirements…and let's look at the last two years with the pandemic. So no one has been allowed to go into the cockpit. So where previously a pilot may actually just chat to the person who's going to be filling the aircraft and say we need this large handle of signed papers saying this is the fuel we need. Now, they're not like the person that is able to go into that cockpit, they have to have a way to communicate. And if that isn't there, then there can’t be…it's very easy to have miscommunication. So by improving the way that people can collaborate between the aircraft and the ground in a way that's available to lots and lots of people and can make sure that the accurate information is passed, and therefore the fuel load is as accurate as it can be, therefore you gain all the efficiencies in terms of weight of the aircraft, fuel, dumping all of those things. So, communications are a key thing here. And being able to do that can really have a strong impact on the environment.
I got the impression that we are talking about many, many different steps with different players involved. So it's a bit like, like a puzzle to be put all together. And just wondering, is there a way to put all these operations in a single workflow? I don't know if that's how it works. I mean, I'm a bit ignorant about how the actual operations of the, let's say, the practical steps involved, I guess this might be what you guys are doing with your products. But is there a way to structure these in a single workflow? And then another question is: this obviously has some implications not just for the environment, which obviously would be a goal in itself, but also has some economic and financial implications for the airline. And why are there still so many inefficiencies in a sector that operates at very thin margins, a very technified sector, but still seems there's a lot of scope there to make it more efficient. So why, why hasn't it happened yet? I mean, is this a technical difficulty of integrating all these different operations in a more efficient way or is it for technical reasons? Is it for regulatory reasons? Is it because of the legacy ways in which airlines organize their workflows? What could be the reason?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a few. To be honest, it's, yeah, I mean, operations surrounding the aircraft and the management of operations surrounding the aircraft and the management of aircraft and all the processes…they've grown significantly over time.
So Kemal from what you tell me, the operations of airlines are made of a very large number of, let's say, of small steps, I’m just wondering, in an industry that operates in such razor thin margins, and is always constantly trying to squeeze more efficiency gains, why are there still so many issues with this? I mean, with also many inefficiencies, and just wondering what there's a way to integrate all these different steps into a single workflow that allows the airline to have a better view of where the potential efficiencies are. I don't know if that's something you guys would at SITA have been working on, or whether there are technical or regulatory issues that prevent this more holistic approach, let's say.
Yes. So I mean, it's a great question. And as you said, like it's very confusing to understand, maybe sometimes why airlines have most of this will be now to solve this problem before. But in reality, it stems from how complex the operations are and also how many people are involved. As you may be aware, most airlines do not manage all of their processes, and they contract lots of stuff out. So whether it's the management package, the catering, fueling, deicing, whatever…it is, is normally not managed or run by someone who works directly for the airline is normally a contracted company. And by having so many contracted companies, also, so many out stations, a lot of this stuff doesn't just happen at the main hub for the airport, these things happen in places which are far far away and may not have the best communication. So it's very difficult to to gain efficiencies and to get an oversight of what's happening, like, you may have a once you can track your aircraft to understand what exactly is going on with a catering truck at one of your outstations a long, long way where you where you're only working with contractors can be very difficult because they have their own agendas and needs to fulfill. So it can become a very difficult process. And what we're trying to do, actually, as you said, with with technology and something has really come off actually over the past few years, is to build a system where people are able to communicate not just internally, but externally as well with with different companies that they're working with, and be able to share that information in one way. We're building products at the moment, at SITA and we have products available, where companies are able to analyze and are able to get an oversight of the real time status of the aircraft, what process it is undergoing, who's doing that, and also communicate directly with them, whether it be on a on their cell phone, whether it be on a iPad, whether it be on a on a laptop, and use some of the tools which we have, which we're building, or have built to communicate centrally, even with people who are a long way away, and don't work directly for the airline. And these are some of the things that could really drive that efficiency. As I'll give you an example. Let's look at something like the crew and a diversion. So, say, an aircraft has to divert to a different airport for whatever reason, like a passenger’s ill or there's a maintenance issue. And this is obviously now a really big issue for the airline. And there's a lot of things they need to manage. And lots of people need to be involved in that. And at the moment that all of the people that are involved in that really don't have a way to to work together. And what we're supposed to do is bring them to work together with some of our solutions. And say, for example, the person who's in charge of the cabin crew decides at that point, okay, this aircraft is diverting, do we need to send another cabin crew and emergency crew to take over and manage that return flight or the aircraft getting back into position with the passengers on it, that's all well and good and they've done their job. But if the cabin crew, they're on that flight hadn’t gone over the allocated hours that they were allowed to work they could take that flight back to its final destination, that airline would not have had to send an emergency crew. And therefore they wouldn't have had to position a lot of people in one place. They would have saved costs. But there's an environmental impact there, you're moving people from one place to another and having to put people off in, say, a hotel, and then also reposition those people. So, you're moving people around, and there's an environmental impact on that. And by having an oversight into the real time information that's available, that decision could have been totally different and had an impact on the environment and an impact on the cost of the airline. So that's what we're trying to do with technology here. And a new collaboration technology that we're building is really trying to make sure that everyone who's working not just at the airline, but everyone who's working on that flight and anything surrounding it, is able to have that view and collaborate so that they can make these credit decisions which can save the airline in the end a large amount of money, and they may be money which they wouldn't have known or sustainability savings that they wouldn't have known could have occurred without having this ability.
Yeah, actually, I would like to go in detail about all the different examples of solutions that might help optimize some of those steps. Can you tell us a bit more about all the different different solutions you are developing and SITA for Aircraft? Because you've got a whole portfolio of different solutions, targeting a specific segment, a specific activity, a specific stage of the flight, in a broad sense. So, including the times when the aircraft is on the ground, some operations the crew has to perform when they are on board. What can you tell us about this?
Yeah, of course, I mean, we will look at it obviously, in terms of sustainability. But let's start with the aircraft…obviously, like EFB (electronic flight bags), something that has been around for a while. And as we mentioned earlier, weight saving on the aircraft is a massive deal. And it really can have a strong implication on the amount of fuel that is used. So we have a few solutions, like our electronic flight folder solution, and eWas Pilot, which is a weather application. And these are fully electronic tablet based electronic flight bag applications. And, then, this is something that's obviously been said before, but I think is always something worth thinking about. EFB technology can save a huge amount of weight on the aircraft, like in terms of removing paperwork, removing all that flight briefing information…For long haul flights, where you may have several different crew who are working at different times for, say, an ultra long haul flight, you can be saving like 100 kilograms in weight per flight, and for a large airline, this adds up significantly and this can lead to a significant change. Just by using a tablet, whether it's an iPad, or Microsoft tablet, or Windows, tablet, Android, whatever it may be, just by using that you can see immediately there's that going there. The software itself, the technology that we've talked about avoiding bad weather, and how you could have avoidable maintenance on going through turbulence, but there's so much more that comes from that. So imagine if you need to perform some maintenance…these are real life examples…so, you've been impacted through some ice crystals and you have some engine damage, it’s not just the fact that you have this maintenance, which has a huge environmental impact itself in terms of the manufacturing of new parts, the time that the air costs on the ground, in terms of cost, but also you have like a triple seven or a 380 or a large aircraft like that and you may have a three to 400 passengers who need to be moved into different positions. And that movement is automatically adding a huge amount of carbon footprint onto those journeys. And it's really the consumers who are driving this need for sustainability. People are now thinking more about whether they're sending a package or whether they're flying themselves, understanding that carbon footprint is something that's key and that's why avoiding this bad weather can have a major impact on sustainability. But being able to have confidence as well in the weather that you're seeing can really help the pilot make their decisions on the fuel that they need for the journey. So they have confidence in the weather, and they have confidence in the weather data that they're seeing for their flight, which is what we're providing with the eWAS Pilot application, they're able to have more confidence in making the correct fuel decision for the for the route that they have to take to avoid any bad weather or to fly at the correct height. So I mean, that's just an example.
Yeah, I just wanted to refer here to an episode with the product manager for eWAS Pilot, he presented all the different options and it was quite interesting to find out about the weather aspect of a flight, which is something that passengers are normally not that aware unless they go through a very serious turbulence…all the other technology that goes into making sure that the plane goes avoid the worst weather condition that's…yeah, definitely that was an eye opener! So, that was eWas Pilot, but you have other products as well, opticlimb and opticruise right? which it's more about optimizing the itinerary.
Yeah, absolutely, and this one really is about the fuel saving and the reduction in the co2 emissions that can be brought to an airline. And I mean, I have some examples in terms of figures and they're quite impressive. Like if you look at say a short haul, a 737 or an A320, something like that, by using opticlimb technology to create an optimized time gradient and using the data from both the weather and the historical data on the aircraft, you can save about 82 kilograms of fuel per climb, and for a year, the yearly reduction in co2 for a 737, for example, could be over 200 tons of co2 emission emissions saved and reduced and over 70 tons of fuel saved in a year, if you look at a normal short haul operator, and if you then look at the long range wide body, like a triple seven or something like that, the numbers are dramatically higher, you could be seeing over 200 kilograms of fuel safe for each climb if using the average climb if you are using opticlimb, and the fuel savings per tail per year can be over 100 times, it's a really big impact. And it's using data that's already there, like it's using weather data that is available, is using the airline data. So this information is available, the airlines have it and it's just utilizing in the correct way and analyzing in the correct way. And then also providing that information to the pilots at the right time. And that's what's really key here is that the pilot needs to have this information, the optimized climb information, or the optimized routing information that we can provide through the services, we will input those and they can be shown directly on the EFB applications which I was talking about before. And what that does, it provides the pilot the confidence to take that decision. And so ask for this routing and to do this different climb…and this gives them the confidence to do that. And therefore, more than likely have more utilization, because they see that information in the right place. And that has a direct impact on the environmental footprint for that airline, really significant savings for the airline and reduction in co2.
I'm just browsing your website now. I can see you have up to nine different solutions under what you call digital day operations, which is just one part of the SITA suite of products. What about the other ones, I mean, you have eWAS Pilot and eWAS Dispatch, which are mainly about the weather, then you have OptiClimb, the one you were mentioning now. Then you have others like Mission Control and flight folder, I think it's about the paperless cockpit, so it's getting everything on tablets rather than on a big thick pack of paper, saving weight. And then you also have Data Solutions, e-Aircraft DataHub…
Yes, this is very similar to the opticlimb and optiflight, this is really about enabling the airline to use data that they already have and that they may provide to us anyway to use this data in a way that they can do things like improve things like predictive maintenance. So, to understand when they'll need to perform maintenance and that the impact that you can have there is by being able to enable strong predictive maintenance, they can avoid failure and failure is what has an impact on the customer, it has environmental impacts. By being able to manage that in that way and use their data to understand when maintenance will be required, they can avoid those sorts of failures, but also things like tyre degradation, they can understand when they're likely to fail as well and stop that from happening. And these are really key things which have an impact on the efficiency of the aircraft, the reduced chance of failure and all of these things avoid that unnecessary maintenance, five minutes for predicting using the data that they had. And this is key. And the I think the interesting thing here is that this is data that they're using already, say for mission control, which is the communication thing, which we've been talking about, already in terms of bringing teams together to communicate. That system is integrated with lots of different systems that the airline has, so the data which they hold can be used and shared with the people that need to use it and some of these other data options that we have is basically just enabling the airlines to use that data for other things like predictive maintenance, tyre degradation, to really improve how they run and really improve their operations and for the airlines saving vast amounts of money, but also having a really strong impact from the sustainability angle and reducing also of their footprint on the environment.
For example, in cases like Mission Control, it involves a two way communication, if I understood correctly…How does the integration work, because I can understand for example, things like, you mentioned, aircraft data, or eWAS or eWAS Dispatch that it's about crunching data and issuing some recommendations based on the analysis that the systems can do. I mean, you have this as a software software as a service. But what about the solutions that require some communication with third parties? So here, for example, mission control involves ground personnel that might be working for other suppliers, for other companies. How do you ensure that these integrate with these very complex technological environment? Does everyone need to be a user of SITA products? Is there an easy plug and play integration? Or how does it work? How do you make sure that this communication flows so there are no mismatches and no compatibility issues?
Yeah, I mean, that's the idea. It's an easy collaboration, and easy plug and play. And we worked with Microsoft quite heavily to do this, I'm utilizing Microsoft teams to enable this functionality. So that it's very easy. So the scanning of a QR code can give someone access to that system, and allow them to see the information that they need to see to manage processes or communicate together. So rather than being just a communication, one person to the other, we may see now like, someone sending someone an email, or a text message enables that mass communication of everyone who's involved. So we utilize strong functionalities that we can get from Microsoft to really enable that. And that's where he's able to really build something which just hasn't been done before. Because this is new technology now, which is enabling this to be done. And if we come back to the integration part of that, imagine, like, you have someone who's working a long way away, and they’ve been able to access this information. And we've talked about some of our weather products, and we have a weather product on the ground for dispatchers and OCC to use, which mimics very much what the pilots are seeing. And using that tool to say if there's a warning of a weather hazard like some strong turbulence or there's a thunderstorm. So they're able to manage that. And that's great and the OCC pricing to then manage that through a rerouting, but for us now this this person who's working a long way away waiting for the aircraft to come into to the outstation is probably unaware that this aircraft is going to be going through some strong storms or even rerouting to avoid some turbulence but now with, mission control, they're able to access that data can seamlessly go from dispatch seamlessly into Mission Control and alert that user that this aircraft has flown through some strong turbulence or this aircraft has had an issue with a storm or has had to reroute and their journey has been several miles longer. And then whether that's a maintenance thing, whether that's a fueling thing, whether that's even an issue with passengers having to disembark early or the transport to avoid a delay, they're able to manage that straightaway. Because they'll see that information. And previously, they wouldn't have seen that information.
In practical terms. How do they see this information? When we talk about integration, would they be seeing it on their normal messaging system or messaging application they use? Or do they need to install something on purpose to get this type of message? What does the interface look like?
That's the beauty of what we've done here with Microsoft, it utilizes Microsoft Teams. Whilst not every single company in the world will be using Microsoft Teams, they are able to plug into it even if they're not. But for many companies, they're already using Microsoft and the services that come around with it. So it really just integrates directly with that. And they would just say they would see a notification whether it's on their cell phone, on their watch on their iPad, whatever, in the normal way that they would if they were working on sending a message between colleagues. And it would come through the mission control application in Microsoft Teams. So there's really nothing that they would need to do. And using the functionality where they can just scan a QR code, and then have access to that system makes it super easy for that to happen. And that's what we intend to do. We don't want to burden people with more work, we want to make it easy. And that's why we've worked with Microsoft to do that. Because it's so widely used, it can really make a solution that is easily available for anyone to use.
Do you sell the different solutions packages? Do airlines need to contract them out? One by one? How does it look in commercial terms and how many airlines are using it at the moment?
It's a bit of a mixture, obviously, most of our products can be used individually but where the real benefit comes is by utilizing things together. So, as we spoke about before with Flight Folder and eWAS Pilot, by utilizing those tools together, you get a huge amount of added benefit from having all of the information in one place. So with the briefing that you're doing with your electronic file folder, you have all the live weather information, contextualized and visual, you're able to have all that information together in one place, if you're using Opticlimb at the same time, you're able to see that both within your briefing, you're able to do all of those things. So the products definitely work better together. And sustainability is much enhanced when you're using multiple things together. And the other example is with eWAS Dispatch and Mission Control. Mission Control was great on its own, eWAS Dispatch was great on its own, you're able to communicate with lots and lots of people using Mission Control, you're able to manage a lot of things, you're able to manage a lot of workflow. And this is all extremely important. And the same with eWAS Dispatch, you're able to track your flights, you're able to keep up to date with the with the latest regulations in terms of the flight tracking, you're able to do that routing, but when you combine them together, that's where you get the real benefits, because you're then able to to connect that information with the collaboration platform, and therefore make sure that everyone who needs to see it can see it. And that's where you can, you can really get those efficiencies which have the impact on the footprint of the airline. So whilst they are individual individual products, they're connected in a way, which makes them work really well together. And that's where you get that positive impact for increased sustainability. So, to answer your question, we have a fairly large list of customers, there's around 150 airlines that are currently using one or more of the products within the Digital Day Operations portfolio. So we're looking at around around 8000 aircraft in total, so so so fairly substantial and really, this is how we're able to develop our products, because we're constantly getting that feedback from the customers on what they want. So we really develop things with the customer in mind. And this is why sustainability is now becoming the one of the things which is really underpinning everything that we do. So, all of the features that we're building really have this sustainability is one of the things along with a few others, one of the things that really underpins how we're developing applications, because this is what we get from our customers. And this is what we're hearing. I mean, you hear it in the news, you hear it everywhere, sustainability, but we're hearing this from our customers, and this is the demand they're giving to us “We want this, this is what we need!”. And so that's why we're building in these ways.
Yeah, I can tell you, this last year, year and a half, it's been like an explosion of interest in sustainability, not just the airlines, but the whole ecosystem. And also companies that are like big buyers of corporate travel, for example, as well. So yeah, that's definitely a very current topic. So, for people that want to learn more about this, I guess the best way is to go to the website, right? Sita.aero, I'm going to put a link…I don't know if there's any other resource that you would recommend.
Yeah. Each of these products will have a page, which will give you some more information in terms if you're really interested…we have offices in lots of different locations, and our teams have account managers and commercial managers are very happy to pick up the phone and speak to anyone about these solutions. But the first point I would say is, it is definitely the SITAa for Aircraft website where there's a lot of valuable information, hopefully some videos as well which can provide some more detail into some of these products. And also what we're doing in terms of sustainability at SITA. It is not just like it's not just our products, which we're looking at, enhancing sustainability for airlines, is something that we're doing ourselves as a company and have been very successful at it. And there's a lot of information on our website about that as well. So really, it's an ethos that we have now, not just something that we're trying to do for our customers, it starts from home.
Well, Kemal. Thank you so much for this comprehensive vision of what you, guys, do at SITA for Aircraft, there are other episodes that are gonna dig deeper into specific aspects of that. But I think that's been really great to have like the whole vision because after all, it's a combination of all these multiple steps that helps airlines be more efficient already today, without having to wait for new propulsion systems hydrogen, electric…that might happen as well. But there are already powerful tools to squeeze some operational and also some environmental gains out of technology. So thank you so much for this vision. And, yeah, I invite everyone to check the notes for links and additional information. Thank you very much Kemal!
It's been an absolute pleasure!