Technology

Feature In aviation, a Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) is an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, fully under pilot’s control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle. In a typical CFIT scenario, the crew is unaware of the impending disaster until it is too late. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 17% of all General Aviation fatalities are as a result of CFIT accidents. As per FAA in 2015, 384 people died in 238 general aviation accidents and CFIT was the second leading cause. The key cause of CFIT accidents is loss of situational awareness. CFIT: Facts Check a) CFIT accidents are not limited to inexperienced pilots. Well experienced pilots are just as likely to be involved in CFIT accidents. b) CFIT accidents are not more frequently at night. Nearly 75% of CFIT accidents occur during day time hours. c) CFIT accidents occur more frequently during single pilot operations but can also occur during crewed flight. d) More than half of CFIT accidents occur during IMC. e) More than two third of all CFIT accidents are the result of altitude error or Vertical Situational Awareness. f) With a properly trained crew in Crew Resource Management (CRM), the second pilot may make the difference between a Safe flight and a CFIT accident. Leading Causes a) Faulty Judgement / Poor Decision Making:- Most CFIT accidents involve faulty judgement and decision making. For example, making the decision to continue flight when weather or other conditions have deteriorated to minimum VFR visibilities or below. b) Low Altitude:- Flight in unfamiliar terrain at low altitudes expose the aircraft to hazards such as power cables and towers. Power lines are difficult to see until they are too close to avoid. Therefore, pre-flight review of maps, charts for indication of towers, power lines and other terrain elevations is essential. c) Procedural Errors During IFR Flight Operations:- Misreading Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) or beginning approach descent without confirmed glide scope interception. d) Training:- Training of crew and familiarisation with aircraft and the area of operations forms an integral part of avoiding CFIT accidents. e) In Flight Decision Making:- Avoid the attitudes like ‘this is just a local weather phenomenon, will clear in just a few miles or I am instruments rated or I have flown many many times earlier.’ f) Lack of Pre-Flight Planning:- Failing to review aeronautical charts for Minimum Safe Altitude (MSA), obstacles and terrain elevations can result in operating at unsafe low altitudes. In helicopter operations local area maps of half a million scale, study of map contours, ridge lines and weather patterns play a crucial role. How to Avoid CFIT? a) Pilot Attributes:- Two most important pilot attributes are pre-flight preparations and exercising sound judgement (on the cautious side). Even flying in familiar terrain, work out safe get always. For IFR flight, be sure to note the Minimum En route Altitudes for all segments. b) Know your Aircraft:- Knowledge of aircraft performance like realistic maximum rate of climb or making a 180° turn under instrument conditions etc etc. Do not accept ATC procedures or instructions that would put the aircraft and the passengers in a potentially dangerous situation. c) Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS):- TAWS is an onboard system intended to prevent CFIT. It provides the pilot with early aural and visual warning of impending terrain. With proper pre-flight planning, pilot will know where he is in relation to terrain. When the TAWS issues a low altitude alert, the pilot will immediately begin a climb or turn to avoid higher terrain. Some aircraft also use Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) and (EGPWS). The basic TAWS include a Forward-Looking Terrain Avoidance (FLTA) function that looks ahead of the aircraft along and below the aircraft’s lateral and vertical flight path and provide suitable alerts. Pre-flight / In flight Planning Tool Pre-flight / Inflight planning and assessment tools, if applied consistently will reduce the chances of a CFIT. Some tools are illustrated below: – a) Safety Risk Assessment (SRA): – Use of Safety Risk Matrix to assess likely areas of potential dangers. b) Safety Risk Management (SRM):- It is vital to know what a pilot is going into and what capabilities and resources are available to ensure flight is completed safely. c) Aeronautical Decision Making:- Use of PAVE check list for personalised risk assessment before a flight. In this, the pilot divides the risk of flight into four categories:- * P- Pilot in Command:- Pilot must ask ‘Am I ready for the flight in terms of experience, recency, currency, physical and emotional conditions. Pilot should use IMSAFE acronym to asses health condition. IMSAFE stands for Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue and Emotion. * A- Aircraft:- What limitations the aircraft will impose upon the trip. *V- environment:- Weather is a major environmental consideration. Cloud ceiling, winds and visibility keeping terrain in mind must be adequately addressed. * E- External Pressures:- These are influences external to the flight that create a sense of pressure to complete a flight; often at the expense of safety. For example: the general goal completion orientation or desire to impress someone. Probably the two most dangerous words in aviation are ‘watch this’. The use of personal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is one way to manage external pressures. Conclusion Too frequently, in flight conditions may not be as forecast, requiring the pilots to make on the spot decisions about continuing, diverting, climbing, descending or return to base to fly another day. Be ready and willing to adjust your plan and do not allow ‘get- there – it – is’ to cloud better judgement. Flying in less-than-ideal conditions promote fatigue and fatigue can affect decision making. Identify alternates for landing and wait out bad weather rather than making a bad decision. Keep skills sharp by flying Simulator to include realistic graphics in unfamiliar environment. IF not flying often or need to brush up skills, schedule a scenario based CFIT avoidance training flight with a

Gurugram,10 November 2023: Air India has become the world’s first airline to have successfully deployed a Generative AI virtual agent, called ‘Maharaja’, powered by Azure OpenAI service. It has successfully answered over half a million customer queries since its pilot launch in March 2023, and it today manages over 6,000 queries a day in four languages. Air India’s Maharaja AI Agent manages an extensive spectrum of customer queries across 1,300 areas related to flight status, baggage allowances, packing restrictions, check-in, frequent flyer awards, airport lounge access, flight changes, refunds and more. To meet the needs of guests around the world, Maharaja speaks four languages: Hindi, English, French, and German. Of the 6,000-plus questions received each day, over 80% are successfully answered in seconds. About 15% of customer queries today require additional assistance, and Maharaja recognises this automatically and orchestrates a seamless handoff to Air India’s contact centre agents. Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India, said: “We are dedicated to providing the best possible service and experience to our valued guests across channels. We also want to be very responsive to their changing preferences. After the emergence of Large Language Model driven Generative AI capabilities, we are increasingly seeing a definitive shift in guest preferences to use chat interactions to get the information and support they need quickly and directly as compared to browsing several web pages.” “We have used several patent-pending innovations in our AI agent Maharaja with a combination of traditional machine learning techniques and the latest in Generative AI to provide a pleasing and effective experience for our customers. Many more innovations are in the pipeline and will be made live in the months to come.” “We are pleased to see Air India’s successful deployment of their AI-powered agent, Maharaja, and the use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to provide a personalized and relevant customer experience. We believe that this is the beginning of a new era of customer service, and we look forward to seeing more organizations use the power of Generative AI and our AI-optimized Azure cloud to provide a seamless and efficient customer experience,” said Marco Casalaina, Vice President, AI Platform, Microsoft. Leveraging the generative AI technology to the full extent, Air India uses ChatGPT to analyse even some complex questions it may not be able to immediately answer to improve customer experience in later interactions. This has allowed Air India’s newest customer service channel to progressively learn and improve, becoming more attuned to natural language. Air India has employed a strategy that involves blending of multiple traditional machine learning techniques alongside Generative AI to provide a compelling consumer-grade experience. Air India has also established safeguards to prevent biased or harmful language from infiltrating its conversational AI system. Unlike rule-based or keyword-based chatbots, Generative AI solutions understand the intent and context of a user’s query and generate a natural and coherent reply. This enhances user experience and satisfaction, while reducing the need for human intervention. It also helps to automate repetitive and mundane tasks, such as booking, cancellation, confirmation, etc., and free up bandwidth for human agents to focus on more complex and value-adding interactions. In the coming months, Air India plans to launch a host of sophisticated features, driven by patent-pending technologies. This includes a novel user experience that changes the way customers interact with AI agents with a combination of textual and graphical interactions that can potentially further speed up customer interactions. Some of these innovations have been incubated for more than 2 years. Air India also plans to enhance the current AI agent with data-driven deep-personalisation capabilities that will elevate the technology to that of a reliable personal assistant for all air travel needs. The capabilities of the AI agent will include travel inspiration and effortless booking experiences. Support for more Indian languages is also in the works.

Industry 4.0 is now mainstream in manufacturing processes worldwide. Although A&D was slow to adopt initially, it is so well on course with 4.0 implementations.Now among A&D circles, attention is turning to the next evolution of smart and intelligent manufacturing—Industry 5.0. Here, Matt Medley, Global Industry Director, A&D, IFS, analyses the key implications for A&D manufacturing, from humanised robots (cobots) and assistive wearable to build to order and hyper globalisation pullback. Although Industry 5.0 is still an emerging approach, early understanding is that it is not just the new technology, but a more encompassing approach to the use of technology in a societal environment. This is evidenced by theEuropean Commission Policy Brief that set out its vision for Industry 5.0—“that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society.” It should complement the existing “Industry 4.0” approach by specifically putting research and innovation at the service of the transition to a sustainable, human-centric and resilient manufacturing industry. North American organisations, too, have Industry 5.0 in their sights. North American respondents to a recent Boyden Executive Survey were intensely focused on the human core of Industry 5.0, with growth driven by innovation and human capital, and structural change driven by competing for the right talent to leverage digital advances. There are some core themes shaping Industry 5.0 within A&D manufacturing as it becomes a more established manufacturing approach. 1.Technology 4.5 – the digital thread that is bridging the gap to new manufacturing approaches – Meet the Cobot! While its foundations have yet to settle one thing is certain—technology is providing an initial steppingstone towards the core themes of 5.0.IoT, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, and digital twins are all processes that have gained credence in factories and assets to make the output of manufacturing projects quicker, more efficient, and data-driven. This has allowed a “digital thread” to be built across A&D equipment from design, through to prototyping, manufacturing, and even in-service support. Enter the collaborative robot, or “cobot”. The International Centre for Industrial Transformation views Industry 5.0 as “…an add-on to Industry 4.0, building upon the groundwork laid by these smart technologies. While the focus of Industry 4.0 was connectivity, digitalisation and automation, Industry 5.0 highlights the importance of human-robot collaboration and the relationship between man and machine, or ‘cobots’.” 5.0 will build the relationship between man and machine New technology applications are emerging as part of Industry 5.0 that focus more on the people executing the manufacturing—particularly to improve their physical capability and safety.In an A&D context, we will start to see and indeed are already seeing technology and equipment from a military background becoming commercialised. Take the example of the Lockheed Martin Onyx Exoskeleton, which uses AI, gathers movement data from users’ feet, knee, and hip sensors and forwards it to a control module stationed on the waist which instructs the exoskeleton to move accordingly to counteract over stress on the back during operations. Commercially, Boeing has been trialing an EksoVest from Ekso Bionics, an upper-body lifting exoskeleton designed to increase productivity and reduce fatigue, and found that it caused an increase in worker speed in test groups of South Carolina mechanics. Human-centric robotics developments do include the rise of “cobots”, where human operators can efficiently and safely work next to robots to perform key manufacturing tasks. As part of its “Smart Factory 2025” initiative, Audi has flagged one of its key aims to enhance this type of human-robot interaction (HRI). Beyond physical technologies there are also interesting neurological tech applications such as brain-computer interface (BCI), for example Neuralink, giving humans the ability to directly control machines without the physical constraints of the body—but we are some way off before seeing such technology fully commercialised. 2.Human Centricity – 5.0 will make manufacturing desirable again to address the skills shortage The latest stats from EY, conducted with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), on the state of the A&D manufacturing workforce show the sector is experiencing the same sort of workforce and skills gaps as the wider manufacturing sector. As many as 69% of A&D manufacturing respondents strongly agree or agree that their organisation’s turnover has significantly increased within the last 12 months—demonstrating the intense competition and lack of readily available labour. Across current workforces there is a strong skew towards older employees—in terms of workforce age composition, survey results showed that employees aged 55 and older represent over a quarter of the workforce (28%), the highest of any age demographic. Assistive wearables The increasing development and use of the man/machine and technology/human interface can help provide some immediate relief for current older workers and attract new younger generations into the A&D manufacturing workspace. Assistive wearable tech can help older workers reaching retirement age achieve more power and productivity, putting less strain on them physically and also boosting safety. With this increasing digital focus, unlike some traditional views of the sector being a lower skilled “blue collar” job market, manufacturing is becoming a more exciting and desirable workplace once again. With more cutting-edge manufacturing and engineering tech, high-skills and high-paid jobs are becoming available as manufacturing becomes smarter and more intelligent. Make to order – purchasing goes personal: A&D manufacturers will need the digital thread to enable hyper-personalisation It’s not only employees who stand to benefit from a more people-centric approach within Industry 5.0.Hyper-personalisation is becoming an expected part of everyday life for consumers—consider real-time mobile alerts when walking past a shop or advertising board for a brand or product, or even dynamic digital price tags as individual consumers shop for goods. This move towards personalisation and individual buyer requirements is already reflected on the production side by customers looking for A&D assets and equipment. Make-to-order, configure-to-order, engineer-to-order, assemble-to-order are becoming common requirements for A&D equipment manufacturing. Smarter factories and digitally-focused products provide that coherent digital thread that can feed data back into the manufacturing process to allow quick changes to

By Shobha Kulavil Imagine an aircraft simulation providing insights into engine’s optimum capacity in harsh weather conditions or digitally tracking a spacecraft’s movement in real time and analysing its performance. Thanks to the digital twin technology, such information can be obtained with accuracy and leveraged to enhance the lifespan of the system, predict any potential risk, and optimize performance. Complex and safety-critical airborne platforms and systems such as aircraft, spacecraft and physical spaces like airports, Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) hubs, and factories can benefit from digital twin as it not only enhances operational efficiency but also helps meet safety and sustainability goals. Owing to its advantages in aerospace and defence (A&D), digital twin is generating interest among startups in India. Aerospace design firms are integrating advanced technologies such as simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D to create a digital twin platform for aerospace products and services, which can be deployed in defence and enterprise applications. Operational capabilities Historically, virtual models and simulations have not always met A&D complete requirements. The advent of digital twin has introduced simplified design modification and innovation for complex systems of aircraft and defence equipment. It also speeds up the production time for physical components and system integration (such as engines) and physical space planning (such as hangars, MRO centres, airports, and factories) through simulation of equipment flow and factory while ensuring safety and efficiency. As a result, global A&D organizations are contemplating the integration of digital twin technology into their long-term plans across platforms and ecosystem. For example, digital twin enables a real-time virtual model of an airport where long queues, crowds, and foot traffic flow can be analysed, giving insights into the most-used as well as underused corners. A virtual understanding of people’s movement and designing of spaces can help optimize airports physically, making human interaction and passenger experience more efficient and seamless. Role in sustainability efforts The aerospace sector is turning to digital twin to validate designs for eco-friendly alternatives such as electric batteries and hydrogen fuel. With this technology, manufacturers can test various parameters of aircraft design, including aerodynamics, propulsion systems, and material, to identify areas for improvement and enhance fuel efficiency while reducing carbon emissions. Leading engine manufacturers heavily rely on digital twin for engine health monitoring and predictive analytics to reduce the engine downtime. AI systems and machine learning(ML) help monitor the progress toward lowering the amount of carbon produced by engines and optimizing aircraft engine maintenance. Companies are also using AI to better understand handling of metal scrap and waste from parts when they reach the end of their lifespan. Impact on the A&D ecosystem Digital twin offers valuable insights into supply chain operations, fuelling data-driven decision making for enhanced performance. By inferring historical data and advanced data analytics, digital twin creates realistic training scenarios, augmenting the skills and decision-making abilities of operators, pilots, and personnel. This fosters familiarity with complex operational environments, promoting safer and more efficient practices. By leveraging historical data and advanced analytics, digital twin can also predict and mitigate potential concerns, reducing the risk of unplanned downtime or critical failures during flight operations or at airports. The technology also considers factors such as weather conditions and system failures to evaluate potential risks. Game-changing synergies Digital twin is poised to revolutionize the A&D industry, which often has long design and development gestation cycles for new products and even upgrades, eventually leading to high costs. The true power of this technology lies in its ability to accurately simulate every aspect of the creation process, from design to manufacturing and real-world operations in a highly-connected manner. This capability will be a game changer for countries aspiring to become a global hub for A&D innovation and delivery. While India has been making significant investments to transform its A&D landscape, it is imperative for the private sector to actively contribute and build systems that go beyond individual digital replicas and integrate information and resources for the sector seamlessly. By bridging the gap between the physical and digital realms, digital twin can synergizes data, technologies, and business processes, thus, enabling the transformation of the A&D sector. (The writer is Vice President and Industry Platform Leader for Aerospace and Defence – India, Capgemini)

Mumbai,5th October 2023: Vistara has become the first Indian airline to deploy both SITA eWAS and SITA OptiClimb solutions. With this, Vistara aims to significantly improve efficiency in flight planning and operations, reducing fuel burn and thereby reducing carbon emissions by 15,000 tons yearly. Using SITA eWAS, Vistara will be able to enhance overall flight safety and efficiency by providing pilots with better weather awareness data. It serves as a highly effective mechanism for delivering OptiClimb recommendations. SITA OptiClimb® leverages historical flight data to predict fuel burn during the climb out and is the industry’s only machine-learning solution providing customized climb profile recommendations for every flight. This will enable Vistara to save 80 tons of fuel per year per aircraft on average and reduce carbon emissions by roughly 250 tons yearly. For Vistara’s entire fleet, yearly fuel savings are estimated to be more than 5,000 tons, leading to a reduction in carbon emissions of more than 15,000 tons. Sumesh Patel, President, Asia Pacific, SITA, said, “India’s aviation industry is accelerating at lightning speed, and we’re excited to help leading airlines like Vistara with solutions that supercharge their efficiency, significantly reduce fuel consumption, and support efforts towards more sustainable air travel. We’re now seeing an increasing number of Indian airlines looking for smart solutions to optimize operations and enhance the passenger experience.” Captain Hamish Maxwell, Senior Vice President – Flight Operations, Vistara, said,”Continuous improvements in operational efficiency and safety remain key focus areas for us. Advanced technology solutions, such as SITA OptiClimb and SITA eWAS, enable clear enhancements in these areas, which ultimately help us to reduce our carbon footprint. We are committed to continuing on this path and will keep evolving as a future-ready, world-class airline.”

Swedan, 11th Sept 2023: Swedish electric airplane maker Heart Aerospace and Honeywell have announced a collaboration to integrate Honeywell’s next-generation flight control system into the new ES-30 regional electric airplane.Honeywell was selected by Heart Aerospace for the Joint Definition Phase of Heart’s ES-30 airplane, and the goal, once the phase has been completed successfully, is to fully integrate Honeywell’s compact Fly-by-Wire system into development for production. “We are thrilled to welcome Honeywell to the ES-30 program. With its long track record in flight controls, they are an ideal collaboration partner for Heart Aerospace as we strive to decarbonize air travel before the end of this decade,” said Anders Forslund, co-founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. Honeywell’s next-generation compact Fly-by-Wire system is in an advanced stage of development on multiple aircraft, and its functions are adaptable to the ES-30, allowing Heart to bring its airplane to market quickly and cost-effectively. “Honeywell’s flight controls provide the ideal solution for Heart’s mission to revitalize and electrify the regional transport market,” said Vipul Gupta, President, Electronic Solutions, Honeywell Aerospace. “Honeywell’s all-electric compact Fly-by-Wire is a ready-now solution based on decades of flight control experience in all aircraft types, and that reduces development time and risk for Heart.” The ES-30 is a regional electric airplane with a 30-passenger standard seating capacity and is driven by electric motors powered by batteries. It will have a fully electric zero-emissions range of 200 kilometers, an extended hybrid range of 400 kilometers with 30 passengers, and flexibility to fly up to 800 kilometers with 25 passengers, all with typical airline reserves. Heart Aerospace has 250 firm orders for the ES-30, with options and purchase rights for an additional 120 planes.

As the aviation sector grows, digitalization will enable the sector by streamlining procedures, lowering manual labor requirements, and fostering collaboration to provide a seamless experience for all stakeholders by creating and delivering custom digital applications quickly and at scale. By Sri Srinivasan, Chief Revenue Officer, Zvolv Recent developments in the aviation sector – including the proposed Air India and IndiGo investments with their fleet renewals to revamping of the airports signal a marked shift within the Indian Aviation industry, fast-tracking aviation sector growth and reiterating its criticality to keep India moving.Airlines are evolving their business operating models and focusing on driving a “better” travel experience for consumers. As airlines evolve, the airports are becoming “destinations” by themselves, rather than a channel facilitating travel. Slowly and steadily, the leading airports of the country such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are being revamped keeping the “destination” approach in mind. Airports Authority of India (AAI) is actively looking to upgrade and enhance more than 70 additional airports across tier 2 & tier 3 cities, an effort directly linked to the growing preference for air travel by Indian consumers and passengers. The Indian government expects to invest $1.83 Bn in the development of airport infrastructure by 2026. The sector will have a huge impact with an economic multiplier of 3.1 and an employment multiplier of 6x in this phase. The private airlines’ expansion is seeing an uptick in the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) investments, with leading plane builders Boeing and Airbus, and international carriers, dramatically increasing their investments in MRO set up in-country. To achieve the Indian government’s stated goal of a unified transportation policy, the aviation sector is key. Air cargo and associated logistics cost efficiencies will be fundamental to driving the government’s ambition to improve national logistics cost efficiencies from 13% to 10% of the country’s GDP. Challenges & Opportunities -“Doing More with Less” Whilst investments in the aviation industry are certainly seeing an uptick, there are still some real challenges the industry is facing for it to fulfill the promise of keeping India moving. A majority of operations within the airport, airlines, and logistics segments are still run by legacy core systems and a multitude of manual and paper-driven processes. These legacy technologies continue to increase safety risks and drive costs upwards. The Indian aviation industry as a low-margin industry continues to face pressure from all sides to reduce costs by optimizing operational efficiency. Cut-throat competition leading to an airline price war, rising fuel bills for the airlines, and the overall macroeconomic conditions add to the current uncertainty for aviation players looking to invest for growth, all of which represent significant challenges to the industry. As the e-commerce market continues to explode, managing supply chain risks is becoming a priority risk for many corporations. Logistics-focused investments are key to mitigating this risk and improving supply chain resilience. The still-developing MRO ecosystem (with airlines fleet refreshing underway) creates a challenging narrative for an industry segment having the ambition to make a difference to a few hundred million citizens. In addition, sustainability is a continued concern for the industry, with growing recognition that transformation is required to achieve the stated emission reduction goals of tomorrow. The aviation sector has a key role to play here and the industry titans whilst acknowledging this challenge, do not necessarily have an easy way to finding a path that balances environmental concerns, vis-a-vis short-term commercial needs. How citizens look at sustainability will also determine the pressure on the industry to transform on this key topic. However, the good news is there is a tremendous opportunity for aviation players to invest in digital technologies to modernise and operationalise their legacy processes within and around the airports and their ecosystems. From leveraging Generative AI for improved customer service and delivering enhanced forecasting capabilities to managing passenger and cargo demand accurately, to metaverse technologies (incl VR/AR) getting deployed within airports to transform the customer experience e.g. virtual check-ins, to driving airport development leveraging digital twins capability, technology has been playing a key role in transforming this sector globally. The Indian aviation sector has an opportunity to leapfrog with such technology-led advancements.The recent example of the DigiYatra project, with almost a million+ downloads of the DigiYatra app in less than a few months, provides a glimpse of what the future holds. The DigiYatra initiative has the potential to extend passenger experience beyond the physical precincts of an airport – think seamless passenger check-ins at airport hotels beyond the airport with the DigiYatra ID. The use case of leveraging this digital infrastructure is still in its nascency and is only expected to greatly enhance as the ecosystem develops around this program. Likewise, we are seeing increasing adoption of modern low code technology platforms by leading airlines and airports across the country – from digitising taxi booking process outside the airports to airport retailing and commerce, safety inspection checklists and fuel price management, to contract and supplier management process automation, low code platforms are fast-tracking the airports and airlines efforts to find the efficiencies without compromising on experience. This is only a good sign for an industry looking to find ways to “Do more with less” and scrap to find more avenues for higher margin realisation. Conclusion An aspirational population willing to spend on air travel, and demanding consumers used to sophisticated mobile technologies and implicitly expecting higher levels of personalisation, will drive the aviation industry forward. The government of India’s transformation program around enabling better services for its citizens, and focusing on improving underlying supply chain resilience with targeted investments in logistics and MRO, with an overarching travel and transportation framework augurs well. Smart technology, automation, and digitalisation are key for the aviation industry to thread the needle between safety, profitability, and sustainability. The aviation players understand this and are starting to take the right steps to make the aviation sector key to keeping India moving. The writer is the Board Director and Chief Revenue Officer for Zvolv. He is

Paris Air Show, 20.06.2023: Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business, announces the launch of Percept – an advanced AI-based Aircraft Engine Analysis Tool. Percept is a computer vision product that operates on top of the Awiros Video Intelligence Operating System (OS). Its cloud-based interface allows users to capture images and videos of aircraft engines on their mobile devices and receive real-time responses on parts availability. This helps enable faster and cost-efficient turnaround of leased engine assets. Instead of an inspector having to examine an engine and check part-by-part, Percept automates this inspection, and reduces time taken by nearly 90%. “The Percept tool helps reduce time and effort involved in the pre-and-post lease analysis of aircraft engines,” said O Sung Kwon, vice president, Customer Support, Pratt & Whitney. “We have been working with Awiros, an Indian Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up for the past few years to mature this technology; we are excited to be shifting from technology development to now bringing an operational product to the market.” “Building the Percept tool in collaboration with RTX has been one of the most exciting opportunities in the journey of Awiros as a startup. We are proud that Percept’s high-fidelity scanning of Pratt & Whitney engines with handheld mobiles phones, without any specialized hardware, is being commercially deployed in the aerospace industry.” said Vikram Gupta, founder and CEO, Awiros. Awiros was selected as the winner of the RTX Innovation Challenge. The Innovation Challenge was launched in September 2019 with over 60 Indian and global startups in Computer Vision, AI, and Machine learning (ML) domains. The teams proposed solutions to optimize and automate aircraft engine inspections with reduced human interventions. Awiros’ idea was evaluated through 2020-21 and is expected to be launched commercially later this year. “As the fastest growing aviation industry and world’s emerging start-up capital, India has become a hotbed for agile aerospace innovation,” said Ashmita Sethi, president & country head, India, Pratt & Whitney (UTCIPL). “Percept is the result of some of India’s best and brightest minds collaborating with Pratt & Whitney to innovate a solution that delivers significant efficiencies and value to our customers.” The Percept solution will be deployed exclusively on Pratt & Whitney’s most advanced commercial engines, including the Pratt & Whitney GTFTM engine and the V2500.

Delhi, 12th April 2023: Akasa Air has partnered with Blue Ribbon Bags (BRB) to provide delayed luggage protection services to its customers. This add-on service will be available at a reasonable fee of INR 95 per passenger with provision to offer a compensation of INR 19,000 per bag (up to 2 bags) in case the check-in bag is delayed or lost beyond 96 hours, following the submission of complaint. The service will also provide Akasa Air customer with real-time status updates via email and SMS regarding the status of the delayed bag and assist them in tracking and expediting the return of delayed luggage. he fee will be refunded/adjusted in case the booking is cancelled or rescheduled by the customer or the airline. Senior Vice President & Partner of Blue Ribbon Bags,Siraj Shah, stated “It is essential for airlines to ensure a holistic travel experience to their customers, and luggage protection is an integral aspect of it. We are glad to partner with Akasa Air to extend the service to their customers, promising them a hassle-free journey with the airline.” Commenting on the partnership, Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Akasa Air, said, “We recognise that baggage delivery is not just a top-of-mind factor for travellers but is also an extremely important service area for us at Akasa. We are delighted to partner with Blue Ribbon Bags to help our customers travel with greater confidence and peace of mind. The baggage protection service is yet another conscious addition to our growing portfolio of add-on services and is in line with our promise to be the country’s most dependable airline.” Akasa Air now flies to 17 cities operating over 900 weekly flights across India.