Air transport | SITA, an “A to Z” solution to optimize flights

Weakened by the pandemic, air carriers are trying to reduce their costs. At the same time, the pressure is growing for them to untie the purse strings to improve their environmental footprint. There is a solution to reconcile these two objectives, and it was partly developed in Montreal.

Julien arsenault
Press

It has some 4,500 employees worldwide, including around 350 in the Quebec metropolis, but SITA, which is based in Geneva, is going under the radar. Yet it is everywhere in the airline industry. The company has also just offered a new way to share proof of travelers’ vaccinations more quickly.

As of this year, the Swiss giant has also been able to offer an “A to Z” solution to airlines to reduce their fuel consumption – one of their main expenses – and by the same token, their greenhouse gas emissions. (GES).

How to get there ? By compiling a multitude of data making it possible to determine what is the optimal speed during take-off, the altitude to be reached during the cruising phase as well as the moment when the landing phase must be initiated. The company also analyzes wind speed, meteorological data and atmospheric pressure to improve journeys.

“If you take the fleet of an airline of about 40 planes, just in optimization with take-off, you completely cancel the CO emissions.₂ of an aircraft on the fleet ”, explains Sébastien Fabre, Managing Director of SITA for Aircraft, the sector of the company which offers services to airlines, passing through the metropolis for the first time since the start of the health crisis .

For medium-haul aircraft (such as the Airbus A321s and the Boeing 737 family), annual fuel savings can reach “around” $ 1 million, according to Fabre.

Quick wins

Globally, the aviation industry is responsible for around 3% of GHG emissions.

If the industry is to achieve “net zero emissions” by 2050, as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has stated, it will need “alternative fuels” and new generations of engines and airplanes, which account for nearly 80% of the effort, according to the CEO of SITA for Aircraft.

Montreal hosts, along with Singapore, one of the two surveillance centers in which we remotely manage airports all over the planet. It is also in the Montreal facilities, which play a “key role”, that SITA has partly developed its flight optimization solutions. It took five years to deliver a complete solution.

According to Fabre, 25 airlines, including Transavia, which is part of the Air France / KLM group, and the Norwegian low-cost carrier Flyr AS, have opted for SITA’s solution. It is also offered in the Bombardier Challenger 3500 business jet presented last September.

“There are about two to three times as many airlines in the test phase,” said Fabre, adding that there were potential customers with North American carriers.

SITA is now looking at optimizing the consumption of planes during “ground movements”, according to its senior manager.

“They represent 5% of fuel consumption,” says Fabre. What we’re trying to do is prevent a plane from stopping and then restarting before take off. ”

Lots of data

Purchase of plane tickets, online check-in, terminals at the boarding gates: without knowing it, travelers are supported by many of the IT solutions of this Swiss giant.

The company has access to a mountain of data coming from the planes themselves, baggage management systems and passenger travel at airports, among others.

It has just offered governments around the world the possibility of connecting to its platform to facilitate the verification of medical and health data – such as proof of vaccination – of travelers.

Like airlines and airports, SITA was not spared by the health crisis. She saw her income drop by 30% at the height of the pandemic. Even if the company was not able to retain all of its employees, it was nevertheless able to continue to develop new solutions, said Mr. Fabre.

Founded in 1949 by airlines, SITA has some 400 members.