Airlines, OEMs and MRO providers have been urged to re-evaluate the cost of not investing in digital transformation to improve efficiencies and modernise their operations.

John Callahan, aerospace and defence chief technology officer at IFS, told MRO Middle East how applying intelligent use of data to threats and challenges can transform aviation businesses.

One IFS customer, the Panamanian flag carrier Copa Airlines, has reported that it has reduced turnaround times by 20% while increasing yields from 80% to 93%.

And yet, Callahan said, many airlines choose instead to invest in technologies that are more public and customer facing rather than supporting “unseen” operational systems.

“The biggest challenge is risk,” Callahan told Aviation Business News, “because in an environment where these systems are not customer-facing you are fighting for investment and evaluating that against risk.

“Dollars are first going to flow to customer-facing systems because it has an impact on user experience and that, it is assumed, will drive the competitive differentiation that is critical to your success.

“The challenge on the maintenance side is you have risk. You have very thin margins and I think there is a need for people to understand what the return on investment is. The status quo has perpetuated a lot of ineffective processes, but you have been able to achieve success.

“Aircraft have not fallen out of the sky, but the question is have you achieved that in the most optimal way in terms of spend. There is risk in not doing something – you see that in so much of the maintenance space.”

Callahan said as old legacy systems become ever-more cumbersome and difficult to maintain, because there is no longer anyone around who knows how, the risk of doing nothing to modernise operations quickly outweighs the risk of failure.

He said: “We have seen some of the most compelling transformation has come about once you get the adoption from the existing users. We have unlocked great advances is where you can see we have replicated familiar processes but the people who are using it can see this is going to make them more efficient.”

Callahan cites Australian airline Qantas’ move to a paperless system under which directors of maintenance no longer have to deal with compliance and technicians are able to take advantage of new digital tools that support them in doing their jobs.

IFS also works with Rolls Royce in its Blue Data Thread initiative that takes a full lifecycle approach to engine parts operation and maintenance using data from the real and virtual worlds to reduce maintenance dsruption.

Callahan said this approach does have genuine customer service impacts. “Everyone knows that feeling when you are sitting on an aircraft and a maintenance technician walks on in an orange vest, that’s the last thing you want to see.

“But what you don’t know is what technology’s behind that and what impact does that have on the chances of the plane taking off or not.”

Adoption of digital transformation is happening, but it is patchy with some airlines already going through a “second wave” of innovation. “But the fact that some of the world’s biggest mega airlines have not moved is a bit of a bell weather for the market,” said Callahan.

Players in the Middle East, and particularly the emerging “green field” Saudi Arabian aviation market, are embracing digital transformation and experimenting in areas like advanced air mobility as they look to exploit opportunities outside of the remit of traditional carriers.

IFS is also focussed on applications for artificial intelligence in aviation, with digital twins already a core component of its technology, as well as use cases for virtual and augmented reality to enable engineers to identify and fix technical issues while maintaining operations.

Callahan believes this will move the dial so that, in a time of both human and MRO capacity constraints, operators will properly evaluate the risk of not investing in digital transformation and intelligent data across the full build, operate and maintain asset lifecycle.