Third party technology providers can play a vital role in keep the aviation sector up to speed with the latest developments, the PAM MENA conference in Dubai was told this week.

Speaking on a panel about how firms can address funding challenges, Sean Simons, co-founder and chief executive Robot Toolworx, said start-ups can play a vital role.

He said tech specialists are focussed on building IT systems and are able to test things internally before deployment and operate at speed.

“You guys run an airline. You build stuff, you build engines build planes – your expertise and motivation as a company is not to build tech.

“Our entre focus is to build technology. That’s all we do. We build fast, break things, mess up internally and go and deploy for our customers.

“You guys do not have the ability to break things internally in your organisations. Be open to the idea of working with early stage companies who come from an eco-system of breaking things and making things.”

Adil Al Sheibani, director of engineering for low cost carrier, SalamAir, said: “The technology is evolving so quickly it’s difficult to keep up.”

Simons said: “Silicon Valley is not talking about  AI any more. It’s here. The new technology is quantum edge computing, robotics, how you use it for physical AI.

“They are now developing things in the technology industry we are not even hearing about in the entire aviation industry.”

Sheibani said justifying the cost of investing in new technology will come down to what the return on investment is to the finance team.

“Finance people just want to see the numbers, the bottom line. What’s it going to cost. In our role as engineering experts we need to justify and build the case and say the cheapest is not always what suits us best.”