Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SHOGANAI (World´s first real-time solution for controlling airplane operating costs)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-04-01 do 2021-01-31
Context:
The airline industry is known as one of the most developed sectors nowadays. However, the net margin of an airline is quite low compared to other industries (barely a 6%). Therefore, it is important to develop initiatives that aim to increase the efficiency of the processes to enlarge the value of the sector.
Overpayments are one of the sources of un-efficiencies in the airline sector. The quantity of this overpayments is estimated in 2.9B€ yearly. The impact of this fact on the airlines is significant since it is directly linked to the operation of each one of their aircrafts.
Current solutions to this problem are not enough since they involve either big teams of external people checking the invoices (BPO) or not-complete data from the aircraft (companies using ACARS data for their service).
SHOGANAI is the first solution that features the use of aircraft operation data in order to provide a precise service minimize airline operating costs and optimize their operations.
The main objectives of the project are:
Objective1: From Prototype to industrialized product:
A) Optimized SaaS platform, ready to be used by subscribed clients;
B) Industrialized SHOGANAI hardware component, conveniently certified to be installed on B737 airplanes: this device will allow the company to retrieve the necessary data from the aircraft in order to provide the service;
C) Operational blockchain implementation: using Hyper Ledger Fabric, the product will feature a Blockhain platform (DLT, Distributed Ledger Technology) for telemetry registration and Direct Operating Costs Calculation.
Objective2: Pilots
A) Test the onboard data capture device and go through the certification process;
B) Test the States/Events/DOCs calculations using real data and iterate the results with airlines to fine tune the methodology
C) Test the pro-forma invoice generation and the near real-time monitoring;
Objective3: Marketing and Commercialization
A) Qualified marketing & sales team setup;
B) Participation in international events/fairs, appearance in specialized press, noticeable increase of visibility of the company and its product/brand;
C) International agreements with third party specialists in the airline industry;
The airline industry is known as one of the most developed sectors nowadays. However, the net margin of an airline is quite low compared to other industries (barely a 6%). Therefore, it is important to develop initiatives that aim to increase the efficiency of the processes to enlarge the value of the sector.
Overpayments are one of the sources of un-efficiencies in the airline sector. The quantity of this overpayments is estimated in 2.9B€ yearly. The impact of this fact on the airlines is significant since it is directly linked to the operation of each one of their aircrafts.
Current solutions to this problem are not enough since they involve either big teams of external people checking the invoices (BPO) or not-complete data from the aircraft (companies using ACARS data for their service).
SHOGANAI is the first solution that features the use of aircraft operation data in order to provide a precise service minimize airline operating costs and optimize their operations.
The main objectives of the project are:
Objective1: From Prototype to industrialized product:
A) Optimized SaaS platform, ready to be used by subscribed clients;
B) Industrialized SHOGANAI hardware component, conveniently certified to be installed on B737 airplanes: this device will allow the company to retrieve the necessary data from the aircraft in order to provide the service;
C) Operational blockchain implementation: using Hyper Ledger Fabric, the product will feature a Blockhain platform (DLT, Distributed Ledger Technology) for telemetry registration and Direct Operating Costs Calculation.
Objective2: Pilots
A) Test the onboard data capture device and go through the certification process;
B) Test the States/Events/DOCs calculations using real data and iterate the results with airlines to fine tune the methodology
C) Test the pro-forma invoice generation and the near real-time monitoring;
Objective3: Marketing and Commercialization
A) Qualified marketing & sales team setup;
B) Participation in international events/fairs, appearance in specialized press, noticeable increase of visibility of the company and its product/brand;
C) International agreements with third party specialists in the airline industry;
After 34 months from the start of the project (April 2018), all the deliverables have been completed and the milestones have been fulfilled.
While the first year of the project focused on deploying the technology that would be the base of the project and on planning and organizing the activities to bring Airsensus (former Shoganai) to reality, the second year and the extended period have demonstrated the capacity of the product as it was conceived. The first commercial solution was installed on a commercial aircraft and the certification process was checked. Checks using real flying data were not possible to be performed since the aircraft was grounded because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking a proactive approach, Airplane Solutions, alongside the pilot 2 and pilot 3 customers, agreed on continuing with the development using simulated data as the source to test and check the developments. This simulated data have played a critical role in the finalization of the activities since it allowed the project to adapt to the new situation and create a great part of the value that was targeted at the beginning.
In the following lines, a description of the lines of work is included.
1. Project Management: We use a value-based, iterative approach under which business needs and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing, cross-functional teams. This well-known methodology is called Agile/SCRUM and aims to achieve in each iteration a consumable solution.
2. Main developments in the architecture of Airsensus:
- Inclusion of micro-services for processing the telemetry and detect the operational events that are sent to the Blockchain platform.
- Development of proprietary databases for Airport Charges calculations and Navigation Charges Calculation.
- Improvements into the Frontend.
- Inclusion of microservices to support the data coming from the simulation software.
3. Main developments linked to the Blockchain platform have been:
- Airsensus was updated to version 1.4.4 of Hyperledger. This was the most stable version so far, so it was decided to update the infrastructure despite the deviation in time.
- Architecture improvements: Improve of nodes, ordering service, and inclusion of private channels for organizations such as airlines and suppliers that exchange services and don’t want other airlines and/or suppliers to have access to (privacy improvements).
4. Regarding Certification (EASA):
- B737-400 certification (HAT) – March 2019.
- B737-800 certification (LAV) – December 2019 (pending tests for the final approval of the modification on the first aircraft. Approximately 90% completed.)
5. Regarding the No-Hardware version (piloted for Airbus):
- Inclusion of modifications in the architecture to support the data ingestion from a data lake
6. Regarding the aircraft models included in Airsensus:
- Boeing 737 family;
- Airbus A320 family:
7. In the commercialization landscape:
- First commercial contract for the deployment of the Shoganai solution into 7 B737-800 aircraft of Albastar (LAV), a charter company that is working with us in the development of pilot #2.
- In October 2019 the product Shoganai was selected as part of the Airbus acceleration program called “The Bizlab”.
8. Dissemination activities:
- New website (February 2020);
- New corporate image and decks;
- Partnership with big companies that support the start-up environment (accelerators);
- Assistance to events and fairs.
While the first year of the project focused on deploying the technology that would be the base of the project and on planning and organizing the activities to bring Airsensus (former Shoganai) to reality, the second year and the extended period have demonstrated the capacity of the product as it was conceived. The first commercial solution was installed on a commercial aircraft and the certification process was checked. Checks using real flying data were not possible to be performed since the aircraft was grounded because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking a proactive approach, Airplane Solutions, alongside the pilot 2 and pilot 3 customers, agreed on continuing with the development using simulated data as the source to test and check the developments. This simulated data have played a critical role in the finalization of the activities since it allowed the project to adapt to the new situation and create a great part of the value that was targeted at the beginning.
In the following lines, a description of the lines of work is included.
1. Project Management: We use a value-based, iterative approach under which business needs and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing, cross-functional teams. This well-known methodology is called Agile/SCRUM and aims to achieve in each iteration a consumable solution.
2. Main developments in the architecture of Airsensus:
- Inclusion of micro-services for processing the telemetry and detect the operational events that are sent to the Blockchain platform.
- Development of proprietary databases for Airport Charges calculations and Navigation Charges Calculation.
- Improvements into the Frontend.
- Inclusion of microservices to support the data coming from the simulation software.
3. Main developments linked to the Blockchain platform have been:
- Airsensus was updated to version 1.4.4 of Hyperledger. This was the most stable version so far, so it was decided to update the infrastructure despite the deviation in time.
- Architecture improvements: Improve of nodes, ordering service, and inclusion of private channels for organizations such as airlines and suppliers that exchange services and don’t want other airlines and/or suppliers to have access to (privacy improvements).
4. Regarding Certification (EASA):
- B737-400 certification (HAT) – March 2019.
- B737-800 certification (LAV) – December 2019 (pending tests for the final approval of the modification on the first aircraft. Approximately 90% completed.)
5. Regarding the No-Hardware version (piloted for Airbus):
- Inclusion of modifications in the architecture to support the data ingestion from a data lake
6. Regarding the aircraft models included in Airsensus:
- Boeing 737 family;
- Airbus A320 family:
7. In the commercialization landscape:
- First commercial contract for the deployment of the Shoganai solution into 7 B737-800 aircraft of Albastar (LAV), a charter company that is working with us in the development of pilot #2.
- In October 2019 the product Shoganai was selected as part of the Airbus acceleration program called “The Bizlab”.
8. Dissemination activities:
- New website (February 2020);
- New corporate image and decks;
- Partnership with big companies that support the start-up environment (accelerators);
- Assistance to events and fairs.
The main goal of Airsensus is to provide a SaaS platform leveraging operating data of an airline company in order to minimize their direct operating costs and optimize their operations.
We firmly believe that our product will be a perfect blockchain use case destined to disrupt the airline financials.
Instead of current manual, tedious and time-consuming processes (and for hence prone to human errors), Airensus propose to automate the conciliation process, evolving to include suppliers and airports in the process, that leads to cancelling claims and automating settlement. Intermediaries and 3er parties will be no longer required, such as BPOs, or Clearing Houses, etc.
The optimization of the operations will lead also to a reduction into the CO2 emissions, making a small contribution for the transition to a more sustainable air transport industry.
The innovation potential of Airensus will also improve the collaboration between different actors of the aviation value chain, including airlines, airports and other ground handling and fuel suppliers. In fact, Airplane Solutions reached commercial agreements with several airlines to further develop and deploy components and initiatives extracted from the Airsensus project. This shows the incredible potential of the solution.
We firmly believe that our product will be a perfect blockchain use case destined to disrupt the airline financials.
Instead of current manual, tedious and time-consuming processes (and for hence prone to human errors), Airensus propose to automate the conciliation process, evolving to include suppliers and airports in the process, that leads to cancelling claims and automating settlement. Intermediaries and 3er parties will be no longer required, such as BPOs, or Clearing Houses, etc.
The optimization of the operations will lead also to a reduction into the CO2 emissions, making a small contribution for the transition to a more sustainable air transport industry.
The innovation potential of Airensus will also improve the collaboration between different actors of the aviation value chain, including airlines, airports and other ground handling and fuel suppliers. In fact, Airplane Solutions reached commercial agreements with several airlines to further develop and deploy components and initiatives extracted from the Airsensus project. This shows the incredible potential of the solution.