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Thales acquires Guavus, one of the pioneers of real-time big data analytics

• Guavus is a pioneer in real-time big data processing and analytics
• Acquisition amount: up to US$215 million
• Thales uniquely strengthens its high-tech portfolio to support its customers in their digital transformation

Paris La Défense, 28 April 2017 – Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) announces today the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the US company Guavus, a pioneer in real-time Big Data analytics.

The acquisition of Guavus follows several acquisitions in the fields of connectivity, mobility and cyber security, and strengthens Thales’s positioning in one of the key technologies at the heart of digital transformation, the processing and predictive analysis of “big data”, an increasingly critical factor in realtime decision-making.

Patrice Caine, Thales’s Chairman and CEO, commented: “Combined with our established expertise in other key digital technologies, the acquisition of Guavus represents a tremendous accelerator of our digital strategy for the benefit of our customers. The application to Thales’s core businesses of Guavus’s technologies and expertise in big data analytics will strengthen our ability to support the digital transformation of our customers, whether in aeronautics, space, rail signaling, defense or security.” Anukool Lakhina, founder and CEO of Guavus, added: “The opportunity to join Thales, a global high-tech giant, comes at a time when big data and their industrialised processing, especially in real time, play a key role in the digital transformation of governments, businesses and cities. All of Guavus’s teams are enthusiastic about bringing more intelligent decision-making capabilities, at key moments, to Thales customers, while continuing to enrich our offering for our worldwide customers and partners.”

Airlines, satellite, air traffic control, metro or train operators, armed forces or security officials of large urban or energy infrastructures rely on Thales’s high technology solutions to take the best decisions in real time. In a world facing exponential growth in the volume of data coming from increasingly connected sensors, Guavus’s acquisition opens broad opportunities for Thales in areas including predictive maintenance, cyber security, monitoring of critical infrastructures, network and telecommunication systems optimization.

Guavus, a leader in real-time big data processing and analytics, is perfectly suited to the growing needs of an increasingly connected global ecosystem. The company has built a recognised industrial “big data” platform particularly suited to real-time analytics, designed to be easily implemented across any number of new markets. In addition, by bringing the expertise of its 160 strong R&D engineering workforce, Guavus will significantly enrich Thales’s expertise in this field.

Founded in 2006, Guavus has focused on the telecommunication and cable network operators’ market, and analyses more than 5 petabytes (5,000 terabytes) of data for its customers every single day. This represents the equivalent of analysing around 3 million feature films every day or 500 times the entire print collections of the US Library of Congress. The company supports more than 20 major operators around the world, including the 5 largest North-American mobile operators (AT&T, Rogers, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon), 4 out of the top 5 Internet backbone carriers, and 7 out of the top 8 cable operators.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, in Silicon Valley, the company employs 250 people, of which 50 are based in Montreal (Canada) and 140 in Gurgaon (India).

The Company’s revenues are expected to exceed US$30 million for the current fiscal year. The impact of this acquisition on Thales’s 2017 EBIT should be non-material.

This transaction is for a maximum enterprise value of US$215 million, subject to the achievement of significant sales growth targets. It is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2017.

VIM Airlines boosts revenues with IT from Lufthansa Systems

Apr 27, 2017 – Russian carrier adds two more modules to its revenue management solution

VIM Airlines has expanded its segment-based revenue management by adding two more modules. The Russian carrier has been using the ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt revenue management solution from Lufthansa Systems successfully since 2011. Recently, the airline has complemented the two modules Price-Based Forecasting and Multi-Segment Optimization. The two companies signed a six-year agreement to this effect.

Expanding the revenue management solution will enable VIM Airlines to control capacity utilization of its flights even more efficiently, respond more quickly to market changes and thus increase its revenues. “Rembrandt is a truly universal tool that is suitable both for small and large numbers of flights. It is very convenient to use and enables us to flexibly realize our sales strategy. Thanks to the hybrid approach offered in the Price-Based Forecasting module, the built-in mathematical mechanism can be used very flexibly,” said Anna Ambrosova, Vice President at VIM Airlines. “ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt with its new modules fulfills all of our requirements; the contract extension speaks for itself here.”

Lufthansa Systems’ leading segment-based revenue management solution ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt supports demanding airlines in a tough market. The solution is suitable for any business model, including traditional management, the undifferentiated management used by low-cost carriers, and various hybrid approaches. Thanks to the new Price-Based Forecasting module, airlines can use both product-sensitive and price-sensitive forecasts and optimizations. This allows them to respond directly to market developments and price changes among competitors. The system monitors the entire network and tracks critical booking patterns in order to optimize the use of an airline’s fleet.

VIM Airlines can now offer tickets at prices based on what customers are willing to pay. This leads to greater efficiency and higher revenues. The system is also quick to implement, and it features an intuitive user interface and flexible reporting options. This makes the product ideal for any airline wanting to optimize its revenue management with minimal investment costs.

“Our revenue management solution was developed specifically to meet the needs of smaller and medium-sized airlines offering point-to-point connections. This makes it the perfect solution for our strategically important customer VIM Airlines,” said Marco Cesa, Senior Vice President Regional Management EMEA at Lufthansa Systems. “We firmly believe that the new modules will add to the existing features in supporting VIM Airlines in boosting its revenues.”

VIM Airlines is based in Moscow, Russia, operating international scheduled and charter, passenger and cargo flights out of Moscow Domodedovo Airport and ranks 10th position in the Russian market by the number of passengers carried. With its fleet of 22 aircraft, VIM Airlines serves several domestic and international destinations in Asia and Europe. The airline is using Lido/FMS, Lido/Performance and Lido/RouteManual from Lufthansa Systems.

West Wind Aviation Selects RocketRoute

We are delighted to welcome West Wind Aviation, a unique airline which has chosen RocketRoute to be their flight planning provider.

West Wind Aviation operate charter and private flights, serving passengers, cargo deliveries and all corporate and leisure needs throughout the vastness of the Saskatchewan and Nunavut Territories. Renowned in Canada, it is a diverse company with a fleet of 31 aircraft featuring nine different types, including five ATR 42-300s.

“When we began the search for a new flight planning system, we wanted a program that offered advanced aircraft modelling for various flight profiles and aircraft configurations, central access to flight plans and data for ease of system maintenance and dispatch handovers, and the ability to integrate with our flight scheduling system,” said Owen Scott, Chief Flight Dispatcher at West Wind. ”RocketRoute was very helpful and engaged when we began reaching out and walked with us through the process of testing and development of specific criteria to suit our operational needs and our operating environment. We are very excited to be working with RocketRoute as we forge ahead in developing our dispatch system.”

West Wind is also an employee-owned, First Nations company. An unusual structure that is deemed vital to the impressive and on-going expansion of the 34-year-old airline. Apart from its ever-growing fleet, West Wind provides airport terminal services for international flights from three airports. The company also provides a 24×7 air ambulance service for all of North America.

RocketRoute sales manager, Christina Tsegenko commented, “We are delighted to work with West Wind Aviation and feel particularly honoured to take care of their mixed fleet of aircraft. We are expanding globally and working with West Wind Aviation in Canada proves that RocketRoute is the modern way to manage the flight planning needs of an airline.”

Royal Jordanian Airlines flies into digital space with NAVBLUE’s N-Flight Planning

Royal Jordanian Airlines and NAVBLUE have expanded their technology partnership with the selection of NAVBLUE’s N-Flight Planning Solution. The addition of N-Flight Planning builds on NAVBLUE’s track record of supporting Royal Jordanian Airlines since 2014 with its YourRAIM Prediction solution enabling them to implement the latest navigation capabilities such as Required Navigation Performance Approach (RNP APCH).

By moving to N-Flight Planning, Royal Jordanian Airlines is fully expecting industry leading flight planning response time, improvements with robust 4-dimensional (4D) calculations that will result in an estimated 2% fuel savings, 20% improvement to staff production, along with greater aircraft utilization. Furthermore, NAVBLUE’s market defining constraint optimization relating to flight hazard avoidance, dynamic airspace constraint adherence and automated business rule application will improve safety and regulatory compliance without sacrificing flight plan solution quality.

NAVBLUE’s N-Flight Planning solution, is a multi-tiered and fully scalable flight plan optimisation solution that helps create the safest and most cost-effective routes. It is a very intuitive and user-friendly cloud based solution. N-Flight Planning can easily be tailored to customer requirements and can be rapidly implemented.

Shawn Mechelke, VP N-Software Services at NAVBLUE stated, “We are pleased to have such a prestigious flagship airline as Royal Jordanian Airlines be the first mover for our award-winning N-Flight Planning product in the Middle East market place. Royal Jordanian Airlines continues to partner with NAVBLUE for additional services beyond our YourRAIM Prediction solution, clearly indicates their confidence in our capabilities as an industry trailblazer in aerospace solutions.”

Radi Radi, Director of Royal Jordanian Airline’s IOC shared, “We are committed to our customers and continuously look to find innovative ways to provide them with the best service, routes, aircraft whilst ensuring the safest approach and the implementation of NAVBLUE’s award winning N-Flight Planning solution will greatly help us achieve this. The innovative turbulence forecasting element of this solution demonstrates our sincere commitment to bringing both our customers and crews best-in-class safety and comfort.”

Kalitta Air takes off with AMOS April 2017

At a glance

– 660 new AMOS users

– AMOS Miami office to perform the AMOS implementation

Implementation already started in Q1 2017

Swiss-AS and its Miami based AMOS Business Unit within Lufthansa Systems are delighted to announce the signing of AMOS contracts with Kalitta Air after a long MRO software evaluation process. “It is an honour for us to implement AMOS at Kalitta Air, an established cargo airline and a significant MRO provider in the USA,” states Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO of Swiss-AS.

With Kalitta Air performing in-house base maintenance activities at a large scale, this newly acquired customer will profit from complex functions being currently added to AMOS, such as graphical hangar planning, graphical monitoring of maintenance groundtimes, production and finance control dashboards.

No major software customisations foreseen

Kalitta Air and Swiss-AS will team up to streamline the US carrier’s processes in accordance with industry’s best practice to bring a high level of efficiency to their business and strengthen their competitive edge.

The project team foresees an implementation without major software customisations – which is an excellent philosophy to ensure a swift implementation timeline. By replacing a scattered landscape of different maintenance applications by the single application AMOS, Kalitta Air can expect significant improvements in the cross-departmental communication, data quality and planning reliability.

“My team has spent many years researching and vetting out various MRO software programs and we are looking forward to integrating the AMOS system into our maintenance program and processes. This software will be key to improving our efficiency and a great benefit to Kalitta Air, Kalitta Maintenance and Kalitta Tire & Brake as we continue to advance and grow to meet the everchanging demands of aviation,” says Connie Kalitta, CEO and Owner of Kalitta Air.

ATP Announces Custom Alerting in ChronicX® Solution

New Customer-Driven Innovation Expected to Dramatically Minimize AOG Risk While Boosting Fleet Health and Equipment Utilization

ORLANDO — MRO Americas — April 25, 2017 — Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) — the aviation industry’s premier provider of information, tools, and services for manufacturers, owner/operators, and maintenance providers — today announced Custom Alerting, a new customer-driven innovation in the ChronicX® Solution that enables the automatic detection and management of chronic and critical defects with unprecedented accuracy, speed and control. Airlines and MROs deploying the ChronicX Solution with Custom Alerts are expected to dramatically minimize Aircraft on Ground (AOG) risk while boosting fleet health and equipment utilization.

The new Custom Alerts tool complements the already powerful capabilities of the ChronicX Solution by enabling users to set up customized alerts to monitor fleets on an ongoing basis for issues of specific interest and automatically generating user-defined defect reports.  This new product innovation represents a breakthrough in performance relative to competitive alternatives. Custom Alerts are generated when the powerful text-matching algorithms of ChronicX identify defect reports that match user-defined rules, which can be created quickly using built-in rule templates and pick lists drawn from the operator’s own fleet data. Rules are previewed on existing fleet records, dramatically increasing the speed and quality of rule creation, making the learning curve brief for even novice users.

The combination of Custom Alerts and ChronicX uniquely enables users to manage and monitor fleets for both known and unknown issues. ChronicX excels in identifying recurring defects while the Custom Alerts tools enables users to customize alerts to automatically monitor specific types of events, such as “smoke”, “flap jam”, and “nose wheel shimmy.” With Custom Alerts, airlines and MROs can more efficiently and effectively perform required tasks such as Service Difficulty Reporting and monitor the trends of issues across an entire fleet, among other benefits.

“We developed the Custom Alerts innovation in response to ChronicX customers who were looking for a better way to manage the time-intensive and often error-prone process of sifting through Pireps and Mareps to report on specific types of defects,” said Phil D’Eon, Senior Vice President, Strategy, for ATP. “Customers were frustrated with relying on conventional methods, and wanted a specialized tool to streamline and automate the process with greater control, precision, and speed. This new tool automatically monitors for issues of concern, and provides alerts and reports when matches are detected.”

Custom Alerting uses the same proprietary text-mining engine and powerful text normalization algorithms that ChronicX uses to intelligently “read” text and understand multiple ways of describing similar events. This text-matching ability enables airlines and MROs to overcome the persistent challenge of accurately matching valid reports that are described using different terminology, including misspelled words and incorrect ATA coding. For instance, ChronicX with Custom Alerts is able to recognize and match defects that have been described differently as “nose wheel shimmy,” “nose gear vib,” or “NWS shimmy”.

D’Eon continued: “While our Custom Alerts functionality is new, ChronicX is a mature solution with a proven track record of transforming raw data into the real-time actionable intelligence that drives key operating metrics. Taken together, ChronicX with Custom Alerts uniquely provide our customers with a powerful and efficient means for perpetually monitoring and managing recurring defects, in addition to the visibility required to optimize fleet health and shrink unscheduled downtime.”

The new Custom Alerts tool is now available at no additional cost to current subscribers of the ChronicX Solution, which is deployed by both regional airlines and major air carriers.

The ChronicX Solution, a product of CaseBank Technologies, Inc., a Division of ATP, evaluates aircraft defect histories to accurately identify all valid repeats, at both the tail number and fleet-level. This raises the efficiency with which maintenance teams recognize and address problems that are eluding repair and dragging down fleet reliability. Greatly exceeding simple text mining and ATA code matching, ChronicX uses advanced natural language processing and fuzzy logic to analyze maintenance records (MAREPS) and pilot reports (PIREPS). This process uncovers clusters of potential recurring defects and emerging failure modes that have not yet reached critical status, in order to prioritize the most critical and costly problems.

The ChronicX® Solution with Custom Alerts makes its debut at the MRO Americas Conference, which takes place April 25-27 in Orlando, FL.

AerData provides Engine Management Analytics Solution

to Emirates

Photo/Image: © Emirates

Ahmed Safa, Senior Vice President, Engineering Support Services, Emirates, and Vincent van der Gulik,

Director Strategy, Support and Services, AerData, at the signing ceremony at Emirates HQ, Dubai.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 25th April 2017 – AerData, a Boeing Company, announced today an agreement with Emirates airline for AerData’s EFPAC (Engine Fleet Planning And Costing) software. AerData’s software and services improve efficiencies and enhance competitiveness for customers, including some of the world’s largest airlines, lessors and MROs.

EFPAC helps customers optimize engine maintenance planning, engine spares availability and budgets. By combining technical and operational data with lease requirements and fleet renewal constraints, operators can make the best decision for their operations. EFPAC utilizes algorithms to predict component life and create a visualization of the most optimized plan. The optimized plans predict engine component life, shop visit requirement details and reduces costs in both maintenance and downtime. 

Customers have reported that EFPAC reduces their annual engine maintenance costs by 10-15 percent or more, saving potentially tens of millions of dollars per year for a fleet. This is because EFPAC analyzes in hours what typically takes an airline weeks to examine using other methods.  

Commenting on the announcement, Ahmed Safa, Emirates Senior Vice President, Engineering Support Services said, “We are delighted to have enhanced our partnership with AerData by adding the EFPAC software to our portfolio. EFPAC will help replace a manual planning process for Engine maintenance at Emirates Engineering with an automated system resulting in faster and better decision making. Since the implementation of STREAM in 2013, AerData has worked closely with Emirates Engineering to understand our requirements and to constantly improve their systems based on our feedback.”

Matt Bull, CEO of AerData said, “We are delighted to further extend our long-standing partnership with Emirates. EFPAC brings data analytics to Emirates finger tips reducing uncertainty, optimizing their entire engine maintenance operations, and unlocking the power of the data contained within their organization. Coupled with Emirates use of AerData’s market leading digital records management software, STREAM, this further highlights the power of the AerData team to address industry needs through innovative software and services solutions.”

Lufthansa Technik presents “AVIATAR”

25.04.2017
First innovation of newly created product division

At MRO Americas 2017 Lufthansa Technik is presenting AVIATAR, the initial product of its newly created division Digital Fleet Solutions for the first time.

AVIATAR is an innovative and holistic platform that offers an extensive variety of digital products and services for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) by combining multiple apps, web-based, and in one place.

Lufthansa Technik’s new product division Digital Fleet Solutions has been initiated on 1 April 2017. The new division drives the digital transformation within Lufthansa Technik, creating internal synergies and efficiencies. Furthermore, the unit is focused on creating additional value and benefits for and with customers by integrating as well as interconnecting new digital products and services.

By 2025, more than 38,000 aircraft are forecasted to be in operation worldwide. Ultimately, 50 times more data will be produced by new aircraft types alone. More than half of the total airline’s operating costs are directly or indirectly affected by MRO services. In aviation, especially for MRO suppliers, this means an increasing amount of data knowledge along with a growing complexity of their businesses. The available data volume does not only have to be collected, but sorted, analyzed, interpreted and integrated into meaningful MRO measures.

“Digital transformation has evolved to shape economies and industries enormously – no sector being spared. New technologies arise, turning long-term standards out-of-date: processes change fundamentally and even proven and successful business models become outdated. This development has also a significant impact on the MRO industry”, said Dr. Johannes Bussmann, Chairman of the Executive Board at Lufthansa Technik. “Lufthansa Technik takes the digital transformation of the aviation industry to the next level. We want to shape the future of aviation by being a pioneer in offering unique digital MRO solutions – not just for our clients, but with them. Close customer collaboration has always been a key element of our successful products and services. Our digital journey has just begun.”

AVIATAR will support customers to manage complex fleet conditions in real time and to forecast probabilities of failure of single components. It provides exchange of information across interfaces. It aggregates as well as consolidates information at one central place. The platform applies analytical models to provide new insights, recommendations and notifications, enabling clients to make faster and better decisions. AVIATAR rewards its users through the optimization of operating hours, reduced consequential costs and safer as well as more reliable fleet operations, serving airline passengers around the world.

“Lufthansa Technik uniquely unites profound engineering know-how, large amounts and expertise in historical MRO data and substantial analytics competence”, added Dr. Christian Langer, Head of Digital Fleet Solutions at Lufthansa Technik. “With this distinctive combination of skills and our new digital drivers, we still do what we have always been best at: creating and mastering products and services that elevate our clients’ businesses, by increasing operating hours, decreasing irregularities, and raising efficiency. With AVIATAR we are connecting our digital threads and united forces.”

The characteristics of AVIATAR are:

Open – AVIATAR lives from the conjunction of visionaries. That is why the platform is completely open for partners, clients, developers to co-create the future of aviation with Lufthansa Technik or to connect their apps to AVIATAR. The first externally integrated app is provided by Lufthansa Technik’s partner FLYdocs.

Modular – Users, such as airlines, MROs, OEMs, or lessors, can benefit from the platform’s modular approach. The platform serves as a central and connecting hub for apps that offer digital products and services for the aviation industry. But AVIATAR is not a set bundle of apps. Specified to the individual needs, clients can select from those apps and chose the ones they prefer. However, every app can also be used as a standalone product.

Neutral – AVIATAR is an independent platform that aligns to the client’s specific, technical requirements – it is an OEM-spanning platform, independent of Lufthansa Technik and any MRO service contracts.

AVIATAR starts with seven apps – all designed to fulfill the user’s first needs. “Fleet Management” and “Performance Metrics” provide basic features needed by clients to overview their fleet and key performance indicators in real-time. The combination of “Condition Analytics”, “Fault Analytics” and “Predictor Plugins” enables customers to monitor their fleet, analyze their data and predict maintenance ahead of time.

AVIATAR’s first 3rd party app, “Record Status” by FLYdocs, displays the completeness of the clients’ records and at the same time reflects how the integration of apps can work on the platform. Furthermore, the platform gains a large benefit from the constant growth of its user base. For example, the app “Reliability Benchmarking” will allow operators to benchmark their technical reliability anonymously against the world’s leading airlines.

The variety of the different apps reflects the diversity of Lufthansa Technik’s customers, as each user can individually select the combination which meets his needs best. While each single app provides value in its stand-alone version, it is the interplay of multiple apps, which creates the unique value proposition for the individual user.

At MRO Americas 2017 Lufthansa Technik will present AVIATAR and different applications at its booth (no. 4418). Experts from Lufthansa Technik’s new Digital Fleet Solutions division will be available for detailed information.

Singapore Airlines Selects ViaSat’s Document Management Software for Improved In-flight Safety and Compliance

ViaSat’s AeroDocs Software Offers Singapore Airlines a Paperless Cockpit Experience with Enhanced iPad Document Viewing

HAMBURG, Germany, April 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — (Aircraft Interiors Expo, ViaSat Stand #2B30) — ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global broadband services and technology company, today announced that Singapore Airlines has selected ViaSat’s AeroDocs document management system to distribute its digital documents in a secure, controlled manner, with advanced workflow tracking to help maintain aviation regulatory compliance.

AeroDocs is a modular, aviation-grade document management software system that gives airlines complete control over the editing, distribution and viewing of their documents. It is designed to handle a mix of fleet sizes and aircraft types, enabling it to scale with Singapore Airlines. The software’s pilot document iPad viewer delivers a best-in-class document viewing experience.

Don Buchman, Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Mobility business at ViaSat, added, “The AeroDocs system was designed around end-user needs with a focus on getting correct, updated documents to pilots. In working with the award-winning Singapore Airlines, we are tailoring the AeroDocs software system to help them maintain their operational excellence through greater compliance, collaboration and usability.”

The AeroDocs document management software system was acquired by ViaSat in November 2016, through ViaSat’s acquisition of Arconics, an innovative provider of software solutions to the aviation industry. Through this transaction, ViaSat gained key aviation-grade software and mobile applications to make flying safer and more efficient for pilots, cabin crews and flight operations teams.

Availability

AeroDocs is scheduled to go live on Singapore Airlines in the first half of 2017.

Meet ViaSat at AIX

ViaSat will have AeroDocs, as well as its other connected software solutions, on display at the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany, April 4-6, 2017. Come to Stand #2B30 for a demo, or to find out more about ViaSat’s complete connected aircraft portfolio.

CROSSMOS® eTLB live on Edelweiss

Since April 1st, 2017 the complete fleet of Edelweiss Air AG is equipped with CROSSMOS® – the 

electronic technical logbook by CrossConsense, Frankfurt. The route network of Edelweiss not only 

includes most of the European holiday destinations but also some interesting places outside of Europe like Calgary, Cape Town and Mauritius e.g.

Edelweiss Air uses the pilot client as well as the maintenance client of CROSSMOS®. The Edelweiss fleet consists of short-haul as well as long-haul Airbus AC which are now all equipped with CROSSMOS®.

Fritz Zaugg, Head of Maintenance at Edelweiss Air says: “By introducing CROSSMOS ELB in addition to the Electronic Flight Bag, the cockpit of the Edelweiss Air aircraft now became paperless. The entire log book complaint process for both, cockpit as well as cabin crews is now fully integrated. The changeover from paper to electronic books went smooth and seamless. Flight crews and maintenance personnel appreciate the easy handling.”