Aerolíneas Argentinas And Austral Embrace Digital Transformation To Improve Efficiency In Cockpit And Cabin

Partners with SITAONAIR to deploy EFBs and crew tablets

AIRCRAFT INTERIORS EXPO (AIX), Hamburg – 5 April 2016 – Aerolíneas Argentinas and its sister airline Austral have begun a move to cut the administrative paperwork for its pilots and cabin crew, while improving accuracy and reliability of the data.

The EFB will remove the need for 15+ paper reports and many kilos of paperwork per flight. The airline estimates that this paperwork currently demands many hours of its pilots’, flight attendants’ and back-office staff’s time each year in completing and transcribing. This considerably adds to pilots’ heavy workloads and also reduces the availability of cabin crew during the flight.

The airlines are embracing a digital transformation of their operations and have therefore begun deploying SITAONAIR’s Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) and Crew Tablets (CrewTab), along with additional software and back office integration, across their fleet.

The airlines comprise a fleet of multiple aircraft types: A330-200, A340-300, B737-700, B737-800 (Aerolinas Argentinas) and E190 (Austral), which need to be operated consistently. The rollout began in February 2016 and is due for completion by Q3.

“These efficiency improvements are about two things: improving our passengers’ experience and attracting and retaining the best staff,” said Eduardo Ravera, Head of Norms and Documentation of Aerolíneas Argentinas. “While essential, the paperwork was adding stress for the pilots and taking our flight attendants’ time away from the passengers – I don’t know of a single person on the plane who goes into this industry for the admin.”

“SITAONAIR’s track record for delivering systems that work across the entire plane and can integrate into our legacy systems made them a natural partner in delivering these systems.”

As part of the transformation solution, SITAONAIR is also providing the two airlines with virtual Quick Access Recorder (vQAR) data capture and offload services. Through this, flight data, which is automatically generated by the aircraft, is downloaded after landing to the airlines’ IT systems via 3G, 4G or the airport’s Wi-Fi.

“This is a great example of how moving to digital platforms to better manage the data produced across the whole plane in a [mixed] fleet environment can bring significant benefits for an airline, and not just on the operational sides, but also for staff efficiency and for passenger service.” said David Lavorel, SITAONAIR’s Chief Executive Officer.