Some members of APiJET leadership, from left: Mauricio Gonzalez de la Fuente, vice president of product and business development; CEO Rob Green; and Brian Magnuson, senior software engineer. The company’s aviation fuel-saving software incorporates NASA technology. (APiJET Photo)

APiJET, a Seattle-based aviation data analytics company, has landed a $4.5 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. The startup has developed a tool called Digital Winglets that helps passenger and cargo airlines optimize their fuel use while at flying at cruising altitudes.

The software incorporates real-time data about wind, weather, the speed and weight of a plane, air traffic and other parameters, along with a plane’s Aircraft Performance Model, which includes details on the specific characteristics of the aircraft, its engines and the degradation of these components over time.

The company’s Digital Winglets tool ingests all of this information and suggests flight plan changes — maybe moving to a different altitude, adjusting speed or shifting a route. APiJET’s product can cut fuel use by approximately 1.5% or more for passenger flights and 2.5% for cargo flights, according to tests by airlines.

Even small reductions add up financially and in terms of climate impacts. The global commercial airlines sector burns close to 100 billion gallons of jet fuel annually, according to Statista.

“Airlines need to save money. Inflation is high. There’s pressure to reduce pollution, there’s pressure to reduce carbon,” said APiJET CEO Rob Green in an interview with GeekWire. “All those things are driving a lot of interest in the [APiJET] product.”

There are efforts globally to use non-fossil fuels in planes, including increased production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and the development of electric- and hydrogen-powered aircraft. But SAF volumes are a small fraction of the fuel needed and other alternatives are in still progress.

The FAA grant will help APiJET increase the potential reach of its tool by developing Aircraft Performance Models for additional aircraft types.

The funding comes from the FAA’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition program, which received funding through the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

APiJET built Digital Winglets using flight-optimization algorithms developed and tested by NASA, which are known as Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests, or TASAR.

The Seattle company was the first licensee of the technology in 2019, and Green said his team still works with the administration.

The tool operates in remote servers in the cloud, analyzing the flight plan and suggesting potential changes. The recommendations go first to the dispatcher, who helps manage the flight plan for the airline, and then to the pilot. If the pilot likes the change, they submit a request to FAA air traffic controllers before an update is implemented.

Digital Winglets can also be implemented through a third-party application, and the recommendations can be sent directly to pilots, depending on an airline’s preference.

Green touted Digital Winglets’ easy-to-use interface and the need for minimal training for users as key selling points.

The system can be readily modified with additional data, including national airspace regulations and information on flight restrictions. Some planes, for example, don’t have features that allow for flights over water, while certain countries in the Middle East limit which nations can fly over them. Digital Winglets could also be used to optimize routes to reduce the formation of planet-warming contrails, an issue garnering increasing concern among European regulators.

“Just think about it as layers on a Google map,” said Mauricio Gonzalez de la Fuente, APiJET’s vice president of product and business development. “We can add anything.”

Other companies offering aviation sustainability software include Air Space Intelligence, Honeywell Forge, GE Digital, OpenAirlines, and PACE Aerospace Engineering and Information Technology.

APiJET was formed in 2018 following Aviation Partners’ acquisition of iJET Technologies. The merger of the Seattle companies brought together leaders and engineers from Boeing, Microsoft and other tech ventures to work on aviation sustainability.

In October 2020, the private equity firm Indigo Partners bought a majority stake of APiJET, while Aviation Partners and iJET Technologies remain minority investors, Green said.

Phoenix-based Indigo Partners also has controlling interests in low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines and Chile’s JetSmart, plus stakes in Mexico’s Volaris and Hungary’s Wizz Air, according to the publication Flight Global.

APiJET and Frontier announced in June 2023 that the airline would be the first to field test Digital Winglets, and Green said this week that additional trials are underway.

“I hope we’re going to do several more before the end of the year, and start selling the product,” Green said.

The FAA’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition program directed $36 million to Washington state companies. Other recipients include:

• The bp America Cherry Point Refinery, which will get nearly $26.8 million to produce SAF from biomass feedstock.
• Hydrogen-electric aircraft startup ZeroAvia, which operates an R&D facility in Everett, will receive $4.2 million.
• Boeing will receive nearly $2.6 million for a program related to measuring the fuel amounts inside airplane tanks.