Nadia Farha Mubin
In order to give pilots and the airline’s flight planning teams access to real-time weather data and help them better plan and mitigate the impact of weather on any intended flight path, British Airways will become the first airline in the UK to roll out two next-generation weather apps.
Teams currently rely on weather reports that are manually created and generated earlier in the day. Pilots and flight planning teams will be able to make more operationally effective decisions by better planning and adjusting flight paths based on real-time assessments of the impact of weather changes thanks to the new apps.
The first app will provide pilots of the airline with convenient access to weather information from The Weather Company, providing in-depth analysis of weather conditions along flight paths both prior to takeoff and during flight. To further enhance its capabilities, future upgrades will make use of the onboard Wi-Fi connectivity to provide real-time in-flight weather updates.
The app that will eventually work with the new technologies available to pilots to provide them with exact information on weather changes will also be accessible to the airline’s Integrated Operations Control Centre, the operational hub that keeps the airline operating smoothly.
René de Groot, the Chief Operating Officer at British Airways, said, “It’s exciting that we’ll be the first UK airline to combine the technology of both apps, which will allow us to make even better operational decisions at the moment using real-time data. These applications represent a step-change in the quality of weather information we receive, and, in the future, will enable pilots to collaborate in real-time during a flight with operational colleagues on the ground, allowing faster decision-making for a variety of issues like diversion planning and recovery.”
The technology, which is being implemented ahead of the busy summer season, has been built and set to precisely meet the requirements of British Airways’ wide route network, offering benefits across both short- and long-haul operations.
This large investment is a component of British Airways’ £7 billion transformation effort, which is still focused on expanding the airline’s use of modern technologies throughout its operations. The airline replaced its paper-based system for engineering teams earlier this year with the new Electronic Aircraft Maintenance (eLog) system, which enables instantaneous data transfer from the aircraft to engineers in a matter of seconds. This allows for the pre-ordering of any necessary parts, speeding up the resolution of issues.
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