Rapid Innovations in Technology and Digitization Set to Transform Commercial Aviation industry

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Digital transformation in commercial aviation is having a significant impact across all areas of the supply chain and is enabling the convergence of the air transport industry. Operations, manufacturing and air traffic management will all be highly influenced by the emergence of a digitized logistics network. The passenger, pilots and crew as well as staff will also see data-driven services enhance their experiences in air travel.

Frost & Sullivan believes that shorter term objectives for commercial aviation businesses will be to develop new revenue streams and enhanced analytics platforms to better inform decision making. In the medium term, interoperability, security, virtual reality and artificial intelligence will become the prominent areas for revenue stream development.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, The Global Impact of Digital Transformation in Commercial Aviation, 2017 will focus on airline passenger management and operations; bookings through to airport arrival (landside) as well as airline flight operations, technical operations and disruption management.

The need for real time monitoring, business intelligence and the proliferation of big data analytics drives the implementation of digital projects across the aviation ecosystem. “Major airports are looking to incorporate AI into multiple operations such as personalized online transactions, ticket pricing, revenue management, and passenger flow management,” said Aravind Srimoolanathan, Senior Analyst Aerospace, Frost & Sullivan. “Additionally, the ability to accelerate passenger processing and enhance overall security is driving airports and airlines to embrace biometrics. Partnering with a supplier that can consolidate screening into a wider total addressable market (TAM) value proposition will be a key advantage.”

Five major growth opportunity areas include:

• Airport operations optimization by implementing self-service baggage drop zones
• Air traffic management optimization across communication, navigation surveillance and automation systems for example digital flight charts
• Maintenance, repair and overhaul optimization through predictive maintenance
• Enterprise applications optimization with the use of equipment and asset tracking
• Airline operations optimization with the use of fuel efficiency management systems

“As the aviation industry becomes more connected, we will see greater exchanges of data across multiple stakeholder groups. Increased data sharing will however, create more vulnerabilities and lead to continued investment in cyber solutions and data protection,” noted Srimoolanathan.

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