CHINA DAILY Wednesday, February 20, 2019 | 15 BUSINESS Civil aviation sector embracing digital era Digitalization improving operational efficiency, upgrading services and reshaping industry development models
By HU TAO concerns are affecting the aviation ated by it and carry out predictive [email protected] industry worldwide. Digitalization maintenance, “it’s a safer and more is seen as key to improving opera profitable operation”, Yu said. China’s civil aviation industry is tional efficiency, upgrading services, In fact, technicians can monitor accelerating its advance into the and reshaping development mod and assess the health of an airplane digital era. els, Yu said. while it is in the air by analyzing Already this year, China Southern “It is widely recognized that realtime data and selecting the Airlines has started online seat digitalization is a new value appropriate time to carry out main selection services for all domestic growth point. Alongside dramatic tenance, repairs or replacement of flights, as well as paperless eboard growth in China’s civil aviation parts. ing passes. As well as offering more sector, the authorities, domestic In November 2018, the Commer convenience for passengers, the aviation manufacturers and tech cial Aircraft Corp of China and move is also a response to environ nological giants are all eyeing dig ecommerce giant Alibaba Group mentally friendly travel initiatives. italization,” said Xu Jun, vice jointly launched the Wang Jian In the first week after the services president of AsiaPacific original Large Aircraft Workshop, an initia were offered, about 75 percent of equipment manufacturers at tive to explore the use of intelligent passengers on its domestic routes Honeywell Aerospace. manufacturing technology in pas opted to select their seats via digital In January 2018, the Civil Aviation senger aircraft. COMAC is the devel devices, said China Southern. Administration of China issued its oper of China’s C919 large passenger Based in Guangzhou, Guangdong assessment guidelines on personal airplane. province, China Southern operates electronic devices. It was seen as an The workshop is one of several the largest fleet in Asia and the impetus to reshape the cabin experi collaborations between China’s thirdlargest worldwide. In 2018, it ence with inflight internet. internet giants and commercial air recorded 139 million passenger Since then, domestic airlines have craft manufacturers to inject tech journeys. been relaxing their restrictions on Employees of China Southern Airlines help passengers use the airline’s online seat selection service. nologies like the internet, big data, China Southern eTravel, its inflight mobile device usage and PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY cloudcomputing and artificial intel mobile app, is part of the airline’s major domestic aviation manufac ligence into aviation manufacturing. digital strategy, which combines turers have been embracing the dig maintenance costs by predicting the The International Civil Aviation mobile internet functionality with ital era. health of aircraft equipment using Organization has forecast that Chi all its services, consolidating At the 2018 China Airshow, Hain big data, while passengers enjoy na will be the world’s largest civil resources for air travel and tour an Airlines announced a partner communications and entertain aviation market by mid2020. ism, and offering onestop shop ship with Honeywell that would see ment in “connected aircraft”. In 2018, China’s civil aviation ping and doortodoor services for Honeywell’s supply auxiliary power With internetbased predictive industry hit a new record with more customers. units and aftermarket support to maintenance technology, auxiliary than 10 million flights. Passenger Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon the airline’s fleet, including its GoDi power unit maintenance and mal numbers were up 10.9 percent year have also had paperless services on rect connected maintenance servi function data is downloaded from onyear to 610 million and cargo their 15 daily flights between Shang ces, a predictive technology based existing data on the aircraft. It was up 4.6 percent to 7.385 million hai and Hong Kong since Oct 29, primarily on data. allows for the prediction of immi metric tons, according to the CAAC. 2018. Passengers can enjoy easier The aviation industry has an nent hardware malfunctions or oth China’s civil aviation authorities and more flexible digital services extremely long value chain covering er potential problems with a high are pushing forward the integration including booking, paying, checkin research, development, operation degree of precision. of the civil aviation sector with new and boarding. and maintenance, each of which has The data is then relayed to main technologies such as facial recogni “The global aviation industry is at significant added value and con tenance crews in an intuitive and tion, automatic vending and lug a crucial point. It is transitioning stantly generates enormous visual manner, helping them tackle gage checkin, and intelligent from an incrementdriven market amounts of data, according to Xu. An engineer uses Honeywell’s GoDirect connected maintenance malfunctions before they occur. inquiry services. to one in which greater value and Digitalization is inevitable for air system to monitor an airplane’s safety conditions. This allows for proactive and more The CAAC is also encouraging the opportunities are being extracted craft manufacturers and systems efficient maintenance. application of artificial intelligence from the existing market. And digi vendors, Xu said. In the design Airlines are using digital technol “Digitalization opens a new hori “An aircraft makes money for the and biological feature recognition talization presents a crucial oppor phase, digital systems and methods ogies to improve operating efficien zon with regard to safety, efficiency airline only when it is flying, and technologies in its security opera tunity for China,” said Yu Zhanfu, are increasingly applied, signifi cy and safety. The results are and cost for both aircraft manufac revenue ceases as soon as it lands,” tions, and promoting inflight con partner and vicepresident for Chi cantly enhancing the efficiency of smarter and safer aircraft, better turing and civil aviation sectors,” Xu Yu said. nectivity. na at consultancy Roland Berger. design, research, development and flight experiences and lower operat said. If technicians can sense the air Rising cost pressures and safety testing while reducing costs. ing costs. For example, airlines can lower craft’s “health” by using data gener XINHUA