With the gradual return of air travel demands to the Western world, profitable possibilities are slowly opening up for commercial airlines. However, this also means the various government subsidies and assistance programs will soon come to an end. Many North American airlines will be held accountable to fulfill their obligation to pay back in part billions of dollars owed to the government and other creditors.
For that reason, there is a revenue-driven urgency for all airlines to meet and capitalize on those returning demands. In fact, the likelihood of an airline‘s long-term survival is essentially tied to its ability to speedily get planes packed with passengers again.
However, due to the unpredictability of the pandemic, returning to a pre-crisis state of operation has not been seamless for the aviation industry. There are major challenges all airlines must face when trying to restore the revenue streams needed to become profitable.
One of these persisting challenges can be attributed to perhaps the worst aviation supply chain disruptions in modern history. Bullish speculation about air travel has already caused demands for airworthy parts to spiral out of control down the supply chain. Unfortunately, with the current massive downscaling of many major OEMs, outputs for crucial parts are predicted to remain tight for a long time to come.
While suffering the difficulties of obtaining replacement parts and addressing logistics issues, running into unplanned AOG scenarios will be significantly more problematic since it will take longer for each grounded airplane to return to the air. The expenses of prolonged AOG situations and the costly procurement of scarce parts, when coupled with rising fuel prices (currently more than 2x the price of the same time last year) can make it incredibly burdensome for airlines to keep their retail prices competitive and revenue streams intact.
Second, airlines have been forced to operate under a severe lack of human resources, notably pilots and technicians due to large structural downsizing. This problem is, in fact, more prevalent with airlines that insource their MRO activities. According to Reuters, around 50,000 airline staff have already chosen early retirement and voluntary separation (2021). To tackle this labor shortage, many aviation companies must undergo a fast operational re-expansion. This will involve the aggressive hiring of new workers to help accomplish rescaling human resources. However, since new hires will be mostly unfamiliar with various written and unwritten knowledge and processes, training must be implemented.
Another noteworthy issue can be attributed to severe skill degradation among commercial fleet operators due to flight inactivity. Even back in 2020 when the pandemic just started, there were already reports from International Air Transport Association (IATA) stating the rapid increases in “Unstable Approach Events” – where aircraft landing attempts failed to meet standardized guidelines on speed, direction or descent rate.
In order to prevent operations from being slowed down or jeopardized due to knowledge-related issues, airlines may need a digitally enhanced way to help new and existing staff absorb information, keeping everyone performing well as part of a prudent change management plan.
Enhanced information exchange – a way to provide relief to current challenges
Information movement is a major factor governing the aviation ecosystem. With each minute action, a large volume of data is transferred and captured. It underlines why to catch up with the demands, organizations must find ways to keep digital information moving fast, accurately and efficiently. This of course includes the internal and external exchange of information – particularly the digital forms of technical manuals and publications.
For example, in the NIVOMAX IETM/IETP Viewer, as well as its ability to offer a highly dynamic view of technical content on any device, this modern Viewer is also equipped with various features and extensions to assist airlines and their suppliers when collaborating on the technical content being digitally exchanged. These highly specialized tools may help airlines fare much better during the aviation supply chain disruptions and labor shortages that are predicted to last for years to come.
Deepening relationships and better communication with MROs and OEMs should be one of the core strategies in getting fleets serviced quickly and efficiently. In the NIVOMAX Viewer, the Feedback System extension is a valuable tool for helping airlines communicate with OEMs and MROs, particularly enhancing the team’s visibility of problematic issues with direct OEM supplied content and MRO technical assistance. Schedules can be set in order to review improvement results of first attempts at new maintenance procedures using OEM obtained content and track the current status of the newly implemented process.
To realize these solutions, AOG issues can be mitigated via the Work Management and Feedback System extensions of the NIVOMAX Viewer. With both MROs and OEMs simultaneously involved, the production, procurement and replacement of airworthy parts (typical to fleet owned by the airlines) will also become more streamlined.
All of the above features give airlines and fleet owners the ability to communicate requirements fast, and additionally, have their needs quickly understood and accurately addressed by OEMs. With direct and reliable data gathered, OEMs may instruct airlines and their maintenance department regarding which tasks and procedures to focus on and improve, and which to eliminate. This significantly cuts down the required time and money for airlines to get their fleet back to the air.
Another communicative feature of the NIVOMAX Viewer is Shareable Annotations. Addressing the labor shortage and the need for faster training, company seniors may use Shareable Annotations as a short-term solution to transfer their unwritten, “tribal knowledge” to new hires. Annotating over a digital manual or publication can be done as an impromptu measure when critical information cannot be documented in time when an airline is aggressively hiring new workers. The shareable annotations then can be incorporated and transformed into vetted standardized protocols and procedures.
The steep learning curve of software implemented is also a hugely overlooked factor that can evolve into a major obstacle when airline organizations replace staff and workers. To avoid costly and long-lasting training cycles, airlines must first eliminate slow, sluggish legacy IETM/IETP software, and adopt modern and easy-to-use ones.
For example, with a UI/UX resembling modern applications, the NIVOMAX Viewer is also designed for intuitive navigation. With optimized features to help users interact with content and complete their tasks faster, this user-centric Viewer can easily assist with onboarding new users and change management. With the installation on a tablet device, the Viewer can also be extended into a portable Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system. Pilots may carry EFBs powered by NIVOMAX anywhere to receive highly visual assistance when operating a mixed fleet.
As the aviation industry as a whole is struggling to return to normalcy under diminishing state support, the impact of post-COVID trauma on travel, the supply chain, and the workplace, simply cannot be omitted. Facing more looming issues such as uncertain new hiring levels, sustainability commitment (that has been almost universally agreed on by the aviation vertical as a whole), and layers of complexity with SAF (sustainable air-fuel), the airline sector will have to approach a reality still in the grip of some rather large unknowns. Nevertheless, preparedness and the ability to turn quickly to meet both new and known challenges are all factors that can be addressed. The implementation of “foundation solutions” – such as technical publications software can provide the tremendous support needed to help airlines communicate their needs and problems internally and externally, especially when collaborating on the technical contents that are pivotal to the management and operations of their fleet.
About SYNAXIOM
SYNAXIOM is a leading expert in IETM/IETP technologies with over 15 years of experience developing enterprise-grade tools for managing, distributing, and viewing technical/operational manuals and publications. A key IT supplier in aviation with global partners including one of the world’s top three aircraft manufacturers.
About NIVOMAX Suite
NIVOMAX is a suite of applications for the management and delivery of IETM/IETP compliant with next-generation S1000D and Legacy standards (ATA). Built upon over a decade worth of knowledge and experience implementing aviation data technologies, NIVOMAX promises to empower the process of exchanging digital technical manuals and publications for your organizations.