SEATTLE, May 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alaska Airlines and
Airspace Intelligence announced today the signing of a multi-year
contract for the use of Flyways AI™, an industry-changing platform
that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to
assist dispatchers in making flight operations more efficient and
sustainable by optimizing routes and improving the predictability
and flow of airline traffic. Alaska is the first airline worldwide to adopt
the technology.
The use of an AI-powered flight monitoring and routing platform
that aids in critical decisions is a first in the U.S. air
transportation industry. It allows the airline and its employees to
plan the most efficient routes by giving dispatchers new tools to
make informed decisions quickly. Using machine-learning models of
the National Airspace System, Flyways predicts future scenarios and
manages exceptions network-wide by processing millions of data
inputs quickly and with even greater precision.
"Flyways AI has transformed how Alaska Airlines approaches route
planning and optimization, enabling our highly skilled dispatchers
to work even smarter to deliver the safest and most efficient
routes to our pilots, saving time and carbon emissions, mitigating
congestion and creating a better experience for our guests," said
Diana Birkett Rakow, vice president
of public affairs and sustainability for Alaska Airlines. "Airspace
Intelligence is a true partner in implementing Flyways to
deliver results in Alaska's
operating environment for innovation, safety and
sustainability."
"We are so grateful that Alaska
is the first airline customer to deploy the Flyways AI platform,"
said Phillip Buckendorf, CEO of
Airspace Intelligence. "Alaska's
commitment to innovation and partnership these past two years made
the organization a perfect fit as a foundational airline and launch
partner."
The commitment to a continued partnership comes after an initial
six-month trial program, during which Alaska's dispatchers used the new AI-powered
flight prediction information to help them plan, monitor, and make
recommendations for rerouting flights to avoid issues like
congested airspace and bad weather. Flyways found an opportunity to
reduce miles and fuel use for 64% of mainline flights, of which
dispatchers evaluated and accepted 32% of the Flyways
recommendations.
"Artificial intelligence and machine learning are among the top
drivers of technology today and, for the first time, have been
applied to the airline flight planning environment," said Pasha
Saleh, flight operations strategy and innovation director for
Alaska Airlines. "Alaska's use of
Flyways in just six months, even with significantly depressed
flying due to COVID-19, enabled us to save 480,000 gallons of fuel
and avoid 4,600 tons of carbon emissions."
The challenge of flight route
planning
Safely planning the most efficient
route for each flight is an operation performed by dispatchers, who
work in the airline's Network Operations Center. Dispatchers work
with pilots to ensure the safe routing and operation of a flight.
When planning a route from origin to destination, dispatchers
consider the current and predicted weather, reported air
turbulence, aircraft performance, safety policies,
air-traffic-control compliance and traffic volume. It is an
incredibly complex workflow.
Existing airline computer systems don't have the ability to
compile all of the various information and evolving conditions into
one cohesive source or map. Those systems do not take other flight
traffic into account, give limited insights into future conditions,
and are without predictive capabilities.
About the Flyways AI Platform
Flyways AI is a 4D
mapping, predictive and recommendation platform for commercial air
operations that relies on machine learning and artificial
intelligence.
The system autonomously evaluates the operational safety, ATC
compliance, and efficiency of an airline's planned and active
flights. When it finds a better route around turbulence or a more
efficient route, it provides actionable recommendations to flight
dispatchers. The dispatcher then decides whether to accept and
implement the recommended solution. Dispatchers always make the
final call, in accordance with existing FAA protocols.
The system looks at all scheduled and active flights across the
U.S., scanning air traffic systemically rather than focusing on
single flights. It treats air traffic more like the way mapping
applications look at ground traffic — as a dynamic and constantly
changing ecosystem of moving objects.
By applying machine learning, Airspace Intelligence created
prediction models of the U.S. air space that allow the platform to
predict how weather, traffic and other constraints impact flights.
This kind of predictive modeling allows Flyways to provide its
airlines partners with the ability to "look into the future,"
as far as eight-plus hours ahead. The system helps the operational
decision-makers streamline traffic flow, thereby reducing fuel burn
and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. This supports Alaska's path to reducing carbon emissions and
reduces fuel cost.
In addition, Flyways offers the user a powerful, streamlined
experience, presented as a dynamic and coherent 4D map that is easy
to understand.
"Our mission is to help our customers improve the predictability
of their highly complex and dynamically changing flight operations
in the United States National
Airspace System (NAS)," said Buckendorf. "We do this by applying
the latest advances in artificial intelligence. Our AI platform
gives enhanced levels of predictive situational awareness, to
augment the quality, speed and precision of human
decision-makers."
Flying with Purpose
Flyways is part of Alaska
Airlines' investment in efficient and innovated technologies to
reduce its climate impact and meet the airline's goal of net zero
carbon emissions by 2040. A foundational step in this journey is
using technology to optimize flight routes for emission savings.
Learn more about Alaska Airlines climate goals at
blog.alaskaair.com.
About Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines and its regional
partners serve more than 120 destinations across the United States and to Mexico, Canada and Costa
Rica. The airline emphasizes Next-Level Care for its guests,
along with providing low fares, award-winning customer service and
sustainability efforts. On March 31,
2021, Alaska became the
14th member of oneworld. With the global alliance
and Alaska Airlines' additional partners, guests can travel to more
than 1,000 destinations on more than 20 airlines while earning and
redeeming miles on flights to locations around the world.
Learn more about Alaska at
newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines and
Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).
About Airspace Intelligence
Airspace Intelligence is a
software-first aerospace company based in Silicon Valley that
supports customers with the worlds' most complex air operations and
missions by deploying machine learning models of the U.S. national
airspace and prediction services to support traffic flow
optimization at scale. For more information, visit
www.airspace-intelligence.com. Media can reach out to
media@airspace-intelligence.com
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SOURCE Alaska Airlines