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Bluebox Wow Flying with Solaseed Air

Japanese regional airline Solaseed Air deploys Bluebox Wow across its Boeing 737 fleet

DUNFERMLINE, UK – 30 November 2017 – Solaseed Air Inc., a leading Japanese regional carrier, has deployed Bluebox Aviation Systems’ portable wireless IFE system – Bluebox Wow – across its fleet of Boeing 737-800s.

“We’re honoured that Solaseed Air has selected Bluebox Aviation Systems as a partner in the development of their new IFE service,” said Kevin Clark, Chief Executive Officer, Bluebox Aviation Systems Ltd. “IFE is evolving rapidly – no longer is it just a service to entertain passengers, but a channel for revenue generation, an important factor for any regional or low-cost carriers, which has not traditionally offered IFE.”

Bluebox Wow provides wireless content streamed to passenger devices in any aircraft cabin, offering up to 1.6TB of content including film, TV, audio, games and other digital media. The system is designed to support advertising, inflight shopping, and payment processing options, which make it an ideal platform for generating ancillary revenue, whether the IFE service itself is offered as a free or charged service. With a remarkably low cost of ownership, Bluebox Wow is a discrete, portable, lunchbox-sized unit. Stowed in overhead lockers, each box’s single swappable and rechargeable battery offers 15 hours of streamed content to 50 passengers.

Operating from Tokyo’s Haneda airport and across Japan, Solaseed Air operates a fleet of 12 Boeing 737-800s, all of which are flying with Bluebox Wow.

Bluebox and Virgin Atlantic Launch First Fleet-Wide Accessible IFE Platform for Passengers with Sight Loss

Bluebox’s accessible IFE (aIFE™) solution is the first portable IFE platform developed with and for airline passengers with visual impairment

VIDEO AVAILABLE: https://youtu.be/b6aBXfyFf_s

DUNFERMLINE, UK – 27 November 2017 – Bluebox Aviation Systems Ltd. has launched an accessible IFE (aIFE™) platform which will take to the air with Virgin Atlantic on 1 December 2017, entertaining passengers with visual impairments aboard flights serving destinations across North America, the Caribbean, Africa, China, India and the Middle East. This makes Virgin Atlantic the first global airline to make IFE accessible for passengers with sight loss across its entire fleet.

Bluebox worked closely with long-standing customer Virgin Atlantic and representatives from The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (Guide Dogs) in the development of the platform to ensure that both the airline’s and users’ needs were met.

Mark Anderson, Executive Vice President – Customer at Virgin Atlantic, commented: “Nearly thirty years ago, Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to offer seat back entertainment in all cabins, so it’s apt that we should be the first to ensure our entertainment is fully accessible across all flights.  Working with Bluebox and Guide Dogs we’ve been able to create a world first that ensures customers with sight loss can experience the full range of onboard entertainment including the latest blockbusters, TV shows and albums.”

“We distilled the most critical elements of our Bluebox Ai IFE platform into a simple design that someone with sight loss can easily and consistently navigate, enriching this with additional background functionality,” said James Macrae, CTO, Bluebox Aviation Systems Ltd. and contributor to the IFE Accessibility Working Group (ACCESSWG) of the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX). “For example, rather than using a traditional screen reader function to read out on-screen text, information like film synopses are read out after a single tap of the film title. By putting these in the background, we kept the interface uncluttered and simple to navigate, but still providing information to help the passenger choose their selection.”

John Welsman, Policy Business Partner for Travel and Transport for the charity Guide Dogs, said: “We know that something as simple as an in-flight entertainment system with voice overs and audio descriptions will help passengers with sight loss to enjoy flights just like anyone else on board. As someone with sight loss who flies quite often myself, I think it’ll be wonderful to access entertainment and information on Virgin Atlantic planes without needing to ask for help. Not having to call for cabin crew, or disturb fellow passengers around me who might be sleeping, will be great.”

Through Virgin Atlantic’s relationship with the charity, Bluebox was introduced to a group of individuals with a range of visual impairments – from partial sight loss to total blindness. This group worked closely with both Virgin Atlantic and Bluebox providing input and feedback through multiple stages of the development process.

At the end of the development, one user commented that what they liked most about the platform was: “First, that you asked us for feedback, and second, that you updated it based on our recommendations – you really listened to us.”

“Our user group’s enthusiastic involvement in the development process revealed very quickly to us that this project went far beyond functional design elements, but would have a huge impact on their overall passenger experience – offering them independence and control, as well as entertainment,” said Catherine Brown, Head of Marketing, Bluebox Aviation Systems Ltd. “Gathering relevant input is fundamental to good product design. But helping to deliver those more intangible benefits of accessible IFE? That’s made this project extremely satisfying for Bluebox.”

For airlines, Bluebox aIFE provides a more advanced and radically lower-cost solution than the alternative of updating seat-back or other IFE systems, and can do so across mixed fleets with different IFE systems, enabling an airline to quickly surpass the initial goals of forthcoming government legislation on accessible IFE provision. The platform is a fully-customised iPad-based user interface that builds upon the well-recognised and highly advanced accessibility features of Apple’s iOS platform, such as VoiceOver and Zoom, but enhances these for the unique requirements of IFE, including:

• Controls and menus that are easy to detect and navigate for different types of sight loss;
• Support for multiple languages, closed captions, and audio-described content;
• All the security of the original Hollywood-approved Bluebox Ai platform, providing users access to Early Window Content.

Commsoft welcomes TUS Air into the growing OASES family

30th November 2017 – Commsoft is delighted to announce that its best-of-breed MRO IT system, OASES, has been chosen by new Cypriot airline, Tus Airways (Tus Air).

Designed by engineers for engineers, OASES is one of the most successful aviation engineering and maintenance systems in the world. Easy to use whilst being functionally highly sophisticated, it is structured in a modular format to allow for scalability and Tus Air has opted for the Core, Airworthiness and Planning modules with an option to add the Materials and Line Maintenance Control modules at a later date.

OASES software can either be installed on-site on a local server or accessed through Commsoft’s private cloud hosting service, avoiding the need to install any additional hardware.

Tus Airways is a Cyprus-based airline which commenced operations in March 2016. “Τhe Ultimate Schedule” is the philosophy of the airline, which aims to connect Cyprus and Greece with countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as Europe via frequent flights, offering best comfort, convenience, competitive pricing and excellent service on board. The airline currently operates a growing network of flights including from Larnaca to Tel Aviv, Rome, Athens and additional Greek cities and islands. 

The airline’s fleet currently consists of two 100-seat Fokker 100 jetliners and two 77-seat Fokker 70s shortly to start operations.

Nick Godwin, Commsoft’s Managing Director, commented: 

“2017 has been very successful for Commsoft and this latest customer is further evidence that OASES leads the way in terms of its functionality, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. We have enjoyed working with Tus Air to ensure a successful implementation of the Fokker 100s and will support them closely as they introduce the New Fokker 70s.”

OASES is currently being used in more than 55 countries, supporting over 130 aviation customers, including national carriers, 3rd party maintainers, regional carriers, leasing companies, cargo specialists, charter operators and specialist rotable stockists.

2MoRO is really proud to announce that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aero Engines Limited (MHIAEL) chose Aero One® to provide the Engine MRO features for its activities in Japan

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aero Engines, Ltd. is one of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) group companies established to strengthen its aircraft engine business through advanced cooperation with other companies to address the significantly growing commercial aviation demands.

Their broad business portfolio currently includes the joint development and production of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine for the Boeing 787 and the Trent XWB engine for the Airbus A350 XWB, the Pratt & Whitney PurePower® PW1100G-JM engine for the Airbus A320neo and PW1200G engine for Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation’s MRJ, and the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210 engine for the Sikorsky S-76D and Leonardo (previously known as AgustaWestland) AW169. 

Our Aero One® software will be implemented with SAP® Business One in collaboration with our Japanese partner, BeOne Solutions Japan. 

This new reference highlights how the 2MoRO software suite can meet the expectations of Aviation companies which are looking for reliable, efficient and cost-effective software.

The combo “SAP® Business One + Aero One®” builds one unique system to help our Customers to optimize purchasing and stock level, to follow their fleet, secure the airworthiness, perform their maintenance as well as the creation of financial reports based on the maintenance activities and the tracking of their asset values.

Lufthansa Systems wins Ural Airlines as new customer

Russian airline chooses several products from Lufthansa Systems to optimize its flight operations and navigation

Raunheim, November 29, 2017 – Lufthansa Systems today announced that Russian airline Ural Airlines will optimize its flight operations and navigation processes using several IT solutions from Lufthansa Systems. The two companies recently signed a long-term contract to this effect. Ural Airlines has opted for NetLine products for schedule management (NetLine/Sched), crew management (NetLine/Crew) and flight operations control (NetLine/Ops ++). Additionally, the carrier will plan its flight operations with the Lido/Flight 4D flight planning solution.

“Although this is our first cooperation with Lufthansa Systems, we already have a long and good relationship with Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Consulting. We therefore have great confidence in the Lufthansa Group and we look forward to our new IT project,” said Sergei Skuratov, General Director at Ural Airlines. “We believe that we can further optimize our flight operations with these NetLine and Lido products.”

NetLine/Sched covers all processes for medium- to short-term flight scheduling. NetLine/Ops ++ monitors Ural Airlines’ flight operations. With this solution, the airline can avoid and manage disruptions and significantly reduce delay costs. NetLine/Crew supports Ural Airlines in the full crew management process from planning to crew assignment and tracking. The NetLine products are fully integrated, which allows close synchronization between scheduling and crew planning, as well as flight operations and crew tracking. Using the NetLine products will enable Ural Airlines to schedule flights more precisely, deploy crews more efficiently, respond more quickly to irregularities and thus improve on-time performance and lower costs.

Lido/Flight 4D calculates the most suitable route for each flight based on all flight-related data, weather conditions and the current airspace situation including any restrictions. It enables Ural Airlines to optimize its route planning in terms of flying time, costs and fuel consumption.

“We are very happy to welcome Ural Airlines as our new customer. After implementing the new IT solutions, Ural Airlines will benefit from greater efficiency and lower costs,” said Genaro Zarazua, VP Sales EMEA. “With the different solutions in use, they will also benefit from the integration between Lido/Flight 4D and the NetLine suite so that everyone involved in flight operations has the same information at hand.” 

Ural Airlines is one of the largest dynamically developing airlines and takes the 4th place in the rating of Russian air carriers. The geography of flights contains more than 250 destinations. Today the carrier operates 43 aircraft of Airbus families (23 A320, 13 A321 and 7 A319).

Caption (Copyright: Lufthansa Systems): Ural Airlines will be using Lido/Flight 4D and several products from the NetLine suite to optimize its flight operations processes.

Boeing to Provide Optimal Leased Aircraft Management for Montrose Global Aircraft Leasing Limited

AerData’s Corporate Management System solution drives efficient operations

AMSTERDAM, Nov. 28, 2017 – Boeing [NYSE: BA], through its subsidiary AerData, recently signed an agreement with Montrose Global Aircraft Leasing Limited (MGALL) to support their existing fleet of 45 aircraft and accounting systems with AerData’s Corporate Management System (CMS) hosted solution.

“We are looking to grow, and CMS will allow us to do that,” said Nick Brice, Montrose Global Technical director. “We chose AerData because of its reputation in the marketplace and are confident that it will be a smooth transition and great partnership.”

MGALL will consolidate data from multiple sources using the single CMS platform. The platform reduces risk for lessors by giving them full control and oversight of asset values, contract information and technical details. It also helps save time and money by using direct connections to existing financial systems.

“CMS helps lessors be more efficient and more effective by consolidating data pertinent to the lifecycle management of leased assets,” said Matt Bull, AerData CEO. “We are pleased that Montrose Global has chosen AerData CMS to assist in growing their business by leveraging software to increase efficiencies in their operations.”

More than 60 leasing companies worldwide use AerData systems to support their business.

Lido/mPilot 3.0: First step towards fully dynamic navigation maps

Seamless integration – New generation of iOS navigation app from Lufthansa Systems includes dynamic Airport Moving Map showing aircraft position

Raunheim, November 28, 2017 – Lufthansa Systems today announced the launch of a new release of its successful Lido/mPilot iOS navigation app. The highlight of the new generation is the integration of dynamic airport maps from Lido/AMM. The Airport Moving Map is now available both in the Windows-based Lido/eRouteManual app and on iOS. Lido/mPilot 3.0 can be found in the App Store.

“Dynamic maps are the future of navigation. They enable seamless navigation from gate to gate, with no limits whatsoever,“ said Igor Dimnik, Director Strategy and Market Development at Lufthansa Systems. “Lido/mPilot 3.0 enables pilots to switch seamlessly between Lido/AMM and the navigation maps during takeoff or after landing. This release is the first milestone on our path to fully dynamic navigation maps.”

Lido/mPilot 3.0 can be wirelessly connected to the avionics system installed on the flight deck. The system can then access relevant avionics data such as GPS information, speed and the aircraft’s target direction. This enables it to display the situation, position and orientation of the aircraft on both the Airport Moving Map and the Enroute Map. Hardware and software together facilitate navigation and improve the pilots’ situational awareness. Lido/mPilot currently supports the Aircraft Interface Device (AID) from Boeing ONS and will soon be integrated with the UTC Aerospace Systems Tablet Interface Module® (UTAS TIM).

To avoid a flood of information with such a wealth of data, Lido/mPilot 3.0 shows pilots only the information relevant to their current procedure. Lido/AMM highlights the gate position or access point for taxiways and runways on the map as necessary. The program always displays all information in the context of the airport environment. Lido/AMM prevents runway incursions and increases the safety and efficiency of taxiing procedures.

Around 70 airlines have already opted for the mobile Lido/mPilot navigation solution since the app was launched in early 2015. The modular app offers features such as airport maps, a dynamically generated enroute map, and a document management and distribution system that enables pilots to access documents and messages both at home and on the move. A status overview with intuitive icons guarantees a clear flow of information.

Caption (Copyright: Lufthansa Systems):

Lido/mPilot 3.0 with its integrated Airport Moving Map shows the aircraft’s position during taxiing operations and increases pilots’ situational awareness.

HAECO Hong Kong Introduces Mobile Mechanic App

28 Nov 2017 – HAECO Hong Kong, a member of the HAECO Group, announced today that the company has introduced a mobile application – ULTRAMAIN® Mobile Mechanic™ – for use in its Light Maintenance operations at Hong Kong International Airport.

To improve operational efficiency in an environmental-friendly manner, HAECO Hong Kong collaborated with Ultramain Systems, Inc., an international asset management and logistics software service provider, to enhance ULTRAMAIN’s Mobile Mechanic to meet HAECO’s paperless needs. Cathay Pacific Airways (“Cathay Pacific”) provided support during the project and the airline has become the launch customer of HAECO’s implementation of Mobile Mechanic – making use of the system and application.

This application allows technical personnel to access electronic task cards, receive job assignments, create non-routine task cards as well as sign off task cards electronically through mobile devices. The airline customer can now have real-time monitoring of job status.

HAECO Hong Kong provides light maintenance services to Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777-300 fleet at its hangar facilities. With HAECO Mobile Mechanic, engineers, technical personnel and relevant parties can plan ahead more effectively. This application further enhances accuracy in maintenance work and increases productivity.

The HAECO Hong Kong Light Maintenance team handles over 1,000 light maintenance checks (planned maintenance inputs) annually for Cathay Pacific. The implementation of the Mobile Mechanic will help save 640,000 sheets of paper per year. Both parties plan to extend the application to cover Cathay Pacific’s Airbus A330 fleet in the first half of 2018.

Clement Lam, Director & General Manager, HAECO Hong Kong, said: “We are delighted to introduce the Mobile Mechanic application to our long-standing customer Cathay Pacific. As a customer-oriented and socially responsible organisation, we are committed to improving our operational efficiency through innovation. We are confident that this application will help increase productivity and minimise the impact on the environment in which we operate.”

Mark McCausland, President of Ultramain Systems, said: “We welcome HAECO to our paperless MRO family. It is our belief that the productivity and environmental benefits that HAECO is able to achieve through the use of Mobile Mechanic has set a new standard for third party maintenance providers. It further illustrates that operators and MROs can benefit from a Simple Mobile Paperless strategy.”

WOW air takes off with AMOS

At a glance

– AMOS implementation on open source PostgreSQL database

– WOW air relying on AOS

– Operating AMOS in Amazon Cloud

Another Low Fare Carrier signs for AMOS

Swiss-AS is proud to announce that Icelandic WOW air has selected AMOS as their preferred MRO software solution. As a cost-conscious LCC, the airline has opted for the open source and licence-free SQLPostgre database, in combination with Swiss-AS’ AMOS Operation Services (AOS), which covers the application and database server administration.

Currently the project team is successfully carrying out tests to run AMOS in the Amazon Cloud. Apart from running IT applications cloud-based, it is also WOW air’s policy to bundle all software in a centralised data warehouse – both being requirements that AMOS is able to meet.

Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO of Swiss-AS says: “This latest deal reflects once more that AMOS has a strong footprint among the LCCs. AMOS will surely play a significant role in WOW air’s growth plans for the next years.”

“WOW air uses top of the line IT solutions on the market with the aim of being one of the most technically advanced airlines in the world. AMOS supports that idea and fits very well into the IT suite WOW air is using on a daily basis,” says Skúli Mogensen, founder and CEO of WOW air.

Introduction of e-signature currently explored

With a very motivated project team and a highly committed management, the airline has set itself an ambitious goal for a swift implementation within only a couple of months. On top of that, AMOS supports WOW air’s aim to have paperless maintenance in near future.

skybook wins prestigious national award

A few months ago we entered skybook into the 2017 Digital Entrepreneur Awards, putting our class leading aviation software head to head with a host of nationally recognised big name brands in the hotly contested Software Innovation of the Year category.

The DEA’s have been recognising and honouring Britains online entrepreneurial talent for over a decade with a specialist panel of judges working to unearth entries that showcase the most cutting-edge use of the modern web.

The judges had their work cut out for them as they looked through all of entries but ultimately, they whittled the Software Innovation of the Year category to just 7 finalists and we were one of them.

The awards night came around quickly and we headed over to Manchester on Wednesday afternoon (22/11/17) not sure what to expect but determined to have a good night and remember that it’s an honour to have skybook recognised as a finalist amongst a number of other specialist providers who had all brought their ‘A’ game to the awards.

Shane Spencer, Bytron Aviation Systems Managing Director said: “Before we knew it, the host was reading out our category and the moment was upon us. Got to say my heart was in my mouth and as I looked left and right at my colleagues, you could cut the tension with a knife.

“What happened next I was not expecting but I’m immensely proud to say that we won. Bytron Aviation Systems are the 2017 Digital Entrepreneur Awards Software Innovation of the Year award winners. Sounds good doesn’t it.

“I’m so proud to have skybook recognised in this way on such a grand scale and it makes all of the effort put in by our team back at HQ all the more worthwhile. This award is recognition for us all.

“Everyone works hard each day to deliver our innovative Flight Dispatch, Digital Crew Briefing, Journey Logging and Airfield Monitoring modules, ensuring skybook helps all of our clients achieve their objectives.”

There’s no time to rest on our laurels though as the 2017 Flight Operations Conference is a matter of days away so if you want to know what all the skybook hype is about, come and see us on stand E3 and we’ll be more that happy to show you.