CASE STUDY: Mapping a better solution for Frontier Airlines

Author: Joshua Lee, Senior Manager Technical Programs, Frontier Airlines

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As always with a case study, let’s start with a brief introduction to the airline whose case this is. Frontier Airlines is a major American ultra low-cost airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado, employing more than 3,000 staff and serving over 120 destinations in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico and Central America from its hub at Denver International Airport. As of September 2024, Frontier Airlines had a 150 strong all-Airbus fleet including A320-200, A320neo, A321-200 and A321neo.

BEFORE Lido mPilot

Before engaging with Lufthansa Systems and Lido mPilot, we were using another popular product but wanted to find something that would be a little more cost effective for us: we didn’t use a lot of the product features packaged with that solution and yet we were paying for them. The other big consideration was that, during the time when we were looking at other options, there were some issues with that previous solution. These were the things that led us to look elsewhere.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR Lido mPilot

We were looking for something that could do what we needed from a charting perspective at a reasonable cost but that would provide us with the things that we needed, i.e., reliable charting; but something that was built on a development platform with which we could grow but also that could itself grow as technology changed: something built on 2020 or 2025 technology for the 21st century as opposed to 2010 technology. We wanted to get away from PDF reading into scalable vector graphics (SVG) and things that we had seen on other Apps.

HOW THE IMPLEMENTATION WENT

The decision to adopt Lido was made in January/February 2023 and we were on quite a tight timeline because we had been following a different path at first but that didn’t go quite the way we wanted and so we decided to go with Lido but only had until September 4th which was when the previous contract came to an end. Our implementation timeline was essentially from March 2023 to September 4th of that same year.

During that time, I got hold of the solution, used it a lot, started to build the training around it, worked intensively with the Lido team, built our own web-based training, did a number of webinars and then built a number of other components such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and conversion material showing pilots what they were used to looking at in the old application and what that information looks like in Lido. In July 2023, we started to carry both solutions side by side with dual carry authorizations so that people could start getting used to Lido before it became the only solution available. It was met with much disdain but, frankly, change is always poorly received in the airline industry. However, through that dual carrying period, the pilots learned a lot and we were able to re-assure a lot of people. We have recurrent training three times a week and, in every class for two and a half months, we were talking to pilots, taking questions and trying to make sure that pilots felt as prepared as possible.

In truth, the application was not where we wanted it to be and there wasn’t enough time to prove the robustness of it. That changed in September when there were some really big updates and we were able to work closely with Lido: their team was fantastic in helping us to address our concerns about the App. They were fast to respond and helpful about training which helped enormously. From our experience, not all technology providers would have done that so quickly. Since then, there have been some incredible changes that have really swayed our pilot group over to, “Oh, this is not so bad”. If you can get a pilot group to say ‘this is not so bad’ about anything, that’s a win. As I said above, it was a really fast implementation timeline; I would have preferred to have had a year to make the transition but we didn’t have that. That said, to be able to implement, in about six months, such a drastic change for a charting application with such a great back-up with the team from Lido on things we needed to change before go-live, that was pretty amazing.

Change management was something on which we worked hard. I did something similar during my time in the military and it was important to remember to get an understanding of ‘it’s going to be a little bit of a grassroots product’ in order to get it to a change management stage. Companies tend to be very good at doing everything but the actual change management. We worked hard with one-on-ones to get our captains and people comfortable with it.

Lido mPilot

For us, Lido mPilot is essentially a charting application for the cockpit, similar to competitors in the market. To address some of the pain points, one of the things that I think is unique, and that I personally like about the app, is that, when there is Wi-Fi, the app updates itself as you open it. That might not seem a big deal but it is. When I take new hire classes, I tell them, ‘The night before you’re going to fly, just plug your iPad in, open up Lido and walk away, it’ll update itself on Wi-Fi’. It means three button presses that pilots don’t have to do.

The biggest thing is the platform it’s built on. In the airline industry, we tend to find applications that do a certain thing well and then we stop updating for fear of something not working right, saying ‘it works fine and so we’re not going to make improvements or even go to something that is more technologically advanced’. I see that in so many different applications whereas Lido is not afraid of that. That’s one thing that, for me as a technology person, I wanted to see something that takes advantage of what the iPad can do for me; I don’t want to have to dig and find information myself if I don’t have to, I want it to be presented for me. That’s one of the things Lido does. For instance, when marking a runway but going to the wrong runway, it will show red and tell the pilot to ‘check the runway because the one you’re heading for is not the one where you said you were going’ (figure 1).

Figure 1

It’s not just that piece of the platform but there were other things that we’re working on with Lido, things like live traffic over cellular, things in which they’re also interested. Lido can also give the pilot the frequency that they’ll need depending on where they are on the airport; The Lido team is forward thinking, and prepared to ‘try it and see how it works’. That’s an attitude you do not see often in the industry and I’m very happy about that. I don’t want to have to press five buttons to find a frequency, I want the system to tell me what the frequency is because now my heads-up time and my safety is much better.

SVGs are better than a PDFs for charting because, with a PDF, you can only zoom in to a certain point before the image becomes degraded. With an SVG, you can zoom in really far while maintaining clean lines and you can read the text in Jumbo: again, a seemingly small feature but beyond what a lot of the other vendors are doing.

Finally, just the ease of working with the Lido team has been a pleasure; they’re not afraid to take criticism and they’re not afraid to look at improvements and go ‘yes, let’s put something together and see if we can do that’, which is not the case with many large applications who often take a ‘we know what to give you, we know what we’re doing’ approach.

Those are the big three things that have been a huge improvement for us. There’s also Lido’s capability of tying into the FOMAX system on the aircraft, you can actually pull real ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit) data onto the iPad. It’s a more reliable system in location services as well. There are a number of things that are definitely twenty-first century technology and where we should be going rather than saying that because this has always worked, we don’t want to change it.

Lido mPilot

Lido mPilot leverages advanced technology to redefine cockpit navigation and situational awareness for pilots. Central to its functionality are interactive, data-driven maps built on Lido Data Solutions. These maps dynamically integrate and display flight-critical data, ensuring that pilots have tailored, up-to-date information directly related to their flight plan and aircraft position. Unlike traditional static PDFs, mPilot utilizes scalable vector graphics (SVGs), allowing pilots to zoom in on charts without compromising clarity. This innovation ensures that fine details remain crisp and readable, enhancing situational awareness in critical phases of flight.

A standout feature of mPilot is its weather integration, including advanced turbulence and icing forecasts. By presenting pilots with intuitive visualizations of adverse weather conditions, the app helps crews make safer, more efficient decisions during flight planning and execution. Combined with enroute mapping and Airport Moving Maps (AMM), this makes mPilot a comprehensive tool for anticipating and navigating challenging conditions (figure 2).

Figure 2

The app’s platform is forward-thinking, taking full advantage of iOS capabilities. Automatic updates over Wi-Fi save time and ensure pilots always have the latest data, reducing pre-flight workload. Integration with systems like FOMAX provides real-time data synchronization between the iPad and the aircraft’s onboard systems, delivering precise location and attitude information.

Finally, Lido mPilot’s user-centric approach, with high-contrast displays and light/dark mode options, ensures clarity in all cockpit environments. Paired with Lido’s commitment to continuous improvement and responsiveness to user feedback, mPilot stands out as a transformative tool for modern airline operations.

CHANGES IN FRONTIER PROCESSES TO GET THE BEST OUT OF Lido mPilot

The implementation required no major process changes at Frontier but it allowed us to think about things that were possible because of the response and how Lido was going to work with us. Things that it was now possible to give to the pilots had not been possible before. One thing did reinforce rather than change our processes. With other applications, you tend to find that, because they’re good at X, they decide to also make Y, even though they might do it poorly. In this case, it would be that the solution is a charting application and good at that so why not also do electronic dispatch releases and a weather application? The result of that is that all of those other things get watered down but, if we present all of these other options in the charting app, it can make pilots go for the path of least resistance and use the app that is not primarily for weather because it seems easier. Lido reinforced our policies to ensure that pilots go to the right place and do the right thing out of necessity because some of the things we took away that had been in the old solution, weren’t available in Lido. It made pilots go to the actual dispatch and weather information that they’re supposed to be using.

However, because people were so uncomfortable with that at first, it made everything that Lido did wrong in their eyes if there was a comparison. During the dual carry time, people would say, ‘this frequency’s wrong because Lido has a different frequency than the other application so that automatically makes it wrong because I’ve been using the other application. However, we showed people that that was not the case at all; Lido was following the actual source data which is the legal requirement and had it correct whereas the alternative was just basing it on institutional knowledge. Also, because the charting was a little bit different with ground charts of the airport, people were actually looking at the big yellow signs on the ground again and navigating around the airport in the way they should be, not just on iPad but getting situational awareness on the iPad and then looking out of the window. It reinforced a lot of our processes which is really good in that it has got us back to being a little less reliant on the iPad; hard to do but definitely needed.

CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES FACED AND OVERCOME

From my own point of view, the challenges included learning the management of the new solution, how updates are done, how changes in the DDS (Data Distribution System) are done and how to track iPads that are on-board aircraft. It was a challenge that was easily overcome and fixed because the system is very easy to use and, on a global scale, the back-end systems are really nice. Pilot attitude has changed, no matter what. There were things that we wanted to be better in the first iteration of Lido which weren’t quite there yet but, again, we knew that they were going to work with us on that and, within the first couple of months we did our first major update which was a game changer with many options that Lido had added based on our feedback.

We did create a digital form for Lido feedback with questions such as whether something could be better or was it not working? That received a huge response from pilots with notes about things that seemed to not be working or suggestions of how we could do things better. We used that over the months after the implementation to make the changes and updates to Lido and, again, we’re doing the changes suggested by pilots who are on the line every day; we’re making those implementations and they notice that we’ve quickly fixed whatever it was. That started to sway a lot of pilot opinion on those challenges.

The biggest challenge that we had to overcome, was that Lido is a world-wide product using a lot if ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) language which we need to use in a lot of cases because we fly to places in South America that are only ICAO. Before, we had to train pilots on what is the ICAO, whereas now, we already know all of the US material so we only had to put together a training program for all ICAO language such as the different way that lighting systems are reported; we were able to change those and we did some change management on using tables and using our likenesses of them to be able to overcome that: now it’s second nature, people look at it and understand it. So, when we do start expanding further into South America and, maybe one day Europe, it will be really easy because we already know what ICAO is. That was a big benefit but also an obstacle because it was something that our pilots were not used to.

The changes that are harder to overcome are what I call the ‘buttonology’, the button presses that it takes to do the things that you used to do and that is a very difficult thing to overcome. The most difficult button change that you have to do is when you get a last-minute runway change coupled with a last-minute arrival change. The good news, and the way we trained it, is that it’s almost the exact same button press and mentality as in FMGC (Flight Management and Guidance Computer). The things that are done in FMGC are almost identical to the process that is done in Lido, so we trained it that way which was helpful. We’re trying to reduce those button presses in Lido and they’re listening to us about figuring out creative ways to do that.

The last challenge with charting and the last obstacle we had to overcome was the data driven charting with Lido which pilots at first didn’t like (see above). However, it actually is clearer because all that’s on screen is the relevant runway, not lots of different options but just one option for the right chart. Just one runway and all of the information, altitudes etc., is just for that runway and what the pilot is doing. That was a big challenge because it’s so different but realistically, the adjustment reduces the potential for errors because it’s what you see in the aircraft; you don’t get any number of options with the aircraft, you dial in the aircraft information, look at the chart and it maps out really easily. So, that was a big change but one that people are readily adopting now.

IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE

During the six months available for the implementation, see above, we had to do training. I developed most of the content and then gave it over to the training department who further developed it for delivery as computer-based training (CBT). There wasn’t the time to do a full in-person delivery so it was all computer based. We talked with a couple of airlines who had previously implemented Lido, built training for it with CBTs and conducted four one-hour webinars covering each of the major modules (also available as recordings for people who couldn’t make the live events). We did the 60-days dual carry period and then full implementation. Working on the project were the Flight Operations Standards team, the Training team and then the Technology team, my team. Lido was a huge source for us as well as the two other airlines with their considerable experience with Lido.

The most important thing that you want for a project like this is to have a good working relationship with the vendor and Lido gave us that: they didn’t have any ego about it, that’s really important for a company implementing such a massive change in such a short time. There was no sense of ‘This is the app, it’s what you bought and we’ll see you later’. Full implementation was September 2023 and now, a year later at the time of writing, there have been three major updates dealing with issues raised by the pilot group and we appreciated that. So that relationship has continued after the implementation and it is a huge help to have a team that, even when we didn’t agree at first, they looked into it and made it work.

If we would have done anything differently, we’d have liked more time.

The time issue couldn’t be helped but we would ideally have wanted 18 months to really get pilot buy-in, get more time for change management and to give Lido a chance to make the changes we wanted before the implementation.

REGULATOR AND INTERNAL APPROVALS

The way charts are displayed, is not really a regulatory matter but we do have to show that the applications we’re going to use are going to be safe and meet the requirement that they usably display the source data, which is just text, in a manner that is safe and makes sense. We also had to show that we had an integral training plan so that not only do we have this app that works and does what it’s supposed to do but we also have the time and ability to train pilots to use it in a safe manner. We showed them our training plan and met with them twice a month from March until just before September to show them our training plan, our implementation plan, all the people that have taken the training and what it looks like. Then we had to show our POI (Principal Operations Inspector) that we had a training plan adopted and used, and that it was sufficient that our pilots were able to navigate the US using it, without it being a problem. It just took putting together all of the things that we were already doing with the frequently asked questions plus the regulator had a few questions about some of the ICAO stuff and we showed how we were training those issues out. They were very happy with all that and they especially like the data driven charting because it reduces the potential for error. So, we didn’t need any regulatory sign-off per se but just had to show that we were implementing a training program that would ensure safe operation with the new solution within US airspace.

NEXT STEPS

This goes to the relationship with Lido and we have lots of next steps including working with the Lido team to help them develop a road map in America because we’re the largest carrier they have in America right now and we can suggest things that will be valuable and explain why. We’re also going to ramp up the AMM (Airport Moving Map) and let it do more for us. Overall, we’re looking for things that will make us more capable in the cockpit with less need to look at multiple screens and push buttons, making us safer. The AMM takes away the old-school paper chart for the airport map and puts it on a really robust capability for moving around with added information which we looked at above. Beyond that, we have lots of plans for the coming years.