So why all the fuss when it comes to getting content from an aircraft OEM, to the operator and ultimately in the hands of the flight crew? For one thing OEM data is way more complicated than some of the data my boy and his pre-teen pals are working with. A Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM) is a bit more sophisticated than the 140 characters in a tweet. Secondly the route an FCOM takes from the OEM before it finds its way onto an EFB is meandering to say the least. A typical flight ops manual, depending on the amount of modification and knife & forking that it undergoes will find itself being passed between multiple content management, reconciliation, and workflow systems before ultimate approval, publication and distribution. The exchange of data between these systems requires integration points that can be costly to develop and maintain. Add into the mix that an airline requires data for multiple manual types for different aircraft types, often from different OEMs and you start to see the scale of the problem. If each OEM had their own proprietary format for their content then the cost and complexity of this flow of data would soon spiral out of control.

This is why Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Embraer along with a number of airlines, software vendors and content experts have devoted their time over the past couple of years to developing the next generation of flight operations data standards to meet some of the challenges of next generation aircraft and the content needed to put knowledge in the hands of those who will be flying them. June 2014 saw the publication of the first version of ATA Spec2300 thanks to the efforts of A4A’s Flight Ops Interest Group (of which yours truly is a member). However, at the time of writing there’s no OEM who seems ready to embrace the standard and publish their flight ops content in this format. I personally had assumed that Airbus would have adopted Spec2300 for the launch of the A350, but I understand from good authority that this isn’t the case. Boeing too is not ready to adopt the standard until there is a run on demand from their airline customers. United and Air Canada have shown signs of interest in adopting the standard for their flight ops manuals, but this doesn’t represent a tipping point.

Standards are great, but unfortunately unless they are adopted then they are not much use to anyone. Spec2300 may be at risk of withering on the vine unless the case is made for the benefits it will bring; then, hopefully, demand will ultimately follow. Whose job is this I wonder? The OEMs? The airlines? Or the likes of me? Time will tell I suppose… that’s how I see it.

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