How can you manage aviation data and analytics?

First and foremost, a reliable data management system is required. The system should be able to capture the necessary data ab should make it easy for data sources to feed the data. However, the credibility of the data should always be maintained. The organization needs to have capacity to analyse the data and provide feedback to relevant users. It is critical to ensure that applicable legislation relating to date capture and usage is complied with at all times, including data privacy. Risk management regarding the captured data is crucial

Look outside aviation for help! Airlines have oceans of data, but most of them have their data in “cold storage”! What are your data sources that you already have? What are you missing? What are you using & what not?

The business isn’t always familiar with what data exists and when they are, often times, they aren’t sure how to find it. A good way to discover some valuable source data is by following the customer’s journey. In an airport for example, a typical customer would arrive somehow at the airport, they may have used rideshare, parked their own vehicle or utilized valet. The customer will then check in at a counter with a specific airline, receive a boarding pass, checked in baggage and then head to security. These are all examples of “data checkpoints”, an opportunity to collect valuable source enterprise data whether it is used for improving customer experience, loyalty or analytics purposes.

The introduction of automated data transfer systems 5 years ago on our TBM was a game-changer in General Aviation. It definitel influences maintenance and safety.

It starts with the area you want to measure. For example in airline e-commerce and digital marketing we start top-down by breaking down goals (ex.online revenue, share of online revenue, number of bookings, ancillary revenue & share) into smaller lower level metrics (traffic, conversion rate, average order...) and even further down (website engagement metrics, advertisement engagement metrics...). Then we setup a system to monitor those metrics and identify key trends and bottlenecks. Second step is adding external data sources (like flight search demand data, revenue management data, planned capacity data...) to interpret and put our internal metrics into broader market context to understand market developments, competition...

One thing I have found helpful in the area of data governance is setting your own thresholds. There could be multiple industry standards for various quality parameters, however there could be a whole different value for a threshold say consistency that works and makes sense to you. Also what do you do to keep up the parameters above threshold matters a lot. This takes into account working on the root cause.

I feel there are several areas to look at in the aviation industry, spanning from operations, customer relationships, finance etc. The first part is understanding the type of insights you are interested in looking for and see if the data is available and how you can lay your hands on the data. From making sure you have accuracy of data, consistency and timely data. The stakeholder you are trying to get the data to will determine the insights you will be looking at.

Effective aviation data and analytics management can lead to improved safety, cost savings, better passenger experiences, and a competitive edge in the industry. By following guidelines and leveraging advanced technologies, aviation companies can harness the power of data and analytics to enhance safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction while optimizing their operations.

Data quality and governance are fundamental to ensuring that the information used in decision-making is reliable and secure. Consider an airline that wants to use passenger data to create personalized marketing campaigns. If the data is incomplete (missing details) or inaccurate (wrong information), the campaigns may target the wrong audience or deliver incorrect offers, leading to wasted resources and potential customer dissatisfaction. It's like ensuring that the instruments in a cockpit are calibrated and functional. You wouldn't fly with faulty instruments; similarly, you shouldn't operate with poor quality data or without proper governance.

Consider leveraging an integration platform to act as the hub for your enterprise data movements, processes and integrations. Some of the main benefits of using an integration platform are it scales easily, allows for plug-and-play integrations and centralizes an organization’s data processes. These are especially important as organizations within the aviation industry work with many different business partners and vendors so an integration platform can allow you to easily connect with third party applications and eliminate data silos.

Our integrated aviation management software solution at Digitalairware.com specifically offers that to the aviation industry, along with API's to other customer solutions. We have been the industry first and leader in providing 26 modules for every aspect of the customers operations. Our custom Forms module give the end user the ability to manage the data it captures and integrates it throughout the software. The power of data captured and fed to our reports module gives multiple viewpoints and improves every aspect of its aviation operation. We continue to enhance our software solution everyday with the insight of our end users. This is the key to improving safety and operational awareness by harnessing the data captured everyday.

Data integration and automation are vital in today's data-heavy environment. Integration ensures that different data sources can "talk" to each other, providing a comprehensive view of operations. Imagine an airline that gets flight data from its own fleet, weather updates from meteorological sources, and passenger feedback from various social media platforms. By integrating these data points, the airline can get a comprehensive view of each flight's performance in relation to external factors and passenger sentiment. Data integration and automation are like the co-pilots of the aviation data world. One ensures all instruments are in sync, and the other ensures smooth operations without constant manual intervention.

Empower your users by offering “self-service” analytics and business intelligence. In my honest opinion, an organization can never truly be “self-serve”, however, by properly architecting the backend to cater to a self-serve environment as much as possible will ensure your data engineers/developers are utilized for improving data services instead of building reports or responding to adhoc queries. Implementing a data warehouse or in this day in age - a data lakehouse is a start to a self-serve environment.

Applying data analytics transforms raw data into meaningful information. It's not just about collecting vast amounts of data but about dissecting and understanding that data to extract value. Consider an airline trying to optimize its flight schedules. By analyzing historical flight data, passenger demands, and external factors like weather, the airline can predict potential delays, determine the most profitable routes, and anticipate peak travel times. Now, let's say this airline also has an interactive dashboard that visualizes this data. At a glance, decision-makers can see which routes are favored. Data is like raw fuel; analytics refine it into jet power, propelling an airline forward with informed decisions and clearer vision.

Beside data analytical in day-to-day operation to have a quick insight in case something wrong. Trend /seasonal analytics is important to busines decision. For example, in chrismast season, which destination & what hour that mostly booked by customers

Cultivating a data culture means embedding the belief in data's potential into the very fabric of the organization. It's not just about having access to data, but understanding its relevance and applying it strategically. Imagine an airline where the marketing team identifies a trend of increased demand for flights to a specific destination. They share this insight with the operations team, which then considers adding more frequent flights or larger aircraft to that route. Meanwhile, the customer service team, aware of this trend, prepares for a surge in queries related. In the world of aviation, data is the compass, and collaboration is the wind beneath our wings. Together, they guide us towards clearer skies and smoother flights.

Further to user empowerment, encourage the organization to become more data-driven and data-informed by putting the data in their hands in ways they understand it. The data should always tell a story or contribute towards one. One of the best ways to get users to buy-in to the data culture, is by allowing them to be the authors of these stories. This goes back to creating that self-serve environment and implementing tools and resources that encourage collaboration.

Couldn’t agree more ! Aviation safety is a good example of the culture that is needed to build reliable performance data in a transparent way

This is again a challenge for older Airlines that were set up a few decades ago. This needs a very consistent and directed push in getting people out of the silos only to lead the way to build systems and processes in place to make data sharing and analytics a culture within the organisation.

I would add to that that a feedback loop is always a good idea to check the accuracy and reliability of data: when making a 1 year forecast for example (but also longer term), have the courage to review them with the actual data as time progresses. One will learn a lot about the assumptions one has made to predict forecasts, and one will be able to correct those assumptions if needed.

One thing that I have found invaluable is tracking reliability data for maintenance and kick off delays. The one helps standardize systems and the other shows how kick off delays affect the whole schedule down line. Improving both improves customer experience through on time departures and fewer system breakdowns. From kickoff now address customer experience following departure (air conditioning, seat comfort, service).