Rolls-Royce selects ‘game-changing’ SITAONAIR e-Aircraft® DataHub for airlines

Rolls-Royce is the launch customer for SITAONAIR’s game-changing e-Aircraft® DataHub – a new, state-of-the-art neutral aircraft data management service designed to bring significant, distinct benefits to airlines and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Today, harnessing aviation data represents the key to unlocking the untapped potential of modern aircraft. It is crucial to everything from minimizing airline maintenance costs and maximizing aircraft availability, to empowering manufacturers and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) teams to be at their most effective. However, several hurdles have hampered progress – including airlines’ reluctance to permit OEMs access to sensitive data, and the complexity of achieving timely and tailored secure data transfer and distribution to relevant parties.

SITAONAIR’s e-Aircraft® DataHub overcomes these hurdles. As a secure, cloud-based aircraft data-brokering service, it enables airlines to share selected aircraft data from diverse fleets, aircraft models and formats with their chosen OEM, at no cost to the airline.

The agreement supports the Rolls-Royce IntelligentEngine vision – based on a belief that the worlds of product and service have become so closely connected that they are now inseparable. This trend was first identified when Rolls-Royce introduced the market-defining TotalCare® service in the 1990s. Since then, advancements in digital capability have accelerated this change and further blurred the boundary between the two. This coming together of product and service, supercharged by digital technology, offers Rolls-Royce a wealth of opportunities to improve the way it provides power to its customers with engines that are increasingly connected, contextually aware and comprehending.

SITAONAIR e-Aircraft® DataHub works by first collecting an airline’s authorized raw data, then expertly classifying, decoding, storing and dispatching the appropriate data sets to that airline’s specified OEM. This is made possible with SITAONAIR’s expertise and established reputation for managing aircraft data on behalf of airlines, making it perfectly positioned to act as a trusted and neutral data intermediary between airlines and OEMs.

Pierre-Yves Benain, Portfolio Head e-Aircraft, SITAONAIR, says: “Our e-Aircraft® DataHub service helps navigate the complex ocean of connected aircraft data, and identifies truly actionable insights for OEMs and their airline customers alike. By acting as a secure, neutral data-broker between an OEM and an airline, SITAONAIR keeps the control and ownership of aircraft data firmly in the airline’s hands, while also providing OEMs with greater insight to drive mutually-beneficial enhancements of their products. No other solution on the market puts airlines in control of their data sharing with third parties in this way.”

Nick Ward, Rolls-Royce Head of Product Management, Servitisation and User Experience, says: “Having extensively trialed SITAONAIR’s e-Aircraft® DataHub in development, we can attest to its effectiveness. This is a powerful data solution, enabling us to work with valued airline customers to navigate and extract greater value from aircraft data, in a trusted way, to help improve aircraft availability and minimize operational costs.”