A Year of Innovation for FlightAware with Collins Aerospace

When FlightAware was acquired last year by Collins Aerospace, our digital aviation intelligence company was known as a global leader in flight tracking, and Collins Aerospace was long revered as an industry legend. With both organizations already operating at the top of their game, would two powerhouses combined continue to create new bold initiatives that would advance the industry?

Roger that.

Together as FlightAware and Collins Aerospace Connected Aviation Solutions (CAS) we lead the aviation digital ecosystem with dynamic products already helping to transform the industry and continuing to provide new solutions that are central to aviation.

Along with our customers, we’re overcoming challenges across the industry and bringing continuous innovation to the aviation ecosystem to increase efficiency, sustainability, and safety.

FlightAware believes in the power of data to be transformative across aviation. From the largest air carrier, to a single air traveler. Our data tells the flight stories customers need to understand. How have we demonstrated that over the last year?

Let’s take a closer look.

From historical flight tracks to live aircraft positions, the use of FlightAware data across the CAS portfolio makes new and existing products better.

ARINCDirect:

Collins Aerospace and FlightAware have further partnered to provide powerful aircraft tracking and flight operations logistics tools to ARINCDirect subscribers at no additional cost, strengthening a partnership that predates FlightAware’s acquisition.

Integrating FlightAware’s cutting edge capabilities into ARINCDirect provides a host of new functionality to enhance operations. A new Foresight™ Uplink feature combines FlightAware machine learning intelligence and ARINCDirect Datalink capability to provide the crew enroute a more accurate ETA prediction via their FMS. This FlightAware solution and more are all included with ARINCDirect flight planning, datalink or cabin connectivity subscriptions. 

Hermes Messenger:
Collins Aerospace ARINC Hermes messaging software is a tool that helps manage all flight deck and back-office communications in one central solution. Hermes is capable of distributing critical information to and from the aircraft flight deck to the right people and systems on the ground. Now, we inject FlightAware Foresight™ data into Hermes to provide airlines with the opportunity to improve their performance.

What is Foresight? It’s our machine-learning AI-based prediction tool that creates estimated time of arrivals or ETAs with technology that provides thirty to fifty percent less estimation error compared even to onboard flight management system (FMS) ETAs. Another FlightAware and Collins Aerospace synergy providing robust enhancements that drive better utilization of constrained resources like ground crews, gates, and aircraft.

AirPlan:

Collins Aerospace ARINC AirPlan is a trusted solution that enables airports to manage resources such as gates, check-in desks, and baggage belts from a single application on any computer or mobile device connected to their network. With the recent addition of FlightAware’s Foresight predictive data, airport customers will receive a more accurate picture of their operations, including both flight ETAs and Taxi-Out Duration predictions, which increases the accuracy and efficiency of airport operations.

FlightAware Foresight's ETAs and Taxi-Out Predictions are available in AirPlan to help airports further optimize performance and on-time percentage. AirPlan enables airport operators to maximize the use of resources to ease congestion and cut turnaround times. This integration is a great example of how Collins Aerospace is turning FlightAware data into value for airports and passengers.

WebUAS:

Moving into the Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) realm, FlightAware data is being leveraged by Collins Aerospace to integrate new aircraft tracking and alerting features for its Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) digital platform, WebUAS. By integrating FlightAware’s Firehose, the world’s most comprehensive global flight tracking and ADS-B flight status data feed, WebUAS provides Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) and UAS operators an even higher-fidelity picture of active flight operations within airspace they are monitoring.

Autonomous and remotely-piloted flights are presently unable to commercially operate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) due to gaps in Air Traffic Management (ATM) technologies and infrastructure systems. This helps to bridge these gaps with the integration of aircraft telemetry data and primary radar feeds, and the ability to stream real-time global aircraft tracking data from 195 different countries, private data link partners, and the world’s most comprehensive ADS-B network.

Before we sign off, I’d like to draw your attention to the very communications messaging platform you’re looking at right now – the FlightAware website. Our website garners hundreds of millions of page views every month. From the casual traveler to C-suite decision makers, FlightAware is proud to deliver precise messaging across our platform directly to the public.

2022 has been one busy year at FlightAware, but with so much on the horizon it feels like we’re just getting started.