INDUSTRY
DISRUPTORS
Monitoring turnarounds
Another digital start-up that
trialled its technology with
the Hangar 51 programme last
year was Assaia, a Switzerlandbased
company that uses AI
to monitor turnarounds in
real time. The software for
Assaia’s Apron AI processes
the data from CCTV cameras
already installed on ramps
and aerobridges. Company
founder Max Dietz says that
the main goal is to prevent
delayed flights and improve
turnaround times.
Dietz is an entrepreneur
who has invested in
multiple digital start-ups.
He consciously targeted the
aviation logistics sector as an
industry that was ready to be
disrupted. His co-founders,
experts in computer vision
and AI, developed the Assaia
programme last year.
“We reasoned that the
landside areas of airports can
track passengers using Beacon,
wi-fi or Bluetooth, and they are
improving the retail experience
and airport architectures.
”But similar data was
not being used to improve
turnaround times, even though
they have a major impact on
overall performance,” Dietz
observes of the deficiency.
The reluctance of many
aviation companies to embrace
data analysis was out of step
with the modern world, Dietz
felt. Meanwhile, Google,
Facebook and Amazon are
“taking over the world” by
extracting data from millions
of people and leveraging it
for profit. The vast majority
of the data they exploit
is unstructured, which
accounts for 80% of all the
data available, whereas oldfashioned
industries are still
reliant on the structured data
from spreadsheets and booking
systems, which amounts to
only a fifth of the data that
could be used. “Nowadays,
machine learning is able to
draw lessons from unstructured
data and the aviation sector is
sitting on a huge amount of it,
including recordings between
pilots and towers, or the video
footage from CCTV cameras,”
he reveals.
Teaching the computer
In developing the software,
Assaia’s AI team fed terabytes
of data from the cameras
into the computer’s neural
networks to teach it to
detect every event during a
IAG Cargo’s Hangar 51 initiative seeks to
bring about disruption, in a positive way
turnaround. Thus it is able to
produce precise time stamps
for each turnaround event. The
Assaia specialists also taught
the computer to understand
what hazardous situations
look like, for example when
equipment is not stored
properly, or personnel are not
wearing the right vests. The
feeds are high resolution and
able to identify individual
containers. The algorithms
monitor live events and
prompt swift interventions.
The speed of Assaia’s
emergence is more evidence
of the dynamism of startups
in the aviation sector.
Only developed last year,
the programme has high
profile customers, such as
Gatwick and Swissport,
which uses the Apron AI
insights in conjunction with
telematics to speed up its
turnaround times. The Assaia
algorithms are self-learning
so the insights become more
accurate over time.
Like many of the new
technologies, the Apron
AI analysis is relevant for
both passenger and cargo
operations. For passenger
turnarounds, ground
handlers need to take care
of a multitude of things
quickly, such as catering, toilet
service, passenger boarding
and cleaning. The tasks for
cargo operations are slightly
different, but the challenges
are just as great.
“With air cargo operations,
one of the main challenges
is that there are waves and
peaks throughout the day.
For long periods nothing
happens, then all of a sudden
all the cargo comes in and
has to be exchanged between
different planes and go out
again straightaway,” says Dietz.
“So, we are helping the cargo
companies manage the peaks
better and understand as soon
as possible if the turnaround
process for a certain plane has
been derailed and they can
start intervening.”
Dietz adds that start-ups
have the power to change air
cargo, but he counsels that it
takes a lot of time and energy
to break through. “Inertia is
high as nothing has changed
for nearly 50 years, so there are
great opportunities; but you
should have enough money
behind you, and also patience,
so you can afford the time to
wait to see something really
changing,” he cautions.
However, Dietz believes
that air cargo, and more
widely, the whole aviation
sector, desperately need ideas
from start-ups as they are
heading full throttle into a
perfect storm.
“Air traffic is going to
double in the next 30 years
and there’s not a chance in
hell that the ageing ground
infrastructure will be able
to keep pace, unless the
industry acts to modernise its
processes,” he warns.
28 October 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
/www.airlogisticsinternational.com