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nance program. IFS recently conducted an opinion poll during has recently reported that its emergence will be
an aviation industry webinar. When asked what aspect of digital transformative and extremely lucrative, becom-
transformation would lead to the greatest ROI, the top answer was ing a US$115 billion dollar industry by 2035 and
predictive maintenance. employing north of 280,000 people. AAM will
usher in a new age of goods and cargo deliv-
By using multivariable predictive maintenance forecasting algo- ery and short haul and regional commercial
rithms – powered through advanced artificial intelligence (AI) – an travel and commuting. This will involve the use
original equipment manufacturer (OEM), airline, or MRO can in of technologies such as drones, and electric or
turn collect accurate and real time information of the health of hydrogen powered eVTOLs that can service
every on-board system and every sensor-connected component destinations within a city from out-of-town air-
in their fleet. This practice is well established for engines, relatively fields and nodes.
self-contained units, which can produce a 30 per cent performance
efficiency gain over traditional analytics techniques and allows for AAM is gaining traction both privately and pub-
a maintenance team to safely and efficiently service and maintain licly, and investment is increasing. NASA and
aircraft components while maximizing their life and minimizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have
aircraft downtime. launched a joint AAM National Campaign to
propel a positive narrative to foster favourable
Outside of just being applied to engines, another emergent trend public opinion and to explore the issues to
is moving from designed algorithms to advanced machine learning make sure the technology is “safe, sustainable,
models for training the AI, resulting in better results across more accessible, and affordable”. The first certifica-
tions from the FAA to companies manufacturing
commercial AAM type aircraft are expected
later this year. AAM will yield many advantages
to the operators that embrace it. Not only will
it fuel a sustainable revolution within aviation,
but will allow for the creation of a more tightknit
and advanced ecosystem that will allow a single
software or service to be utilized to manage
these assets from design and manufacture,
through operations to maintenance.

As commercial aviation recovers from
pandemic, industry recovery powered by tech-
nology and opportunity is on the horizon. As
2022 begins, aviation will face a new dawn.
As pandemic pressures begin to subside and
aircraft systems. IFS is already piloting this predictive approach with flights begin to increase, towards pre-pandemic
Icelandair, as the airline builds out strategy to be able to see the levels there will also be an increasing pres-
maintenance predictions down to the serial number of its aircraft sure for businesses to automate and digitize.
components. By analyzing data patterns, it can be seen that an Companies can find new efficiency savings and
individual part is expected to fail within a certain timeframe. This allow planes to stay in the skies longer than
information is then proactively fed to the Icelandair planning team ever before through the advances in state-of-
or maintenance control for further action. the-art maintenance software and AI-powered
predictive maintenance.
By embracing the predictive maintenance opportunities AI offers,
maintenance can be forecast forward to better predict failures and Furthermore, new markets are set to open as
allow needed maintenance to be scheduled when convenient. This AAM initiatives look to redefine air travel. This
will have advantages not just in efficiency terms, but also trans- will not kill off traditional aviation, but rather
lates in passenger satisfaction and revenue as more flights fly on augment it by offering a brave new world to
time, every time. I expect these types of programs will become existing airline operators and MROs who can
significantly more of common across airlines in the year ahead find new markets and expand operations to
and beyond. new customer bases. By embracing technol-
ogy, airline operators, OEMs and MROs can
Number 3: maximize the opportunity to recover from the
The first commercial Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft type stresses of the pandemic.
certificates will be granted by the FAA in 2022 – as the market is
due to grow sevenfold by 2035. Another key consideration in 2022
is the emergence of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) (The author is Vice President, Aerospace
vehicles, driving the rise of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). Deloitte and Defense Industries at IFS)

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