Safe flights: look the technology that Aerolineas Argentinas applies

In Aerolineas Argentinas' hangar 5 at the Ezeiza airport, the largest aeronautical shed in Latin America, there are two Airbus A340-300B passenger planes of the firm, one of which is under a review process by which the that all its components are inspected. It is a required work before they are returned to the "lessor", the company that rented them for almost two decades.

While maintenance staff clean the interior of the LV-FPU registration ship, which appears "disembowelled", with the seats without the textile materials that cover them, a technician enters the cockpit with a Microsoft Surface tablet and a keyboard and He sits in one of the pilots' seats.

It then connects the device with the aircraft systems and begins to review, through a specific aeronautical maintenance software, different electronic and computer components of the aircraft.

The presence of the Surface in the cabin is one of the manifestations of the transformation that began this year in the company, which will include the introduction of a thousand iPad Mini tablets that will be deployed throughout the fleet to accelerate maintenance and management work of flights.

iProUP observed this process of digital transformation in a visit to the aircraft hangars in Ezeiza and its data center, the technological "brain" of the flag company.

According to Flavio Mostini, IT manager of the company and who served as a guide during the visit, Aerolineas Argentinas finalized the implementation of a digitalization program for its maintenance equipment that involved an investment of 30 million dollars and the consequent savings in times and costs.

In the last stage the mechanics operate in hangars with tablets that avoid the use of paper and streamline processes. Those in hangar 5 have tablets that allow them to streamline processes.

The arrival of the Boeing 737-Max in the company's fleet was "a big change of culture, a break", due to the high percentage of "electronic" components of these aircraft, said Mostini.

Thus, the technical employees of the hangars are responsible for the maintenance of the software in addition to the mechanics of the aircraft. When the ship arrives at the Ezeiza hangars, its system is connected to the Wi-Fi network and a record of its failures and mechanical, electronic and computer behavior on the flight is downloaded.

Digitalization process
It is the culmination of a work plan in the digitalization of the mechanical area of the company, which started more than a year ago. The use of tablets allows monitoring of all maintenance tasks, consultation of planes inside the plane without having to descend from it and quick access to the history of interventions carried out.

All this information is integrated with a management software, which guarantees its traceability. Additionally, the registration in books that should have a double seal before each intervention on the aircraft is not done.

Before the implementation of this tool, the mechanics had to settle each task in books with hundreds of pages that were in desks at the foot of each plane.

In the same way, technicians had to approach computers located next to these books to access plans, which made their use inefficient. All the mentioned tasks can be done thanks to a WiFi connection installed last year in the hangars.

Mostini explained that it is a double fiber optic ring of 80GBps, which has been operational since September. The first stage of the plan started in the first half of 2018 with the renovation of the data center, which was enabled in January of that year.

The manager explained that in the second semester Wi-Fi was installed in the workshops and the AMOS management system was launched. And now the process is completed with the instrumentation of devices that streamline the daily operation of the mechanics.

Tablets in the air and on the ground
In the framework of the strategic plan launched in October, the company adds investments of more than 30 million dollars in order to achieve one of its critical objectives: the digital transformation of the company, both in its internal processes and for the customer.

The resources were allocated to the start-up of a new data center, network infrastructure, fiber optics, new software, as well as electronic devices.

Under this premise, a few days ago the implementation of tablets in Ezeiza's Hangar 5 was completed for all aircraft maintenance tasks carried out there, with the consequent optimization of time and resources.

To make this possible, the company made previous investments in the infrastructure of hangars, with 2.4 million dollars for the installation of fiber optics and Wi-Fi networks in those same workspaces.

These Wi-Fi links also allow information to be exchanged safely between the hangars and the airport boarding gates, separated by two kilometers.

If there was a need to update information prior to the flight, that trip had to be made before on board of trucks, with the consequent blackberries. Thanks to an investment of 1.5 million dollars, all pilots will receive an iPad Mini tablet with all the information of their flight plans.

This tool will allow a better management of the data necessary for the development of their task, as well as the traceability of the same. The delivery of the same ones is in its initial phase: 50 pilots already received them so that they realize tests during 45 days and, once finalized, the delivery will be completed to the rest of the endowment of pilots.

The tablets were already present in the wide-body aircraft and this year they will reach the rest of the fleet. In addition to the maintenance systems, they include digital cartography, performance information and aircraft manuals.

In the work route is contemplated the possible implementation of the digital signature by the personnel referred to the maintenance and operation of the ship.

With the aim of improving the experience of all customers, within the first half of the year the new website will be launched together with a totally renewed application, which required an investment of US $ 4.5 million in the first stage.

The company made an investment of US $ 9.8 million in the modernization of its computer systems. In that process, a new data center was set up, with the incorporation of two IBM servers, and progress was made with the expansion of the storage capacity of information.

The new "data center" has a TIER III certification: 99.98% reliability, duplicate safety systems that prevent disruptions, resistance to water ingress, fire-retardant gas system, and thermal and electronic network stability of the latest generation.

In addition, it is an anti-magnetic room, which protects the equipment. It was installed by the Aceco company, the same company that built the treasury rooms of the AFIP and Anses centers. The company uses the SAP management software for the administration of the servers and Saber for the commercialization of the tickets.

A singularity of this data center: it is one of the first in the country to apply the concept of software defined networks (SDN), in this case provided by Cisco.

This modality allows organizations to accelerate the implementation and distribution of applications, drastically reducing technology costs through the automation of policy-based workflow.

The data center is linked to Telefónica and Telecom networks. It is divided into two areas: communications and storage. In addition to IBM servers, it includes Dell and EMC equipment.

Aeronautical cloud
In parallel, progress was made in the reengineering of some information processes, which led to tasks now performed in the cloud, in this case, Microsoft Azure, saving the company's computing capacity.

For example, the Lotus Notes system was left aside and Office 365 was hired for administrative tasks, which is not in the flagship company's computers, but in a "cloud" system, generating savings and more efficient use. of the resources.

In addition, with an investment of 11.3 million dollars and five years of work, Aerolíneas Argentinas launched in September 2018 the replacement of its aircraft maintenance control system (MRO).

The AMOS, a software of Swiss origin, guarantees traceability of each spare part in the whole fleet, giving more support to the security tasks and also generating savings in purchases and efficiency in the management.

This software is the system used by the largest airlines in the world and the transition to full application will end on September 3. It allows the company to efficiently manage materials and aeronautical spare parts, generating new savings opportunities and thus supporting the path towards sustainability of the company.

Among other benefits, the management through this tool increases labor productivity as well as it allows the company to generate new income, since it enables the performance of maintenance work to third parties.

Some 150 companies use this tool, both airlines and those specialized in aircraft maintenance to increase their operational and financial efficiency, engineering and logistics.

Thanks to these programs, the mandatory arrangements sent by aircraft manufacturers, in the case of Airlines are Boeing, Airbus and Embraer, are integrated into the systems, accelerating their implementation.

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