SITA's eWAS helps African airlines weather the storms

According to research by Cirium, weather phenomena such as heavy rains, thick fog and flooding are a significant cause of flight delays around the world and costs airlines billions of dollars annually. Adverse weather can also cause up to US$500k in damage to a modern aircraft engine.

 

Cockpit view of Sita's eWAS that can help African airlines weather storms.  Image:  SITA

As Africa’s aviation industry looks to recovery, local airlines cannot afford to not have reliable weather tracking software. The eWAS Pilot weather monitoring solution – a development by SITA, the global technology provider to the air transport industry – minimizes the associated cost of weather-related flight disruption as it provides accurate 4D weather forecasts and real-time updates from various sources to warn pilots about unforeseen weather hazards such as thunderstorms, lightning, turbulence, strong winds and possible icing.

 

This technology allows pilots to make informed proactive decisions to re-route flights in order to avoid significant weather incidents where needed. The technology also develops more economical, intelligent and flexible flight route plans ensuring strong on-time performance while reducing fuel burn and carbon emissions.

 

Airlines have taken a financial beating, however more intelligent operations to optimize costs and ensure long-term sustainability for airlines is the solution to the survival of the airline industry.

 

A number of African airlines are making use of eWAS Pilot, including Congo Airways and Air Austral. Rodrigue Gentil, Head of Flight Operations, Engineering and New Applications Support at Congo Airways, said: “In the current situation, the requirements for cost optimization and operational efficiency are very high, but we see them as the path to the future as well. SITA’s eWAS Pilot application enables our pilots with real-time situational awareness and helps us create more economical flight plans, optimize fuel usage, support on-time performance, and deliver a superior passenger experience. The future is digital and is enabled by new generation flight operations.”

 

Olivier Jay, Vice President Flight Operations at Air Austral, said: “Air Austral strives to pioneer superior service enabled by the latest technology, and SITA’s eWAS Pilot application with its future-proof capabilities is state-of-the-art in the market and supports us achieving better cost management and on-time performance.”

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