Airline navigation service, computer flight planning and fuel management
Astral has world class internal capability to assist airlines wanting to review their navigation and flight planning procedures. This can involve a simple review of company routes loaded into a computer flight planning system (CFPS) through to a full technical assessment of CFPS requirements for an existing or start-up airline. Astral's experience ranges from complex long-haul planning including ETOPS to very high volume repetitive planning in the European environment.
Increasingly airlines are looking towards flight planning improvements to save fuel costs. Our experience has shown that significant fuel savings can be made in this area, especially by increasing the level of route optimisation used in a CFPS.
CFPS data and data obtained on-aircraft, such as actual fuel used, out-off-on-in (OOOI) times are also essential inputs to a comprehensive airline fuel management system. Astral has expertise available in these areas to assist clients to implement solutions best suited to their needs.
We can also provide advice on air-ground data links and the development of "paperless" cockpits and just-in-time dispatch processes.
Recent and current assignments for a major UK/Europe short-haul operator include:
- Assistance with preparation of business case for CFPS supplier change
- Benchmarking various CFPS performance
- Provision of expertise for implementation of a replacement CFPS including loading company routes, preparation of user acceptance testing documentation, test environment operations including error checking and city pair plan validation
