Kenya Airways Selects GE Aviation for Digital Flight Operations

L-R: Adam Ward (GE Aviation), Sean Moser (GE Aviation), Paul Njoroge (Director Operations, KQ) Andrew Coleman (GE Aviation) Clare Ward (CIO, KQ) & Isam Moursy ( VP, GE Aviation Africa). Seated L-R: John Mansfield (Chief Digital Officer, GE Aviation) & Sebastian Mikosz (CEO, KQ)

Kenya Airways has selected GE Aviation for the Flight Operations suite of digital products across the airline’s fleet of Boeing 737, 787 and Embraer E190 airplanes. Kenya Airway’s fleet adds to the 15,468 unique aircraft assets that are connected to GE Aviation’s digital solutions. Implementation is currently underway with completion this year.

“Kenya Airways was looking for a way to monitor fleet performance, implement and track fuel-saving initiatives across their network and empower their pilots to help drive efficiency,” said John Mansfield, chief digital officer for GE Aviation at the signing ceremony held on June 18th at the Paris Air Show. “The Flight Operations suite provides these insights and is scalable to provide additional functionality.”

The Flight Operations suite integrates GE’s Event Measurement System (EMS), flight analytics, FlightPulse™ and fuel efficiency services. GE’s EMS and FOQA systems are being used on 8,932 aircraft including flight analytics service integrating data sources like flight information, weather, navigation, flight plans, and other operational data to provide valuable insights for airline customers around fuel use and operations. Kenya Airway’s 425 pilots add to the 57,702-airline crew relying on GE Aviation’s Network Crew Optimization.

Paul Njoroge, director of operations, Kenya Airways said, “The partnership with GE Aviation will empower Kenya Airways to optimise its fuel costs and excel in flight operations. GE brings a wealth of knowledge to help the airline fast track efficiencies enabling improvements in operations and customer experience.”

Clare Ward, chief information officer, Kenya Airways, noted that the airline chose GE Aviation because of its leadership and innovation in flight analytics and deep aviation experience. “By partnering with GE, Kenya Airways is accelerating the move to leading-edge technologies in analytics and machine learning,” she said.

“Our aim is to help Kenya Airways reduce their multi-million-dollar fuel bill and increase their overall efficiency, said Mansfield. “The fidelity in our flight analytics, together with the team’s experience from analyzing more than 175 million flights, will enable Kenya Airways to better manage operations with data-driven solutions. We are bringing together analytics with physical assets to help significantly reduce cost.”