Easing the airline industry’s jet lag

The airline industry is in trouble. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its travel restrictions and shutdowns, has left many aspects of the sector in shambles. Carriers and airports alike are looking to rebound as people go back to air travel, feverishly hiring staff to replace thousands laid off and revising schedules to meet demand.. So far, the results have been disastrous for airlines and passengers alike.

Delays and cancellations have now become commonplace, if not the norm. From June 14 to June 23, US airlines alone cancelled more than 8,700 flights, and almost a quarter of those remaining were delayed by an average of 55 minutes. Amid this chaos, the industry continues to use decades-old practices and technologies.

This is not the way people want to fly.

On June 30, OurCrowd will host ‘Investing in Solutions to the Airline Industry’s Jet Lag’ online where a top panel of experts will discuss how innovation can help the aviation industry get back on track. Guests include SeeTrue CEO Assaf Frenkel, Freightos CEO Zvi Schreiber IntellAct CEO Udi Segall, and Melissa Drew, Digital Transformation Executive Advisor at IBM.

Turning a passenger plane around from landing to take off requires 360 separate tasks, from refueling to baggage handling. Even before the recent spike in fuel and wage costs, each minute on the ground costs an airline $64, adding up to annual turnaround costs of $62 billion, plus $20 billion for flight delays and another $8 billion for tarmac collisions.

Airport Management

IntellAct uses artificial intelligence to monitor existing airport video feeds to identify bottlenecks and streamline the process. The company just signed a contract with Indra, a multibillion-dollar provider of airport management systems worldwide, integrating Intellact’s technology into Indra’s platform.

“People see that the status quo that we had pre-pandemic with respect to the aviation industry is not sustainable, both for operational efficiency and also from the climate perspective,” says Udi Segall, CEO of IntellAct, which is now funding on the OurCrowd platform. “Our partnership with Indra marks a step in the right direction. We are offering the airlines, airports and ground handling operations a multibillion-dollar proposition. The room for improvement is gigantic.”

“Airports are overwhelmed with the amount of passengers,” Segall says.” Technology can play an important role by automating many of the steps. The eagerness of the industry to adopt new technology because of the current situation will accelerate the pace of innovation in the aviation industry for years to come.”

“IntellAct, together with Indra, is providing the industry with exactly what is needed in order to fuel it forward in a more sustainable way,” he says.

Security screening.

Ever since 9/11, airports around the world have beefed up security but passenger and luggage screening is time consuming and not always accurate. SeeTrue leverages AI and computer vision to revolutionize security screening altogether, increasing passenger throughput by 30 percent, shortening security lines and reducing operational costs.

SeeTrue recently inked a collaboration with US-based security technology manufacturer IDSS which will see its AI technology integrated into advanced CT scanners, certified by the Transportation Security Administration, and the European Civil Aviation Conference for explosives detection.

Freightos has created a game-changing online freight and shipping marketplace poised to address the global supply-chain crisis. Its WebCargo platform makes cargo shipping just like booking an airline ticket online, liberating the freight industry from phone calls and email bookings. WebCargo partners include Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, IAG Cargo, SAS Cargo, Etihad, AirBridgeCargo, Qatar Airways and TAP Air Portugal.

Freightos plans to go public on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger agreement with Gesher Acquisition Corp. at a valuation of $435M.

Investing in Solutions to the Airline Industry’s Jet Lag will be streamed online on Thursday, June 30, at 7PM Israel time. Register HERE