A330neo
Delta Air Lines A330neo aircraft. Credit: ©Chris Rank, Rank Studios.

Airbus has formed a new digital alliance with Delta Air Lines aimed at developing new predictive maintenance and health-monitoring solutions for global airline customers.

The cross-fleet solutions will leverage each of the partners’ expertise in airframes, systems and engines. It will be accessible through a unified portal powered by Airbus’ Skywise platform.

The predictive maintenance solution will be first used by Delta Air Lines.

Airbus SVP digital solutions head Norman Baker said: “This digital partnership with Delta is a world first, encompassing the major skills needed by airlines to keep their aircraft operationally ready.

“Predictive maintenance, powered by Skywise, is now widely proven with our customers as the best way to achieve comprehensive insights into aircraft operation issues, enabling them to maintain higher levels of fleet availability.”

Delta TechOps serves as the maintenance, repair and overhaul provider business of Delta Air Lines.

Airbus and Delta TechOps partnered in 2015 to jointly develop a predictive programme called Prognostic Risk Management (PRM).

In October 2018, the parties signed a multi-year agreement for Airbus Skywise Core Platform and Skywise Predictive Maintenance (SPM) application.

Skywise is installed on Delta’s A320 and A330 aircraft.

Delta SVP technical operations Don Mitacek said: “This partnership with Airbus will further develop predictive maintenance capabilities, bringing the deep analytical prowess of Airbus’ Skywise platform in conjunction with the rich technical and operational knowledge of the Delta predictive maintenance team.

“We look forward to significant enhancements of prediction accuracies through this combination.”