Qantas Group and GE Aviation sign strategic Flight Efficiency Services agreement

The Qantas Group and GE Aviation have signed a comprehensive agreement for GE’s Flight Efficiency Services, which will help Qantas and Jetstar increase operational flexibility and fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions by drawing on GE's industry-leading navigation services, data and analytics expertise. The agreement includes flight efficiency and Flight Operations Quality Assurance (eFOQA) analytics, as well as renewal of a long-standing relationship for the supply of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures across many airports in the Qantas network.

The agreement will support one of the Asia-Pacific’s largest airline groupings, which includes Qantas, Qantas Freight, QantasLink and the Jetstar Group, operating almost 300 aircraft to 85 destinations.

“We are pleased to expand the agreement with Qantas to cover our Fuel Management solution,” said Alan Caslavka, president of Avionics & Digital Systems for GE Aviation. “GE is no newcomer to solving complex problems, whether it is for Aviation, Power & Water, Healthcare, Software or other industries. GE has utilized the same time-tested experience and expertise to develop an effective and reliable solution for Aviation. GE invested heavily to develop a new way to manage the complexities of airline operations via GE’s Flight Analytics System.”

Qantas and GE will collaborate on specific initiatives to support the transformation strategy such as flight crew awareness, procedure compliance, operational insights and airspace utilization improvements. GE’s support will include access to its full suite of analytical tools as well as process improvement, six sigma, change management and other domain expertise.

”We’re delighted to be expanding the long-standing relationship between Qantas and GE with a renewed focus on fuel efficiency,” said Alan Milne, Qantas’ Head of Fuel & Environment. “Greater fuel efficiency is an operational, financial and environmental priority for the Qantas Group, and at the heart of the biggest transformation of our business for two decades. We’re big admirers of GE’s innovation in this area and we look forward to working even more closely together in years to come.”

GE Aviation’s Flight Analytics System is the only product on the market that integrates flight data with operational data (flight logs, flight plans and load sheets), weather data, trajectory correction, navigation databases and terrain data. This will deliver innovative ways to monitor and improve the operation (how the aircraft is flying and how it is being flown) and the operational domain (where it is operating to).

“Qantas is a leading customer of our new digital product offering which offers the most extensive analytics experience in the industry, with more than 40 million flights and 120 million flight hours processed,” said Michael Thompson, general manager of Digital Solutions for GE Aviation, “GE currently provides analytics for more than 4,500 aircraft worldwide, processing data from all the major fixed wing manufacturers from wide-body to corporate jets.

Qantas and GE pioneered the B737-800 fleet’s use of Required Navigation Performance in Queenstown, New Zealand in 2004. Since then, Qantas has progressively implemented RNP procedures at over 20 airports in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. The new agreement will improve the airline’s operational flexibility by expanding RNP access to all suitably qualified and equipped fleets in the Qantas Group.

Qantas, QantasLink and Qantas Freight have been customers of the GE eFOQA solution since 2011, with Jetstar taking up this service in April of 2015. The new agreement will give Qantas Group access to the latest eFOQA product features and capabilities.

The Qantas Group has a strong focus on fuel efficiency and carbon emissions reduction as a cornerstone of its AU$2bn transformation strategy. GE will provide access to its Fuel Management product offering, which includes world-class operational efficiency data analytics and process improvement capabilities.

GE Aviation's flight efficiency and digital solutions is harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet and using software and analytics to make its machines smarter and more efficient. GE is using data analytics to identify ways to reduce operating costs, increase aircraft utilization, optimize the design of terminal area navigation procedures and improve the business of flight.

Qantas Group

The Qantas Group is a diverse global aviation business, comprising Qantas Domestic, Qantas International, the Jetstar low-cost carrier group and Qantas Loyalty. Its fleet numbers almost 300 aircraft with an average age of around seven years – the youngest in two decades – including the acclaimed Qantas A380 and the Jetstar Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Qantas Group airlines carry around 50 million passengers each year. www.qantas.com

GE Aviation

GE Aviation is an operating unit of GE and a world-leading provider of jet engines, components, avionics, digital and integrated systems and navigation services for commercial and military aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.geaviation.com.

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

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