Airport Ground Handling Case Study
Australia’s largest airline needed to find more efficiency and savings within its ground handling operations. The airline formed a project steering committee of key stakeholders and domain experts from a range of departments. Operations, finance, and technology experts came together to determine what was available, evaluate solutions and determine the best option for the airline’s future.
Highlights
Overview
Monitoring of ground support equipment (GSE) for Australia’s largest airline.
Key Requirements
- Improve aircraft turnaround time.
- Reduce maintenance costs by moving to hours-based programs instead of calendar.
- Rationalise the GSE fleet.
- Increase situational awareness of GSE (locate GSE quickly).
- Reduce APU fuel consumption by ensuring GPU’s are available.
Asset Type and Number
5,000 ground support assets across 40 types, including:
- Aircraft tow tractors.
- Baggage tugs.
- Cargo loaders.
- Ground power units.
- Belt loaders.
Solution Overview
- Custom white-label platform (website and mobile app) in airline brand and colour-scheme.
- A range of IoT devices and accessories covering both powered and unpowered asset types across Thinxtra’s 0G network and cellular network.
- Oyster Sigfox and Blackhawk G5-E02 devices.
- Sync service with asset management system, and all telemetry data is forwarded to airline’s gateway for further integrations.
- Custom device installation and provisioning application.
- “Unserviceable” app function to tag GSE as down for critical maintenance (unavailable).
- Custom status icons and colour indicators for fast map filtering.
- Custom reporting suite.
Sites and Implementation
Initial Proof-of-Concept and trial was held over 6-months (starting in 2017). Upon successful POC, the solution was rolled out to major and regional airports across Australia. Blackhawk managed the installation project over 10 months. There were multiple customisations carried out within the first six months of full rollout. System has been live since 2018 (five years to date).
Key results
Lower maintenance costs. Fewer assets. Improved labour costs and efficiency with more than 1,000 ground handlers and airline staff utilizing the mobile app over the past 5 years.
The Problem
The steering committee’s primary objectives were to significantly reduce costs and improve performance of ground handling and related services within the airline.
Much of the Ground Support Equipment (GSE) was aged (older than 20 years). Without any real-time data over GSE use, it was difficult to implement any fundamental changes across GSE maintenance, utilisation and operations.
Oftentimes, critical GSE was either down for maintenance or simply lost; ground staff could not locate an appropriate asset when they needed it. This also resulted in the assumption that more GSE needed to be purchased, hence greater capital expenditure.
Without usage data, maintenance could only be carried out on calendar-based schedules. The most in-demand equipment, which was typically over-utilised, were under-serviced and more prone to breakdowns, and lesser used equipment was being over-serviced, resulting in unnecessary cost. It also resulted in slower turnarounds, delays and put additional stress on ground staff and ramp managers, particularly at peak times.
The Challenge
The airline’s steering committee decided to look at connecting all GSE as a way of locating assets and collecting data.
The airline issued an international RFP to invite tenders for solutions. Thinxtra, as the exclusive owner and operator of the 0G Network in Australia and New Zealand, learned of the RFP and approached Blackhawk as a proven IoT solution provider to look at the requirements and see if there was a fit.
Several major international telematics and IoT vendors tendered for the solution. The committee chose to shortlist four proposals and conduct both a thorough due diligence review as well as a proof of concept (PoC) to evaluate each proposal on its merits.
The steering committee issued a set of key outcomes required for the PoC, including demonstration of telemetry data retrieval from all asset types, real-world reporting data to confirm system accuracy and multiple site deployments to test network coverage.
The Solution
The Proof-of-Concept phase of the project ran for six months and met or exceeded the key objectives, including:
- Accurate capture of engine runtime across a range of machinery types
- Accurate measurement of utilization across key equipment types
- Accurate status and location updates facilitating improved operational efficiency and service times
- Accurate positioning data
- Efficient on-time servicing of machinery based on hours
Blackhawk was chosen for the full fleet deployment, which was carried out over 10 months, encompassed 5,000 IoT device installations across all major and regional airport locations throughout Australia.
Thinxtra’s 0G Network is LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) powered by Sigfox Technology. It offered several advantages for many of the unpowered asset classes. As almost all the GSE operated within well-defined airport locations and typically travelled less than 5 kilometers from airports for maintenance or to near-by logistical operators, LPWAN was a viable network option for many assets such as rolling stock. Thinxtra also offers a fully managed LPWAN network which means that customers do not have to self-manage any gateways or infrastructure. As the majority of GSE are non-powered, a battery-powered GPS tracker using the Thinxtra 0G Network was selected. It was chosen for its low running cost, long battery life and all-weather capabilities.
For powered equipment such as trucks, buses, GPUs and pushback tractors, the Blackhawk G5-E02 device was selected with GPS, 4G communications, and a wide range of accessories. These included fuel float sensors, external antennas, IO extenders (for additional inputs) and CAN bus modules.
In addition to the IoT devices a range of additional elements were introduced as requirements, including:
- A white-label mobile app to enable ground support staff to locate equipment quickly when required. This app also allows ground staff to undertake digital mobile inspections of assets and report asset breakdowns. When a breakdown is reported, that asset is immediately marked as “unserviceable” within the system and its status icon and colour changes on the map.
The Blackhawk solution features high-visibility asset icons which change colour depending on availability, utilization and maintenance status.
Integration was also undertaken with the airline’s backend systems including INFORM’s GroundStar modules. This allowed data from Blackhawk’s platform to update other related systems automatically. As a result, various operational processes and procedures are now updated in real-time, further increasing overall ground support efficiency and communication across the wider airline and airport operations.
Working with Thinxtra
“We wanted to deliver value to the end customer through data insights. [The Airline] is a key example where numerous benefits have been found and unlocked using simple location data collected from GSE equipment,” commented Thinxtra Chief Operating Officer , Sam Sharief.
“Blackhawk working in partnership with Thinxtra has managed to unlock the true value of the data, using the right technology mix and project managing the deployment of the hardware and software to BAU to meet and exceed customer expectations,” he continued.
Thinxtra operate their 0G Network across Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Macau, providing low-power, wide area network IoT communications. The 0G Network connects telemetry for low-power objects that are sending small amounts of data on a continuous or frequent basis.
“Blackhawk’ was able to articulate the business value and extract maximum value to the customer, which is a customer centric and focused organisation,” said Sharief.
- Sam Sharief
- COO, Thinxtra
The Result
Once the full deployment was completed, operational and maintenance improvements were measured through reporting over a further 12-month period. During this phase, several additional enhancements and key discoveries were made:
01
Critically, a substantial amount of underutilized GSE was identified. This allowed the airline to downsize its GSE fleet by up to 10 percent on some asset classes, and redirect that capital to other areas of the business. Other underutilised GSE were redeployed to other regional ports.
02
Switching from calendar servicing to utilisation servicing based on engine hours helped lower maintenance costs by up to 10 percent.
03
Uptime and reliability of the most in-demand equipment also increased.
04
With increased GPU (ground power unit) location visibility, ground staff were able to ensure ground power units were available to meet the arrival of aircrafts when needed. This helped to reduce APU (auxiliary power unit) fuel burn and increase operational efficiency.
05
Ground handling teams were able to operate leaner and find equipment much more quickly when needed, contributing to significant OTP (on-time performance) improvements.
The Equipment
5,000 pieces comprising more than 40 distinct asset types including:
Buses
Buses
asset-security-types-gse
Forklifts
Pushback Tractors
Pushback Tractors
Air Conditioners
Air Conditioners
Passenger Stairs
Passenger Stairs
Pallet Loaders
Pallet Loaders
Toilet Trucks
Toilet Trucks
Compressors
Compressors
Pallet Trailers
Pallet Trailers
Barrage Barrows
Barrage Barrows
Cargo Loaders
Cargo Loaders
Work Stands
Work Stands
High Lifts
High Lifts
Baggage Tugs
Baggage Tugs
Ground Power Unit
Ground Power Unit
Belt Loaders
Belt Loaders
Towbars
Towbars
About Blackhawk
Blackhawk enables real, measurable digital transformation. We connect machines, vehicles and assets to service teams, operational teams, and your customers through a combination of IoT devices, managed SaaS and smartphone applications, creating transformative customer engagement, service excellence and increased revenue.
Since 2005, Blackhawk has enabled businesses and financiers to track and manage their vehicles and assets. We work with New Zealand’s largest enterprises, including Spark IoT, to deliver branded and managed SaaS systems that are both trusted and proven.