Innovation ~ easyJet reveals concept designs for hybrid plane

easyJet has unveiled plans for a revolutionary zero emissions hydrogen fuel system for its aircraft which could save around 50,000 tonnes of fuel and the associated CO2 emissions per year

As a part of its strategy of reducing its passengers' carbon footprint easyJet has unveiled plans for a revolutionary zero emissions hydrogen fuel system for its aircraft which could save around 50,000 tonnes of fuel and the associated CO2 emissions per year.

easyJet is committed to reducing its passengers' carbon footprint and has set new targets for 2020 which will see a reduction of 7% over the next five years compared to ‎it‎s emissions today, which are 81.05 grams CO2 per passenger kilometre.

This follows a decrease of 28% over the last 15 years. easyJet invests in the latest technology, operates efficiently and fills most of its seats which means that an easyJet passenger's carbon footprint is 22% less than a passenger on a traditional airline, flying the same aircraft on the same route. ‎‎

For the hybrid plane concept the airline has taken inspiration from students atCranfield University, a global leader in education and research in technology and management, who were asked to develop ideas for what air travel might look like in twenty years’ time, as part of a competition to celebrate easyJet’s 20th birthday in November 2015.

Hydrogen fuel cell

easyJet will now work with its industry partners and suppliers to apply the cutting edge technology much sooner with a trial set to take place later this year.

The hybrid plane concept utilises a hydrogen fuel cell stowed in the aircraft's hold. This innovative zero-emissions system allows energy to be captured as the aircraft brakes on landing and is used to charge the system’s lightweight batteries when the aircraft is on the ground (much like the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) found in Formula 1 cars).

The energy can then be used by the aircraft – for example when taxiing - without needing to use their jet engines. Due to the high frequency and short sector lengths of easyJet’s operations, around 4% of the airline’s total fuel consumed annually is used when the airline’s aircraft are taxiing. easyJet’s aircraft average 20 minutes of taxi time per flight – the equivalent of around four million miles a year – akin to travelling to the moon and back eight times.

Each aircraft would have motors in their main wheels and electronics and system controllers would give pilots total control of the aircraft’s speed, direction and braking during taxi operations. The system would therefore reduce, if not remove altogether, the need for tugs to manoeuvre aircraft in and out of stands, delivering more efficient turnaround times and increased on time performance.

The only waste product is fresh clean water which could be used to refill the aircraft’s water system throughout the flight.

Award winning engineering

The concept has been developed by easyJet’s award winning engineering director Ian Davies and his team working with some of the ideas from students combined with easyJet’s own conceptual thinking.

Head of Engineering, easyJet, Ian Davies, commented: “At easyJet, we are continuing to apply the use of new digital and engineering technologies across the airline.

“The hybrid plane concept we are announcing today is both a vision of the future and a challenge to our partners and suppliers to continue to push the boundaries towards reducing our carbon emissions.

“It’s also a great example of the benefits of our strategic relationship with Cranfield University.”

Strategic partnership

easyJet and Cranfield University signed a three year strategic partnership agreement last year to share innovation and knowledge.  

As part of easyJet’s 20th birthday activities, students at Cranfield University were asked to compete in four categories; cabin design, aircraft design, airport experience and in-flight experience. 

Judges at easyJet and Cranfield received a raft of pioneering advances from the aerospace students.  Further innovative ideas included dynamic wings which change shape in flight, a super-efficient 'shark skin' coating to reduce surface drag and, in the cabin, ultra-light weight seats carbon fibre seats incorporating wireless phone and tablet charging panels. 

easyJet operates a fleet of over 240 Airbus A319s and A320s with an average age of just 6 years old. The airline will start taking delivery of A320neo aircraft from June 2017 and the new planes will be around 13% - 15% more fuel efficient than the planes they are replacing.

Source ~ Atn Aero

EasyJet Places Artificial Intelligence at the Heart of its Growth and Customer Plans

Alberto Rey-Villaverde is charged with ensuring easyJet takes full advantage of the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence.

The announcement by easyJet towards the end of 2015 that it had appointed its first Head of Data Science served to highlight the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) to the airline industry. For many, AI brings to mind voice recognition software on smartphones or computers that can outwit human competition when gaming. Beyond this, however, AI has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate, and this is certain to have a major impact in the air transport industry.

At easyJet, the man responsible for ensuring the low-cost carrier can make the most of these opportunities is Alberto Rey-Villaverde. When he took up the role two months ago, easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall highlighted the scope of the job in hand and the potential rewards for the airline. “Tapping into the huge potential of AI by accelerating our use of data science right across the airline will improve our efficiency, bring down costs, increase revenue and drive greater customer satisfaction,” she stated.

Adding value across the organisation

According to Villaverde, the difference between analytics and AI is that the former has been about diagnostic capability and looking backwards, whereas the latter is focused on predictive capability, which can help organisations better understand and plan for the future.

Speaking to FTE, he said: “AI will be embedded in many organisations within five to 10 years and airlines will also benefit from it. Because of the nature of the business we might be able to implement this type of solution in certain areas, whilst in other cases it might be a bit more difficult.

“I like to think that when we say AI we are talking about a more sophisticated set of algorithms; with the risk of being simplistic, we are trying to go beyond averages. I believe that these tools will be of common use and easily accessible in more or less the near future. The important factor here is how to get those tools today and how we can add value to the different functions across the organisation and for our customers.”

Creating a more natural experience

Villaverde suggested one of the key goals is to create seamless experiences by using the technology to better understand customers and their demands. “We think the basic idea here is that when passengers interact with easyJet, being via the website or during their flight, their experience would look and feel both smooth and natural. We have lots of ideas about how that will happen and there are different teams working on those. Advanced analytic's capabilities play a crucial role to support those initiatives and this is one of the areas where I will be focusing in my role.”

A better understanding of individual customers will naturally create more opportunities to personalize various elements of the travel process. On this front, Villaverde explained that “personalization needs to sit hand in hand with privacy”. “I definitely think this is possible,” he added.

Beyond personalization, easyJet is also exploring other ways in which AI can bring about benefits and Villaverde explained that the increased emphasis on intelligent technology is about complementing, not replacing, the human workforce. “We have already started to implement AI at easyJet and the projected outcome was never to reduce the workforce. It was more about empowering it,” he said. “In the same way that spreadsheets have been empowering people across different organisations to do better work for the last 30-odd years, technologies such as AI will play the same role. People will be able to dedicate their time to more complex and sophisticated tasks as they remove things that can be handled by AI. We have seen this in those areas where we have tried it.

“Advanced analytic's can also help us to make better decisions when we need to handle disruptive events such as adverse weather, air traffic control strikes, predictive maintenance or a better in-flight offering. On top of that, easyJet is a growing organisation and we hope that AI will allow us to continue growing.”

Like many other organisations, airlines are very much in the early stages of trying to properly understand how AI can be integrated into their business, but Villaverde pointed out the successful use of complex reservations systems and pricing algorithms over the years as evidence of carriers’ solid track record of exploiting new technologies. He also stressed, however, that this “early adoption brings the issue of legacy systems and how to adapt those to the new ways of buying flights and the new expectations from the customer side”.

Of course, there will be obstacles to overcome along the way, but Villaverde and his team are keenly embracing the challenge.

Source ~ FTE Global