Azul Becomes 1st in Americas for Minute-by-Minute Aircraft Flight Tracking by Adopting Aireon Space-Based ADS-B
March 26, 2019– Azul Linhas Aéreas has become the first airline in the Americas to exceed modern flight tracking safety standards by embracing truly global, real-time flight tracking capabilities onboard aircraft, with SITAONAIR’s best-in-class AIRCOM® FlightTracker.
The Brazilian low-cost carrier has upgraded to SITAONAIR’s advanced cutting-edge FlightTracker option, which integrates AireonSM space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data from FlightAware. This gives the airline enhanced awareness of the precise position, speed and altitude of its full airborne fleet, anywhere in the world.
SITAONAIR has now activated its enhanced FlightTracker capabilities aboard Azul’s fleet of A320s and A330s, Embraer 190 and 195s and ATR 72-600s. This was completed in November 2018, ahead of the official launch of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) 15-minute aircraft tracking standard. With the Aireon system, Azul will even exceed the ICAO’s 15-minute standard by receiving aircraft position reports at a standard frequency of at least once per minute.
Carlos Pellegrino, Azul’s OCC Director, says: “Since founding Azul in 2008, SITAONAIR’s AIRCOM® applications have been our first choice for reinforcing our airline’s safety operations. By upgrading to SITAONAIR’s pioneering edition of FlightTracker, complete with Aireon’s space-based ADS-B data from FlightAware, we can track our entire fleet with enhanced awareness, delivering operational precision, and following ICAO’s recommended best-practice.”
Dominique El Bez, SITAONAIR Vice President, Product and Strategy, says: “We truly believe SITAONAIR’s FlightTracker is the best solution on the market, and are incredibly proud to work with our cherished customer Azul to be the first in the Americas to activate global, real-time flight tracking technologies with our unrivalled solution.
“By incorporating Aireon’s space-based ADS-B data, via FlightAware, into our pioneering tool, any airline using SITAONAIR’s enhanced AIRCOM FlightTracker can not only exceed the ICAO’s 15-minute flight-tracking recommendation, but be empowered to boost their operational efficiency and safety in an increasingly congested airspace – delivering precision, enhancing awareness and reinforcing safety, thereby minimizing costs and supporting the passenger’s inflight experience.”
The Aireon space-based ADS-B data system is hosted on the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation, which consists of 66 low-earth orbit crosslinked satellites with an additional nine satellites in orbit serving as spares. The constellation was completed in January of this year and is expected to be fully operational in the coming weeks. Aireon has partnered with FlightAware to provide global flight tracking through FlightAware’s products and partners like SITAONAIR.
To discover SITAONAIR’s AIRCOM FlightTracker, check out our videos and webinar; discover how you can achieve real-time flight tracking with space-based ADS-B data; download our whitepaper; or explore www.sitaonair.aero.
'Future–proofing' the IFE installation means providing an onboard network with sufficient bandwidth that the airline will never have to tear apart their airplane to re-wire to install upgrades. Fiber-to-the-Seat™ provides a fiber optics network running at a gigabit per second – High-definition video is only the beginning – who knows what the hot, killer apps will be 10-20 years from now?!”