AI tools are now being adopted to improve real-time visibility, shorten delays and enhance maintenance procedures
Addressing persistent challenges from labour shortages to network disruptions, global travel data provider OAG has released a report titled Can AI and the Right Data Rewrite the Rules of Airline Performance?, detailing nine key operational issues and how AI tools are already driving measurable improvements.
In a press statement, OAG says that aviation’s growing complexity driven by increased passenger demand is testing current systems. AI tools are now being adopted to improve real-time visibility, shorten delays and enhance maintenance procedures.
It adds that the sector faces talent shortages. The United States alone is short 17,000 pilots, 12,800 mechanics, and 3,000 air traffic controllers. Japanese flag carrier Japan Airlines uses the JAL-AI Report app to reduce post-flight reporting time from 60 to 20 minutes. At Air India, a Tata-owned airline, a copilot-enabled assistant supports operations teams in reallocating crew via natural language inputs.
As per the statement, OAG says that as short-haul flights face pressure to turn aircraft around in under 60 minutes, Eindhoven Airport’s Deep Turnaround system, developed with Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, uses AI and apron cameras to predict departure readiness and coordinate ground crews. In Rome, Assaia’s ApronAI tracks gate-side events using video analytics, reducing delays by 6 pc.
The statement says that Textron Aviation’s “TAMI” assistant, built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, enables engineers to search more than 60,000 maintenance documents instantly, cutting diagnostic time from 20 minutes to 2. Additionally, GE Aerospace has deployed a generative AI system to provide faster access to maintenance and compliance records.
OAG says that AI is addressing fragmentation across teams and systems. In Germany, Frankfurt Airport uses Fraport GPT to streamline cross-department data use. At Dallas Fort Worth in Texas, US, American Airlines’ AI-powered gate tool has reduced taxi times by 10 hours a day and saved 870,000 gallons, or 3.29 million litres of fuel per year.
British data provider says that sudden weather shifts remain a risk. Io’s AI-enhanced forecast platform supports carriers such as United and JetBlue with hyper-local weather predictions, improving planning and rerouting.
According to the statement, these early implementations suggest that AI can reduce inefficiencies without requiring major structural overhauls, supporting airlines as they manage growing volumes with limited resources.
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