Predictive maintenance is becoming increasingly important in the MRO sector. At the MRO Europe trade show, which is taking place in London until October 17, Airbus and Delta announced the finalization of a large digital alliance unifying the knowledge accumulated by Airbus Services thanks to its digital portal Skywise and the skills of Delta TechOps, the maintenance branch of Delta Air Lines. The alliance will cover the expertise of both parties in all areas of aircraft maintenance, including engines.

“This partnership with Airbus will further develop predictive maintenance capabilities, bringing the deep analytical prowess of Airbus’ Skywise platform in conjunction with the rich technical and operational knowledge of the Delta predictive maintenance team. We look forward to significant enhancements of prediction accuracies through this combination”, said Don Mitacek, Delta’s SVP Technical Operations.

“This digital partnership with Delta is a world first, encompassing the major skills needed by airlines to keep their aircraft operationally ready.” He added: “Predictive maintenance, powered by Skywise, is now widely proven with our customers as the best way to achieve comprehensive insights into aircraft operation issues, enabling them to maintain higher levels of fleet availability”, said Norman Baker, Airbus’ SVP Head of Digital Solutions.

It took three years to build this alliance. In October 2018, Delta entered into a multi-year contract with Airbus to apply Skywise Predictive Maintenance to its A320 and A330 fleets – covering around 400 aircraft. Moreover, in June this year, Airbus and Delta joined forces to offer A220 component repair and material services for Airbus’ A220 Flight Hour Services (FHS) program.