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Whether enlisted to maximise fuel efficiency, retrofit a companys maintenance facilities or start a new airline from scratch, Airbus Consulting Services is changing the airline industry, one client at a time.

Captain Mohamed Ahmed, as Director of Operations for Air Ara-bia, prides himself on his companys standard of excellence. Part of our policy is to continually challenge whatever we do, trying to achieve better results. We dont take anything for granted, he says. Which is why, when he was looking to maximise fuel and flight efficiency for the airlines fleet, composed of 27 Airbus A320s with 44 more on order, he turned to Airbus Consulting Services. Any airlines fuel bill is the biggest share of the pie. The costs, especial-ly these days, are extremely high. So we were looking for further cost-reduction initiatives.

Airbus Consulting Services audited every aspect of Air Arabia, from engineering to operations. While they found that Captain Ahmeds team was on the right track, their resulting list of recom-mendations would change the way the airline does its operational monitoring and communication. One of the most impactful results was the implementation of a programme called FEMIS, which fo-cuses directly on fuel-saving initiatives. The software extracts flight information from a planes black box and delivers data on the many different factors that can affect fuel usage. Captain Ahmed and his crew were then able to analyse this data for insights into how they could optimise fuel consumption, like using a single engine to taxi, modifying the aircrafts descent profile or finding the ideal altitude to deploy the landing gear. The consultation was extremely useful. We have already saved up to three percent of our total fuel bill, and it gave the management better tools to base their decisions on in the future. Today, we are operating more efficiently than we did even a year ago. And we hope that a year from now well be even more efficient.

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Airbus Consulting Services was formed in 2004, when feedback from Airbus customers consistently pointed to an industry need for support and performance enhancement in operational areas. When I started in 2006, we had roughly 1012 service lines and were pri-marily looking at maintenance and engineering capabilities for Air-bus operators, says Annick Pedron, Head of Consulting Services at Airbus. Weve since doubled the amount of services offered to our customers, including fl ight operations, fuel effi ciency and software relating to airlines core business operations.

Its time to fl y with Airstart!

Today, Airbus consultants have worked on more than 200 projects globally, advising clients on subjects ranging from facing environ-mental changes to anticipating evolutions in regulations and tech-nology. We combine concrete experience in airline organisation most of our team comes from airlines with our own experience as an aircraft manufacturer. Our specifi city is that, being in the aircraft

business, we establish and keep long-term relationships with our Consulting Services clients who are fi rst of all our Airbus custom-ers, Pedron continues.

An understanding of corporate ethos and client feedback is what guides Airbus consultants to develop new services. Working with an African airline is very different than working with an Asian airline, says Serge Golofi er, Flight Operations Consulting Services Director at Airbus. People simply dont react in the same way, so we have to adapt our own recommendations for maximum ef-fectiveness. In 2010, Golofi er worked to create an African airline from scratch through Airbus Airstart programme. Created in 2007, Airstart provides capability assistance for airlines in start-up, rapid growth or transformation structuring existing airlines organisa-tions and helping new airlines get off the ground. In this instance, a countrys national airline had gone bankrupt, and it was impor-tant for the government to reestablish one. Utilising some of the resources of the former company, the consulting team worked for eight months to get the new airline fl ight-ready. I went through every single department of the fl ight operations,

from crew management and training to operations control. As a consultant who has worked for airlines for 15 years, I have my own benchmarks that help me defi ne best practices for them and increase their operational effi ciency, says Golofi er. The analysis generated a list of recommendations that were agreed upon with the airline, and from this they developed a plan of execution for the months ahead. The fi nal test is witnessing that fi rst fl ight with the crew and passengers on board theres the evidence youve achieved your goal.

No room to cut corners

Not only operators benefi t from Airbus Consulting Services: Main-tenance, Repair and Overhaul facilities can as well. Srdjan Miskovic, director of JAT Tehnika, a Belgrade-based MRO, realised in 2011 that the company needed to extend its maintenance capabilities to the Airbus aircraft families. Airbus covers a huge part of the mar-ket, and we thought, Why are we missing out on this? When it came to acquiring the training that JAT Tehnika needed in order to work on Airbus planes, Miskovic went straight to the source. Our philosophy here is that in order to maintain aircraft, you have to learn from the manufacturer, not an outside consultant, because its just not the same. If you cut corners, youll have problems later. Pedron agrees. When we deliver a recommendation, were never compromising safety. We know our products, we know our opera-tions. We want to look at effi ciency while maintaining the safety of the entire operation.

As a result of its collaboration with Airbus Consulting Serv-ices, JAT Tehnika was able to attain everything it needed to get its maintenance certifi cation from the aviation authorities, including trained personnel, an adapted facility and all the required tools and equipment to begin maintenance. We worked together in a small friendly partnership approach to fulfi ll wishes and possibilities without compromising safety. The training they provided for us is one of a kind, Miskovic refl ects. This capability is important be-cause when we approach airlines about performing maintenance on their fl eet, we can say we learned from Airbus, we work together with Airbus. Thats something signifi cant. Its a big reference.

Jess Holl

airbus Consulting services offers a variety of services to customers, including ight operations, fuel ef ciency and software relating to airlines core business operations

Do you want to contact Airbus Consulting services?Please write to: customerservices.consulting@airbus.com

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