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Gulf Air acquires state-of-the-art flight safety system

19th August 2009 Print
National carrier Gulf Air, in its ongoing efforts to provide enhanced passenger services, has recently upgraded its flight safety standards by acquiring an integrated state-of-the-art Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) system, also known as Flight Operation Quality Assurance (FOQA) system.

The airline has recently signed a three year partnership with Austin Digital, Texas, USA - a leading FOQA provider - to implement the complete infrastructure at Gulf Air headquarters.

FDM is the systematic and pro-active use of digital flight data from routine operations that helps an airline to improve its fleet safety. It is a well accepted and mandatory part of today's safety management systems in global aviation industry.

"Gulf Air has a well-established Accident Prevention and Flight Safety Program and regularly upgrades its systems and procedures so that it maintains the highest flight safety standards," says Gulf Air Chief Operating Officer Capt. Chris Cain.

"Safety is the most important element for any airline and this is achieved by several factors such as reporting systems, aircraft maintenance and engineering, crew training and selection and company procedures."

"The new integrated FDM system offers a robust and sophisticated functionality to analyse and optimise our daily flight operations helping us increase our fleet's technical dispatch reliability."

"The system also offers remote access to in-flight data that facilitates a more efficient maintenance planning and in our daily aircraft system's troubleshooting processes. Furthermore, the service offers a solid basis for additional financial savings in the fields of guarantees & warranties, ATC charges, fuel savings, etc." Capt. Cain concluded.

The data provided by the FDM is not only used to flight safety department but can be a valuable tool in areas such as maintenance (troubleshooting and engine shop), navigation services, operations planning, environmental aspect, aircraft performance, technical engineering, maintenance scheduling and cargo.

Besides setting up and implementing the FDM service, Austin Digital will also provide continuous support to technical system operation and flight safety/flight operations efficiency know-how after completion of the project.