Lake Forest-based Panasonic Avionics Corp. sees a growing role for artificial intelligence in the airline industry, which is struggling to come back after a disastrous year due to the pandemic.
Airlines are already actively using and experimenting with AI applications to increase revenues and improve flights for passengers, according to the maker of in-flight entertainment and information systems, which plans to incorporate the new technology in its own products and systems.
“In the current era of the pandemic, AI/machine learning-based automation based on the broad swath of data helps airlines be nimble and more focused on safe passenger experience while keeping the costs under control,” according to Samir Lad, Panasonic Avionics’ head of digital architecture and cloud.
While virtual assistants currently dominate the AI landscape in aviation, there’s more to the story than chatbots on a smartphone app or in-flight entertainment screen.
“We use artificial intelligence to predict where we will have potential dark spots or some minor connectivity interruptions because of weather,” Lad said, adding that AI also aids better fuel efficiency.
The use of AI can help Panasonic Avionics provide for “hyper-personalization in premium classes” when top guests are welcomed on board and then tended to during the flights, he said.
Security, Satisfaction, Food
Thwarting would-be computer hackers is another area, he told the Business Journal on Dec. 4.
“We keep actively monitoring the threats, threats in the sense of bad actors trying to access the data. We can intercept that pretty much in earlier time and shut that down or reject the traffic,” Lad said.
Artificial intelligence can also predict potential issues with the aircraft antennas that provide all-important communications links with satellites, Lad said, and also check on the effects of dramatic temperature drops on airplanes’ metal components.
Keeping passengers and crew happy is a matter that AI can help with on airlines.
“We are looking at any and all avenues to make the cabin crews’ life easy, make passengers’ life easy, which will lead to better profitability and better customer satisfaction for the airlines,” Lad said.
“We are also using it to understand passenger behavior. What do passengers want on a plane? What do they prefer to drink?” Lad said.
For example, AI can be used to predict which movies will be popular at different times of the year so that airlines can “tailor the content” to make the passenger’s flight more enjoyable.
Food ordering for passengers is another area boosted by AI.
“You don’t want to overorder because that will lead to wastage in terms of the cost of the food itself and the fuel will be required to fly unnecessary weight.”
Future Thoughts
“The Internet of Things and devices like inflight sensors are giving AI systems more and more data to work with,” Andrew Barnett, managing director of remote monitoring company FliteTrak in the U.K., said in a blog posting on the Panasonic Avionics website last month.
In addition, Barnett notes that AI delivers smarter predictive maintenance and repair scheduling, along with optimizing fuel emissions. Sensors can be automated to passively gather vast amounts of operational data that can then be analyzed by AI systems to detect—and even prevent—various issues.
Panasonic Avionics plans to move from its campus in Lake Forest to Irvine toward the end of this year. It made a series of job cuts last year, but was advertising for 12 open positions ranging from Android software engineer to quality manager in various locations as of Jan. 4.
It employed some 2,200 people in Orange County as of mid-2020, making it the area’s third-largest aerospace company by workers, according to Business Journal records.
