Spire partners with RDC Aviation to provide metadata to airports, airlines

Space-based data analytics provider and satellite operator Spire Global will provide its Flight Report, which uses satellites to deliver metadata for flight, aircraft and airline support, to technology and data services provider RDC Aviation . [caption id="attachment_57137271" align="alignright" width="300"] Spire CubeSats providing surveillance / Source: Spire Global[/caption] The value of the agreement, announced Tuesday, was not disclosed. The smart airport market, which includes digitalization , increased automation and advanced data management, is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2030, according to a June report from market research firm Fortune Business Insights . The satellite data analytics market is also expected to more than triple over the next decade, climbing to $6.1 billion in 2031 from $2 billion in 2021 , driven by an increased need for efficient data amid the pandemic and global conflict, Claude Rousseau , research director at Northern Sky Research , previously told Connectivity Business News . Customers need real data RDC conducts research to maintain datasets on various aviation-related activities and costs — including air fares, route profitability, airport user charges, airline fleets and sustainability metrics — delivered to customers through online applications. This is the first time the United Kingdom-based data services provider has partnered with a satellite operator, Peter Hind , chief executive at RDC, told CBN . Using data from Spire’s ( NYSE: SPIR ) ADS-B satellites will enable RDC to provide more accurate performance and cost metrics to its customers, allowing airlines to “fine-tune their route network,” he said. Without satellites, airport invoices must rely on estimates rather than actual data, which can lead to underestimating or overestimating aeronautical revenues by about 2%, Hind said. “Combining Spire and RDC data aims to reduce this to closer to 0%,” he said. Airports are upping their game Airports and airlines are enlisting satellite service and telecommunications providers to digitalize operations. In May, Dallas-based AT&T ( NYSE: T ) was selected by Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to provide wireless upgrades and Internet of Things services for various operations, including baggage handling and monitoring airport assets, Mike Youngs , vice president of information technology services at DFW, previously told CBN . [caption id="attachment_57137272" align="alignright" width="300"] DFW airport terminal / Source: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport[/caption] Efficiency and security needs are driving the airport digitalization movement, Johan Varghese, head of commercial and partnerships for aviation at Vienna, Va.-based Spire, told CBN . “The increasing reliance on satellite-enabled services in airports and the aviation field is transforming the industry’s landscape,” Varghese said. “From precise navigation and weather monitoring to enhanced communication and surveillance, satellites play a pivotal role in ensuring safer and more efficient air travel.” Satellites also provide more comprehensive surveillance than traditional radar signals because satellites can relay data over large bodies of water and mountainous terrain that can be harder to reach via radar, he said. Varghese in a 2022 blog entry titled “Leveraging data to tackle the challenges of the air cargo boom” said that restrictions on passenger travel during the pandemic created capacity problems that require new solutions to meet surging air cargo demand. “Air cargo represents 2%-3% of global trade movements, but pre-pandemic, around 54% of that was transported in the hold of passenger aircraft,” Varghese said in the blog entry. Additionally, supply chain-induced bottlenecks and delays in container shipping have led to a shift in cargo capacity demand from sea to air, due to air travel being quicker and more cost-competitive, Varghese said. Live, accurate satellite-enabled flight tracking data can assess the movements of cargo aircraft and better track supply and demand between cargo hubs, enabling shippers to optimize available capacity on global routes and overlay the data sets with intelligence on other factors that can impact shipment such as weather , he said. According to the company’s website, other transportation companies that use Spire’s data include: San Ramon, Calif.-based energy corporation Chevron Corp. , which is also a partner of Cambridge, U.K.-based IoT provider Wyld Networks ; Greek digital freight brokerage charting platform VesselBot ; Swedish Internet-based live flight tracking service Flightradar24 ; Swedish automotive company Polestar ; and Denmark-based clean tech company supporting shipping decarbonization ZeroNorth . Varghese told CBN that Spire was selected by Switzerland-based airline intelligence provider ch-aviation in April to deliver global flight analytics and insights to the company. The value of the agreement was not disclosed. “The aviation industry has been relying on satellite data for decades,” Varghese said. “Over the last decade, expansion of its use cases and the adoption has accelerated thanks to the democratization of accessibility to space data by new space companies.” Spire has been producing its Flight Report since 2019. Earlier this year, it released the latest version, which includes enhanced metadata categories such as aircraft type and enables real-time tracking of both scheduled and unscheduled flights, Varghese told CBN . This article originally appeared on Air Cargo Next's sister publication Connectivity Business News . Join Air Cargo Next for the second Air Cargo Tech Summit on Monday, Sept. 18, and Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place in Belgium. For more information on the summit and to register, click here .

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