GE Digital Announces Emirates Deal on Sustainability Software

The deal, which was announced at the annual Dubai Air Show in the United Arab Emirates, provides the Dubai-based airline additional software programs aimed at cutting carbon emissions and fuel costs by managing consumption.

Emirates has agreed to implement GE Digital’s FlightPulse pre-flight module, which provides aggregated data from across the airline’s operation to help pilots with better fuel decisions and more effective departure briefings.

Emirates will be the first GE Digital customer to adopt the software’s new animation capabilities.

Emirates has already been using GE Digital’s FlightPulse post-flight module, which provides secure access to data from a pilot’s individual flight history, allowing them to analyze their flight performance and find areas to optimize operations and efficiency.

The airline also has agreed to use GE Digital’s Fuel Insight, which is a fuel consumption and emissions reduction solution that works by understanding real data from the aircraft and airline.

Although the world’s aviation industry only creates about 3 percent of global carbon emissions, the announcement comes amid an industrywide movement to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Sustainability is core to the future of the aviation industry, net zero by 2050 is the target, and while new technologies are the key to achieving that in the long term, we cannot afford to wait until then,” said Andrew Coleman, general manager of GE Digital’s aviation software business in a statement. “We have the data and solutions that can help the industry make strides toward net zero today, by leveraging data that already exists.”

In just one year, GE Digital’s FlightPulse helped a global airline reduce carbon emissions by 5.71M kg —an amount equal to eliminating emissions from more than 1,200 passenger cars, according to GE Digital.

Emirates flies large aircraft on long-haul routes where fuel saving software could save significant costs and emissions.

While many carriers have been phasing out four-engine airliners from their fleets, Emirates continues to fly the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380, which burns about 10 gallons of fuel per nautical mile, depending on various factors. Emirates also flies A380s on some of the longest routes. From its main hub in Dubai, Emirates flies A380s to Auckland (NZAA), as well as Dallas (KDFW) and Los Angeles (KLAX).

“Operating modern and fuel efficient aircraft has been central to our business model since the airline’s inception,” said a statement by Capt. Hassan AlHammadi, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president of flight operations. “We are fully engaged in an ongoing investment to reduce our environmental impact and these solutions will help us to achieve our goals. We want to empower our pilots with state-of-the-art tools and technology to help them operate flights in a safe and efficient way.”

The new module to FlightPulse will be powered by Applied Informatics and Research Inc.’s FAS software system, the GE Digital statement said.