Singapore Airlines (SIA) today announced the launch of its Digital Innovation Blueprint through the unveiling of key bilateral partnerships with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Economic Development Board (EDB) and National University of Singapore (NUS).
The Digital Innovation Blueprint seeks to establish SIA as a digital aviation and travel experience leader by significantly boosting the airline’s digital capabilities. It is part of the Airline’s ongoing three-year transformation programme.
“With the launch of our Digital Innovation Blueprint, we aim to be the leading digital airline in the world”, CEO of SIA Mr Goh Choon Phong said at the launch.
The Airline has been building an open innovation culture through continual digital training and projects, such as in digital innovation and agile methodologies. It was previously announced that SIA set up a 3,200 square-feet Digital Innovation Lab which serves as a collaborative workspace that allows SIA staff to work with innovative companies including start-ups, established incubators and accelerators, to stimulate new ideas and facilitate collaboration in a creative environment.
According to official press statement, SIA is now taking its Digital Innovation Blueprint to the next level through extensive collaboration partnerships. All collaboration partnerships aim at building capabilities to increase effectiveness and efficiency through digital technology and open innovation as well as to develop new business opportunities.
Speaking at the launch, as quoted by Straits Times, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) Mr S. Iswaran stated that “digitalisation is transforming, if not disrupting industries, and catalysing new growth areas, including in the aviation and aerospace industries.”
Mr S. Iswaran added that there will be “significant impact across the value chain – from customer service and airline operations, to aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, repair and overhaul.”
The partnerships with CAAS and EDB aim at establishing joint support to foster a vibrant digital aviation and aerospace ecosystem. To boost the attractiveness of Singapore as a travel and aviation hub in the Asia-Pacific region, the collaboration will focus on driving traveller-centric convenience with digitally-enabled experiences and engagements. This includes personalisation of passengers’ end-to-end travel experience and transforming ground handling processes. The Digital Innovation Blueprint is also in line with other key initiatives under the Air Transport Industry Transformation Map (ITM) which OpenGov reported earlier.
In sealing its partnership with A*STAR, a Master Research Collaboration Agreement (MRCA) has been signed. The research body will help identify and develop applied research partnership opportunities to help improve the operation of SIA. The goal is to develop innovative solutions and accelerate the adoption of digital technologies that help lower maintenance costs, decrease aircraft delays, and aid SIA in enhancing service standards. Some of the research areas include data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual and augmented reality.
According to the report by Straits Times, one of the SIA-A*STAR collaboration uses A*STAR’s data analytics expertise to develop a way to predict when critical parts of aircraft need to be fixed or replaced using existing aircraft maintenance data. It is understood that such work has started on A380 aircraft parts and will be progressively extended to other aircraft types in SIA’s fleet.
With the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU), NUS will be a knowledge partner of SIA’s Digital Innovation Blueprint. Under the first MOU, joint research projects will be established between SIA and NUS Faculty of Business, Faculty of Computing, and Faculty of Engineering. The industry-academia exchange targets research on solutions for business challenges through joint research and development (R&D) activities, seminars, conferences and workshops in the areas of digital aviation and travel experience.
Under the second MOU, SIA will collaborate with NUS Enterprise to jointly develop an innovation ecosystem around the themes of Digital Aviation and Travel Experience, to create and grow new technologies, start-ups and talents that can solve SIA’s businesses challenges via a joint accelerator programme.
