Viva Air Airbus A320s will be equipped with data loading, transmission and cellular service avionics from Teledyne Controls. (Teledyne Controls)
Viva Air will equip a fleet of 50 new Airbus A320s with wireless data loading and transmission technology designed to improve aircraft health monitoring and parts loading among other aircraft electronic functionality.
The Colombian airline received its first new A320 in October, with delivery of the remaining 49 expected over the next five years. Those aircraft will be equipped with a flight data interface and management unit, application generation software and a wireless quick access recorder from Teledyne Controls.
According to Teledyne, Viva Air will also become the first Latin American carrier to subscribe to its new integrated aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) data link terrestrial cellular service, which was first unveiled under its partnership with Sitaonair at the 2017 Paris Air Show. The service is enabled by the use of a SIM card in Teledyne's GroundLink Comm+, which can provide a data link over terrestrial cellular IP connectivity while simultaneously collecting recorded flight data from the airline's fleet and delivering it to the maintenance team.
Viva Air selected Teledyne after seeing several other airlines experience success using the avionics manufacturer's wireless flight data acquisition, analysis and transmission technology, according to Nicolas Takahashi, VP of Maintenance.
"Teledyne was able to prove its success in the market with other airlines such as Ryanair, Viva Aerobus, and others which also helped us make the decision," Takahashi said.
VivaAerobus added Teledyne's flight data interface management unit to its fleet of 52 Airbus A320s back in 2015 in an effort to automate the processes for accessing and downloading flight operational quality assurance and aircraft condition monitoring system. The Mexican carrier also became a Teledyne flight data analysis service customer in 2017 to transition to a cloud-based software applications and internet of things flight operations model.
Ryanair's technical services division uses Teledyne's wireless quick-access recorder to monitor engine degradation and other aircraft health performance indicators on its fleet of Boeing 737s.
Takahashi sees the opportunity for Viva Air to quickly benefit from Teledyne's services.
"One of our values is efficiency, and with this new provider, we will be able to optimize processes, both in the speed of flight information and savings in maintenance in execution of tasks," he said.