Three years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the airline is claiming a world first with the activation of 100% global tracking of its flights.
The flight tracking uses layered systems from Aireon, FlightAware and SITAONAIR's AIRCOM FlightTracker.
Following the tragic loss of MH370, the industry mobilized to identify flight tracking solutions which could be implemented with minimum disruption to airline operations while ensuring coverage for normal aircraft operations and distress coverage during flight irregularities.
Working with the industry, the International Civil Aviation Organization launched a Normal Aircraft Tracking Implementation Initiative (NAII) in 2015, to help study solutions in the market and recommend standards for deployment of flight tracking systems.
Malaysia Airlines’ aircraft operations centre will receive minute-by-minute position updates of its airborne fleet globally. Deployment of these layered solutions required no new avionics or modifications to the airline's aircraft.
Aireon, FlightAware and SITAONAIR announced a new partnership in November of 2016 to deliver Aireon data via FlightAware to SITAONAIR customers. FlightAware provides a combination of global air traffic control data, aircraft datalink information and terrestrial ADS-B data through a secure streaming data feed.
Paul Gibson, portfolio director, AIRCOM, at SITAONAIR, says:
"Malaysia Airlines will be at the cutting-edge of real-time flight-tracking technology. With access to up-to-the-minute reporting, the airline will know the location, heading, speed and altitude of all aircraft in its fleet, at all times, and be alerted to any exceptions."
SITAONAIR proved the viability of global flight tracking and constant aircraft communications during its collaboration with the Solar Impulse project.
The company's systems allowed Solar Impulse central command in Monaco to track progress of the aircraft as it made its historic solar powered flights around the world, keeping in constant contact with the aircraft and its pilot through a combination of data, voice and video communications.
FlightAware provides global flight tracking solutions to more than 10,000 aircraft operators and service companies as well as over 12,000,000 passengers.
FlightAware CEO, Daniel Baker, says:
"Malaysia Airlines will seamlessly gain real-time flight tracking ability of its fleet, even in areas where regional Air Navigation Service Providers do not have full surveillance. The result will be that the airline will have greater visibility of its aircraft’s exact location."
Aireon’s space-based ADS-B system will be operational in 2018, shortly after the completion of the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation which will consist of 66 operational low-earth-orbit satellites providing global coverage.
The first ten Iridium NEXT satellites carrying the Aireon ADS-B hosted payload were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on January 14, 2017 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Once the Aireon system is operational, airlines already using SITAONAIR’s AIRCOM FlightTracker will automatically see new Aireon data appear in their systems, with no modifications required to their aircraft.