ICARUS provides a one-stop-shop for both native-aviation and extra-aviation data which can be effortlessly linked and acquired with trusted data sharing mechanisms and end-to-end data security throughout the whole aviation value chain. In this post, we look at some of the market opportunities for ICARUS and its positioning within the Aviation Sector, also taking into account the ongoing sector crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A look at the current Market
COVID-19 impact still strong on Aviation Industry at least until end of 2021
As of writing (mid 2021), the inevitable key market (and systemic) update is the profound economic crisis generated by the still ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. The inability for people to move freely and travel, in order to safeguard health, has generated a dramatic negative impact starting in March 2020 for the travel industry and airlines in general: 2020 was the worst year for aviation. In June 2021 total capacity was 300.3 million seats, or 39.2% below the same month in 2019 (Source: OAG). If, however, we look at projections about scheduled airline capacity by month, projected until September 2021, we see that the trend is positive and potentially able to recover to end-of-2019 levels by the beginning of 2022 (Source: OAG).
Recovery of Aviation foreseen between end of 2021 and 2022
Indeed, like with other sectors, recovery signs are visible also in the aviation industry as vaccination campaigns take place around the world and governments and organizations have gained more experience to better handle the crisis. There is – of course – a high level of uncertainty and variability at global scale, as regions and even single countries: a) adapt different approaches to containing the spread of the virus; b) show alternating phases of infection peaks. Instability has always been a negative factor for the travel and aviation industries.
This is highlighted in the recent “COVID-19 – An almost full recovery of air travel in prospect” report by IATA (May 2021). The report shows that certain economic indexes had already recovered by the beginning of 2021, with a more optimistic outlook for end of 2021 and 2022. Overall, analyses predict a relative loss (e.g. IATA estimates 2 year loss relating to 2020 and 2021), but an overall growth (and recovery), in the longer term with a CAGR of 3.9% projection for 2030 (Source IATA).
Crisis prompts for efficiency and innovative services, including digital, even more
Eurocontrol, has proposed 3 scenarios until 2024 for Europe which are all somewhat less optimistic compared to the global projections proposed by other analyses. The European aviation organization proposes a first (most optimistic) scenario which forecasts 2019 volumes fully recovered by 2024, a second one forecasting levels to reach 95% the ones of 2019 by 2024, and a third most pessimistic one which forecast 2024 levels to be 75% those of 2019. To this end, the ICARUS presence in the cloud allows it to address a potentially global market even if it is a European product.
ICARUS offer and positioning in the aviation market
ICARUS addresses the aviation market as a whole, and aims to support companies and organizations who work along the whole ‘food chain’ of aviation. ICARUS offers an Integrated Cloud Platform offered as a Service (aaS), which includes a set of comprehensive tools to securely acquire, buy, analyse and use data. In order to make our market offer clear to clients, the various services in the platform are organized in bundles which are somewhat ‘thematic’ and include:
- Aviation Sector Semantic Models Bundle
- Data Collection Services Bundle
- Data Curation and Linking Services Bundle
- Data Analytics Services Bundle
- Added Value Services Bundle
- Data Sharing Bundle
- Ancillary Service Bundles
- Data Security Bundles
Through these comprehensive and innovative tools, ICARUS address some of the current market challenges, in particular offering expert consultancy services for data analysis, development of algorithms as well as Implementation Consultancy, addressing the lack of skilled data analysts and relevant professional profiles in aviation. ICARUS consortium includes highly skilled technical and R&D partners and delivers a recognised ontology and data model leveraged in the Data Collection and Data Curation bundles to facilitate the collection and interoperability of relevant data.
Additionally, by providing an online platform targeted at both data providers and consumers, ICARUS facilitates the discovery and acquisition of data, additionally ensuring security and transparency of the transactions.
The ICARUS Data Analytics bundle offers intuitive tools to create data pipelines, analytics and visualisations, enabling to tackle the current challenge of sensible data driven decisions in the aviation sector.
Finally, ICARUS is a fully cloud-based platform, which can seamlessly be used globally. Aviation stakeholders operating at domestic and regional scale will find the platform particularly beneficial and the ICARUS team is able to offer tailored consultancy and implementation projects for both smaller organisations (such as SMEs and Start-ups) and larger companies and operators.
ICARUS, as an open platform for aviation stakeholders who have an interest in aviation data and analytics services, addresses a broad spectrum of aviation customers, and in particular:
- Data providers who can use ICARUS to provide and sell data. ICARUS offers not only a secure, aviation-data-ready cloud infrastructure where to provide their data but a possible market-base for customers. It also offers value-added services such as data discoverability, transaction management and wallets.
- Data consumers including airlines, airports, aviation services providers and IT companies working in the aviation sector at various levels. Consumers can also include other aviation stakeholders such as national or international aviation authorities and tour operators. These customers are able to buy data directly within the platform by using dedicated services and also acquire additional services.
For all clients ICARUS offers tailored implementation of consultancy services and training will be offered.
Blog post prepared by ENG
Photo by Karine Germain on Unsplash
