SITA launches blockchain consortium to help aviation industry track aircraft parts

Air transport IT solutions provider SITA, along with other industry partners, has launched a new blockchain association to track, trace and record aircraft parts.

The new consortium, dubbed the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) chain, will include members such as Bollore Logistics, Cathay Pacific, Flydocs, HAECO group, Ramco systems and HAECO group.  It will form a part of SITA’s global blockchain alliance, a wider SITA led forum working towards blockchain adoption.

Blockchain solutions are expected to help companies track aircraft parts and secure information shared between stakeholders.

Each year, the MRO industry processes 25 billion parts and adds three billion new parts. This is done through 20,000 suppliers who provide parts for a market worth $100 billion a year.

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“In an industry as interconnected as ours, the ability to share and record common data in a secure way without giving up control of that data is fundamental to driving new efficiencies in air travel. This is particularly true for the MRO sector,” Matthys Serfontein, President of Air Travel Solutions for SITA, said.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates that the use of blockchain could increase aerospace revenue by 4%, while cutting $3.5 billion in MRO costs.

The MRO alliance will use blockchain to record and track two different types of information from an aircraft part, a digital thread and a digital passport.  The digital thread will provide details such as real-time status, chain of custody (a chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of events) and back-to-birth traceability (ability to track the entire lifecycle of the part back to the production stages).

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Meanwhile, the digital passport will contain other crucial data such as certification of airworthiness to prove ownership.

As part of the alliance, SITA will act as the air transport community’s IT provider and manage governance for the alliance.