GE Aviation and China Eastern Airlines have signed a deal under which the US engine maker will provide China Eastern with digital analytics covering some 700 aircraft.
The three-year agreement calls for GE to provide the airline company with more than 50 digital products related to engine and aircraft maintenance, flight safety, operational efficiency, marketing and revenue, says GE in a media release.
China Eastern and affiliates China United Airlines and Shanghai Airlines operate some 580 aircraft, most of them powered by engines made by GE or CFM International, a company owned jointly by GE and Safran Aircraft Engines.
The fleet includes nearly 200 737s powered by CFM engines, 20 GE90-powered 777-300s and about 150 CFM56-powered Airbus A320 family aircraft, according to Flight Fleets Analyzer.
China Eastern and its affiliates have outstanding orders for another roughly 50 aircraft, and China Eastern also recently signed leases for additional 737s, 787s, Airbus A320s, A330s and A350s.
The China Eastern deal marks the latest digital service win for GE, which, like other major aviation manufacturers, has in recent years sought to expand its presence in the rapidly-increasing domain of so-called “big data”.
Four years ago, GE launched a company-wide software product called Predix that can process data generated by virtually any asset, from aircraft to wind turbines to power grids, the company has said.
Predix processed data from some 36,000 aircraft engines in 2017, the company told FlightGlobal last year.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
