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Digital Aircraft Operations is an IATA initiative, that supports airlines in identifying areas and implementing solutions for more efficient operations. These areas of interest include flight operations, air traffic management, ground operations, aircraft maintenance activities, supply chain and logistics, as well as the transfer of aircraft assets.
Taking-off into the second hundred years of commercial flight, airlines must embrace the digital operation standards of an ever increasing fleet performance delivered by e-enabled and "connected" aircraft. The vision is to explore efficiencies and provide implementation guidelines to airlines in all areas of operations.
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IATA 2026 Predictive Maintenance Workshop
Date: 22-23 June 2026
Venue: Madrid Marriott Auditorium Hotel & Conference Center (Avenida de Aragon No 400, Madrid, Spain)
Digital Aircraft Operations in the Tech Ops area
The series of airline technical operations’ benefits brought by the transition to digital operations was assessed both in terms of their potential impact and their immediacy. This generated several priority projects, which IATA initiated or actively embarked on in the fields listed below.
Please note that the listing order is not intended to suggest any priority ranking of the areas included.
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in aircraft maintenance
- Aircraft Health Management
- Predictive Maintenance and Predictive Analytics
- Electronic Log Book / eTechLog
- Digital signature and electronic maintenance record keeping
- Scheduled Maintenance Data Standard (SMDS) in S1000D
- Promoting Spec 2000 XML standards for aircraft configuration, electronic maintenance records, RFID, etc
- Auto-ID / RFID aircraft parts tracking
Initiative reports to the Technical Operations Working Group (TOWG) under the Operations Advisory Council of IATA.
Downloads:
- Roadmap for an Airline Implementation of Electronic Logbook / Technical Log (pdf) - 1st Edition (2024)
- Position paper: Adopting Aircraft Electronic Records (pdf) - 1st Edition (2024)
- Use of Electronic Documents on Board and in Aircraft Technical Operations (pdf) - survey (2023)
- White paper: From Aircraft Health Monitoring to Aircraft Health Management (pdf) - 2nd Edition (2023)
- Paperless Aircraft Operations: Business Case Support Template, November 2018 (xlsm)
- Paperless Aircraft Operations: Business Case Support Mindmap, November 2018 (pdf)
- IATA Guidance Material for the Implementation of Paperless Aircraft Technical Operations (pdf)
RFID:
Maintenance Contract Templates:
- IATA Master Engine Maintenance Agreement (main section, rev. 2016) (pdf)
- IATA Master Engine Maintenance Agreement (fillable Annexes) (doc)
- IATA Master Airframe Maintenance Agreement (main section, rev. 2014) (pdf)
- IATA Master Airframe Maintenance Agreement (fillable Annexes) (doc)
Electronic Signature: