Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) enhances operational efficiency with wireless technology solutions from Teledyne Controls
Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), a leading provider of aircraft leasing and air cargo transportation, announced that its airline subsidiaries ABX Air, Air Transport International (ATI), and Omni Air International (Omni) are implementing a suite of wireless connectivity and data transfer solutions from Teledyne Controls, to further improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of its airline operations.
As part of a three-fold approach, ATSG’s airlines first initiative was to automate its FOQA (Flight Operational Quality Assurance) process and deploy Teledyne’s GroundLink® Comm+ system, a multi communication device and quick access recorder, to record and wirelessly download flight data after every flight. Using the system, the data is automatically transferred to ground stations for immediate processing and analysis, without the need for manual retrieval. This provides consistent and timely access to the data to support incident prevention and safety management, facilitate troubleshooting, and make better maintenance decisions. The GroundLink® Comm+ system, which was successfully implemented across Omni’s 767 fleet, is being expanded to the ABX Air and ATI fleets.
Secondly, to further improve the efficiency and dispatch ability of their fleet, the ATSG airlines selected Teledyne’s Loadstar® Server Enterprise (LSE), a ground software tool for the configuration, storage and electronic distribution of software parts to individual aircraft, and the enhanced Airborne Data Loader (eADL) that allows software parts to be electronically distributed and loaded onto the aircraft systems. With the eADL connected to the GroundLink® Comm+ system, software parts can be wirelessly transmitted from the LSE ground system directly to the eADL, for loading onto target onboard systems. This facilitates compliance by ensuring that the latest version of software is installed, reduces data loading time, keeps human intervention to a minimum and gives ATSG’s airlines the ability to load their aircraft at multiple hubs, increasing their on-time dispatch performance.
Last, ATSG’s airlines are implementing GroundLink AID+, an add-on solution to the GroundLink Comm+ that provides connectivity for the flight crew and connects commercial tablets and crew devices with existing aircraft onboard data systems. ATSG’s AID+ system is integrated with Jeppesen’s FliteDeck Pro, allowing pilots to quickly and easily access charts and maps on their EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) tablets. GroundLink® AID+ also provides EFB connectivity to the flight deck printer.
“Our subsidiary Omni Air International’s success with Teledyne’s FOQA process and GroundLink® Comm+ system made the decision to expand our Teledyne partnership easy,” according to Ed Koharik, chief operating officer of ATSG. “Our continued investment in service improvements demonstrates our commitment to improve our industry-leading performance and exceed customers’ expectations.”
“We appreciate the trust that ATSG has put in Teledyne Controls and we are very happy to be a part of their forward-looking vision,” says George Bobb, president of Teledyne Controls. “The integrated approach ATSG is taking with our GroundLink wireless solutions will deliver significant operational benefits.”
GroundLink® Comm+ is a versatile communication system that facilitates and accelerates data exchange between airborne systems and ground-based equipment. It supports multiple applications across an airline’s operations, such as wireless distribution of software parts and databases, automated FOQA downloads, real‑time data streaming, cabin/crew connectivity, ACARS over IP and more. These enhanced capabilities are provided through software upgrades and are approved for use on multiple aircraft types via Teledyne STCs.