overview

The Electronic Flight Operations System (EFOS) has been designed and developed in consultation with commercial airline pilots, cabin crew, managers and national regulatory bodies. It encompasses software aimed at the automation of most flight operations tasks, improved communications, electronic capture of data and tools that allow for auditing/reporting/compliance of this information.

We provide a commercial airline or other type of aircraft operator with:

• effective communications between office staff and a dispersed, highly mobile workforce;
• a way to reduce "difficult to manage" paper work. Paper-based processes are wasteful and often contain valuable data that is not easily accessible;
• a training report workflow system. ATQP (alternative training qualification program) requires the adoption of an electronic training report system to allow trend and performance analysis. Even if ATQP is not a priority, EFOS vastly reduces the amount of paper involved in the recording of training events.
• validated processes that greatly improves auditing and ensures regulator compliance;
• a simplified way to ensure version control and distribution of flight operations manuals to flying and engineering staff;
• provision of extensive audit data for regulator compliance in many areas of flight operations;
• a database that allows analysis of valuable information to improve flight planning (fuel usage), "on-time" performance and emissions reporting.

EFOS draws on the founders’ experiences in commercial flight operations, development of secure networks, intelligent data analysis and software authorship.

EFOS modules are available to cater for the needs of any airline regardless of size, type of operation or legacy infrastructure.

The system consists of four unique and innovative applications.

• EFOS:Web - software and system architecture. EFOS:Web is the foundation of the overall system. It can be used standalone or integrated with other "back-office" databases and systems;
• EFOS:Efb - software as installed on a Tablet PC or compatible device. EFOS:Efb is an optional component of EFOS;
• EFOS:Mobile - Smartphone technology to transmit vital data securely back to the EFOS database. EFOS:Mobile is an optional component of EFOS.
• EFOS:Lite - a basic set of EFOS tools (at a lower cost) that handles crew notices, libraries and operational reports. EFOS:Lite runs stand-a-lone, but can easily be upgraded to a full implementation at a later date.

Many of the existing processes that are replaced by EFOS are time consuming and generally wasteful.

EFOS software provides a way for all applications, libraries and data to be shared and synchronised across a global network. The application provides managers, operations officers, flight planners, passenger service agents and crew controllers with the tools they need to manage the day-to-day operation of the airline and enhance customer service.

EFOS gives unprecedented access to the regulator for the purposes of auditing. It encourages co-operation and openness in the relationship enjoyed by the airline and the authority.

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Characteristics of EFOS:  

EFOS is fully outsourced with no requirement to employ additional IT support staff, developers or engineers to maintain hardware, monitor availability of service or house-keep networks. The system is securely hosted by industry-leading providers on high specification servers with a track-record of 100% security and availability. EFOS is web-based and universally available to all staff from office, home or hotel using any popular platform or browser.  

EFOS uses industry and open standards: it captures and analyses valuable data and can then securely share this with other systems.  

All EFOS modules provide detailed audits for internal quality control, regulatory compliance and key data analysis.  

Evoke Systems Ltd owns the intellectual property and can therefore offer additional bespoke development to EFOS if there are specific requirements.

Cost & Operational Benefits

• Reduced number of staff who can be released from time-consuming inefficient processes to be more productive and pro-active;
• The same number of staff can support a larger operation: there is no realistic limit to the number of users, flight reports, training records, library books, crew notices or other information that the system can handle. The airline can grow without further investment in supporting infrastructure;
• Less office space/IT support/peripheral services required;
• Fuel cost savings by better flight planning, crew education, loading and performance monitoring. Even very small fuel savings can have a large impact on costs;
• Improvements to fuel hedging policy due to accurate fuel consumption predictions by base/season/city pair;
• Environmental/emissions/tax benefits through less fuel used;
• Fewer resources consumed due to less paper/printing/postage/faxing of key data. As well as reducing the amount of costly paper-based processes, a digital system will improve consistency, reduce errors and eliminate extra work;
• Facilitation of qualification for ATQP: as well as improving training value, training overheads are reduced significantly;
• No requirement to devote time to prepare regulatory audits: these are dynamic and built-in to EFOS.
• EFOS is able to collect data in a structured way to improve business intelligence through the use of intelligent data analysis methods;
• Compliance with EU OPS reporting and auditing requirements: non-compliances may result in punitive action and are expensive and time-consuming to rectify;
• Rapid distribution of safety/security information and reporting/investigation/analysis of these aspects of the operation which, if not adequately managed, can be the most costly of all. EFOS will become an integral part of the client airline’s safety management system. The report originator can remain involved and connected to the process, a facet which improves their experience and ability to quickly learn lessons. It also allows the crew member to add follow up information to an existing report;
• Oversight of the operation via management dashboards ensuring the best use of a manager’s time and thereby enhancing efficiency;
• The European Emissions Trading Scheme will require accurate and structured data collection to enable a monitoring and reporting plan for all flights. This is a mandatory requirement from January 2010: the consequences of inaccurate or incomplete reporting will be, from a financial perspective, very damaging. All that is needed to comply with the ETS mandatory reporting and monitoring legislation is available in the EFOS Electronic Journey Log.