Introducing a new industry reference architecture for airlines and airports
The aviation industry is entering a new era: airlines and airports worldwide are on the brink of transformation, driven by the power of generative AI. This powerful technology is creating new value at every stage of the aviation ecosystem, revolutionizing the way we fly and operate. From personalized travel offers to instant responses for customer service requests, AI is enhancing every step of your journey, making travel smoother and more personalized than ever before.
Generative AI is also transforming the core operations of airlines and airports. Research shows that up to 35% of flight delays can be reduced through AI-powered decision-making—saving time, reducing stress, and increasing safety for both travelers and staff.1
AI is also reshaping the workforce. With streamlined tasks and smarter tools, staff can dedicate more time to enhancing the passenger experience—both on the ground and in the air. AI-powered personalization can increase revenue per passenger by 10 to 15%. At the same time, intelligent AI chatbots can reduce customer service costs by up to 30%, creating significant value for both airlines and airports.2
This is the future of aviation. AI is not just a tool—it’s a revolution, creating value across the entire industry. Microsoft has developed a new industry reference architecture enabling AI for a seamless traveler journey, efficient airline operations, and enhanced airport operations.
Seamless traveler journey
The experience begins the moment a traveler considers a trip. They can interact with an AI-powered mobile app to explore options, book flights, and receive personalized recommendations. Throughout their journey, the app serves as a digital assistant, providing real-time updates on flight status, gate changes, and the weather at the destination. At the airport, travelers can navigate through a touchless experience, from check-in to security, using biometric identification and e-boarding passes on their mobile devices. The app continues to assist by guiding them to their gate, offering lounge access, and updating any travel alerts.
Once on board, the digital assistant ensures a comfortable experience by allowing travelers to control in-flight entertainment, order food and items from the onboard shop, and adjust seating preferences through their mobile device. The journey concludes with the app facilitating a smooth arrival process, including customs and baggage claim guidance, and arranging for ground transportation. Throughout this journey, AI and machine learning algorithms work behind the scenes to anticipate needs, offer timely assistance, and personalize the travel experience.
Air India passengers, for example, now get answers to all their questions from planning to arrival at their fingertips. Their AI.g virtual assistant, powered by Microsoft AI services, quickly proposes a travel itinerary for passengers, finds answers about check-in options and flight status, recommends the best food options, finds the next business lounge or helps with lost luggage. Another example is Saudia Airlines. The flag carrier of Saudi Arabia developed an AI-powered travel companion for their passengers using Microsoft technology to enable travel-related services like: planning and booking, refund management, and exploring new destinations.
Efficient airline operations
AI working on data platforms enhances efficiency and customer experience across various segments of the airline value chain.
- In aircraft handling, AI-powered predictive maintenance can forecast potential issues before they occur, minimizing downtime and ensuring timely operations. Ground support equipment can be optimized using AI algorithms to streamline processes and reduce delays.
- In ground operations, AI can manage complex logistics, from baggage handling to fuel management, by analyzing vast amounts of data to optimize workflows and resource allocation. This leads to smoother operations and can significantly reduce turnaround times for aircraft.
- Flight operations benefit from AI through advanced analytics that can assist in route planning, weather forecasting, and fuel consumption optimization. By leveraging historical data and real-time inputs, AI can provide pilots and flight planners with insights that lead to safer and more cost-effective flights.
- For marketing and sales, AI enables personalized customer experiences by analyzing customer data to tailor offerings and promotions. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and revenue as airlines can offer the right product to the right customer at the right time.
- In customer support, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide around the clock support, handling inquiries and resolving issues promptly. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also frees up human agents to deal with more complex queries, enhancing overall service quality.
Lufthansa, for example, developed the one data platform built on Microsoft Azure to provide self-service applications and leverage cognitive AI services like image and speech recognition.
“Leveraging Microsoft Azure’s robust cloud capabilities, we’ve transformed Lufthansa’s operations with a unified data platform. This innovation empowers us to optimize every aspect of our service, from ground operations to in-flight experiences, ensuring punctuality and safety across our global network—continuing to use AI will help us advance to the level.”
Ganesh Swaminathan, Head of Platforms, Lufthansa Group Digital Hangar
American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, is using Azure as its preferred cloud platform. Their team members now use the ConnectMe app for the latest crew information while the airline is using AI to reduce taxi time and turn times at gates.
Microsoft AI
Enhanced airport operations
Generative AI and data platforms also play a pivotal role in enhancing airport operations, catering to the needs of tens of thousands of passengers daily. Airports can optimize their critical infrastructure management, such as energy, water, and climate control. The integration of AI into security and emergency services significantly enhances their capabilities, providing a safer and more secure environment for travelers. Connected transportation systems such as buses and trains benefit from predictive analytics and real-time data processing capabilities, leading to improved scheduling and passenger flow management.
In the realm of commerce, which encompasses retail stores and restaurants within the airport, generative AI and data platforms offer valuable insights into consumer behavior, enabling businesses to tailor their services and inventory to meet the dynamic needs of passengers.
The logistics and supply chains for cargo, fuel, and baggage are also transformed by these technologies, with AI-powered systems facilitating better tracking, forecasting, and management of resources. This results in a more streamlined and cost-effective operation, reducing delays and enhancing the overall passenger experience. Fraport has introduced FraportGPT, an example of an employee-facing app powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to streamline internal processes.
“Fraport’s company GPT app, powered by Generative AI, has been a resounding success, swiftly adopted by our team. It’s not just streamlined our processes; it’s accelerated skill acquisition, empowering our employees to master new competencies with unprecedented speed.”
Christian Wrobel, Chief Data Architect, Fraport AG
Together with Microsoft, Miami International Airport (MIA) has developed a centralized data hub environment, known as the Common Data Environment (CDE), to store, manage, and share business data, apps, and business process flows. This is crucial for breaking down data silos and ensuring data accessibility for analysis and helps unlocking additional value from generative AI.
“By integrating various data sources, including on-premises, cloud, and edge environments, we provide a unified and scalable platform for data management. This is the basis, and together with our partner Microsoft we will now be able to leverage advanced technologies such as AI, machine learning, and IoT to gain insights, make data-driven decisions, and drive innovation.”
Maurice Jenkins, Chief Innovation Officer, Miami International Airport
The overarching reference architecture and partners
Our common architecture for airports and airlines is built among core elements with the ultimate goal to create AI-enhanced experiences for everyone, from passengers to ground personnel: the creation of user-facing applications, data storage and analytics, and data ingestion and integration of existing data systems.
The AI-enhanced experiences are tailored to each user group.
- For passengers, it is all about a smooth journey from origin to destination, with plenty of time to enjoy travel with retail, entertainment, and restaurant offers.
- Ground staff and customer service focus on making the passenger experience smooth, even when something goes wrong.
- Pilots and crew members require support for coordination, communication, and the reduction of their management overload.
- For technicians, it is about knowing where to go next, reducing cognitive workload for maintenance and repair tasks, and automating documentation.
- Terminal managers require support to manage traffic, ensure security, and provide travel comfort.
- For airside operators, it is about managing baggage, refueling, and safety.
Different user groups require different backend applications and data sources. The user-facing applications layer describes some of the common front-end experiences that can be built using Microsoft services.
- End users require mobile and web applications built using services such as Azure API Management, Azure App Service and Azure Functions. Developers create AI-powered user experiences leveraging services such as Azure OpenAI Service. These applications can be deployed in Azure tenants and can scale to millions of users.
- Business users leverage Dynamics 365 (Customer Service, Finance, Project Operations, and Customer Insights) to manage business operations, such as claims, promotions, and ticketing. Dynamics 365 has built-in custom agents for many common business use cases such as customer service, sales, finance, field service, and customer insights.
- Front line workers are fully integrated in the business with customized workflows and automated operations with custom AI, tailored to their needs and the ergonomics of their workplaces—wherever fixed terminals, mobile devices, or augmented reality. Microsoft Copilot Studio facilitates the creation of custom AI agents to support their work. Power Apps enables the creation of custom user interfaces, while Power Automate enables the creation of business workflows.
- With Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees can collaborate and communicate using Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook.
The operation of airports and airlines generates large amounts of data. The data storage and analytics layer describes how to securely store business data to support operations and create insights.
- Microsoft Dataverse is a scalable data platform that securely stores and manage business data. The data model is a structure framework that organizes data in tables with relationships. It is possible to use industry models to harmonize and integrate business data across multiple applications.
- Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end data and analytics platform that includes real-time analytics capabilities. OneLake is a unified logical data lake that centralizes and simplifies data management, with multiple analytical engines and workspaces. Fabric enables organizations to process and analyze data for timely insights and decision making.
Airports and airlines are established businesses. It is important to integrate existing data systems, such as connected assets as well as existing systems. Messaging services on Azure enables connectivity to assets and devices using standardized communication protocols such as Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) with Azure Event Grid, or data streams like Apache Kafka using Azure Event Hubs. Serverless solutions like Azure Functions provide compute to process messages.
We’re also proud to collaborate with leading partners driving innovation in aviation.
- Amadeus and Microsoft have formed a global strategic partnership that harnesses cloud technology to innovate and explore new products and solutions and create smoother travel experiences.
- SAP deployments on Azure provide robust cloud solutions tailored to customer needs.
- Our partnership with SITA, and their SITA Mission Control solution, helps duty personnel anticipate and respond to real-time changes during flight operations.
- We also integrate independent software vendors (ISVs), such as SmartKargo, PROS, and Satavia, to contribute to a smarter, more connected aviation ecosystem.
Creating frontline worker experiences
Frontline worker experiences are highly customized to the task and require constant adaptation. The power of low-code platforms like Power Apps and Copilot Studio significantly reduce the time to value, allowing for rapid development and deployment of tailored solutions. These platforms enable the integration of multiple data sources, such as location-based services, logistical information from Dynamics 365, and documentation search. Additionally, task support is enhanced through the use of knowledge graphs and manuals, while collaboration and information regarding connected assets are seamlessly incorporated.
Overcoming the challenges of using AI in aviation
While the potential of AI in aviation is immense, there are key challenges: defining the most valuable AI use cases, setting up cloud infrastructure, organizing the data estate, and minimizing costs during development, testing, and deployment phases.
Microsoft addresses the challenges of AI in aviation by working closely with partners, establishing a framework for responsible and trusted AI principles, and leveraging its comprehensive suite of tools and services. It helps define valuable AI use cases through collaborative workshops and industry-specific solutions. Azure provides scalable cloud infrastructure, while Microsoft Dataverse and OneLake streamline data management. Cost efficiency is achieved through optimized development, testing, and deployment processes. Additionally, Microsoft provides extensive training programs to equip employees with necessary AI skills and collaborates with regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with legal frameworks governing AI usage.
Moving forward with generative AI in aviation
Taking advantage of generative AI requires a pragmatic approach, where existing solutions are combined with new capabilities and partner solutions. Correctly identifying the use cases with the highest priority and impact is critical for success.
Visit Microsoft for travel and transportation or contact our team to learn more and take the next step in your AI journey.
“We’re excited to introduce our new reference architecture for the aviation industry, built on Azure’s cloud capabilities and advanced AI tools. What truly makes this effort stand out is our collaboration with leading aviation partners. Together with our partners, we’re shaping the future of the aviation industry.”
Julie Shainock, Managing Director Travel & Transportation Industry, Microsoft
“Microsoft’s Industry Solutions team is ready to help you deliver and implement AI-driven solutions across your organization: From a first [proof of concept] POC to full-scale rollouts, we are dedicated to providing the expertise you need to ensure a smooth and successful deployment.”
Eric Chaniot, General Manager of AI Industry Solutions, Microsoft
“At Microsoft Cloud for Industries, we are committed to empowering our partners with proven patterns and comprehensive enablement resources. By leveraging our industry-specific solutions and collaborative approach, we help partners accelerate innovation, streamline operations, and deliver exceptional value so that their customers can achieve more.”
Monica Ugwi, General Manager Cloud for Industries, Manufacturing & Mobility, Microsoft
1Worldmetrics: AI in the Airline Industry, 2024.
2The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey & Co., 2023.
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