Azul to trial SITA eWAS and SITA OptiClimb

Brazilian carrier Azul has entered into a trial agreement for SITA eWAS and SITA OptiClimb to assess the performance and potential benefits of both systems. Azul is actively using SITA Mission Watch, making it the first airline in the Americas to do so. By collaborating with SITA, Azul is already achieving significant cost savings, reduced carbon emissions and improved operational efficiency, resulting in reduced aircraft downtime due to weather disruptions across its fleet of 177 aircraft.

A significant proportion (up to 75%) of air traffic delays result from adverse weather conditions, costing airlines billions each year in additional fuel expenses, crew costs, and maintenance expenses. SITA's renowned weather awareness tools, SITA Mission Watch and SITA eWAS, are trusted by over 50,000 pilots and dispatchers globally and are now poised to have a substantial impact on Azul. SITA estimates that airlines can reduce the time aircraft spend on the ground due to weather delays by up to 60% if they have access to the right solutions.

Both SITA Mission Watch and SITA eWAS uniquely offer multi-source weather feeds, delivering accurate 4-D weather forecasts and real-time updates from various sources to pre-emptively warn about weather hazards, such as thunderstorms, lightning, clear-air turbulence, strong winds, icing and even volcanic ash.

SITA OptiFlight®️ optimizes all phases of a flight, including climb, which is the most fuel-intensive phase of any flight. For Azul, this translates to an average annual fuel saving of 5% during climb-out on each flight. SITA OptiFlight®️ achieves this because it is the industry's only machine-learning solution providing optimized climb speeds and acceleration flight level recommendations for every climb. SITA OptiFlight®️ draws on tail-specific performance models fed with 4-D weather forecasts and operational flight plan inputs to predict fuel-burn scenarios.

While SITA Mission Watch is tailor-made for dispatchers, SITA eWAS and SITA OptiFlight® support pilots. Together, they enable more innovative and cost-efficient flight operations for Azul.