Technology

Southwest Airlines has launched a plug-in that lets customers search for fares inside ChatGPT, then finish the purchase on its own website. It was developed with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services.

The airline went live on AMOSeTL in July after parallel testing that began in December, with every pilot, cabin crew member and mechanic trained by June. The system has separate pilot, cabin and maintenance modes.

The Lufthansa Technik-owned records specialist will roll out its DRM Next Generation platform across the low-cost carrier's 17 aircraft. The agreement was signed at MRO Asia-Pacific in Singapore.

New features on MRO SmartHub include a benchmark that flags cheaper FAA-approved parts alternatives and supply-chain performance metrics built from real transaction data. IATA is offering free core access to airlines that contribute their own purchasing data.

An industry analysis argues most carriers already have AI strategies but lack the governance structure to make them stick once systems move from pilots into production. It calls for a central function with real budget and veto power, not just advisory input.

Jet2 is rolling out Adobe's CX Enterprise Coworker tool to let staff generate individualized offers from customer preferences and booking history, and to tailor communications once travelers land. No implementation timeline was given.

The FAA is deploying SMART, a predictive AI platform built to flag congestion and routing conflicts before they happen, starting with Washington-area airspace on September 21. Controllers keep full authority over aircraft separation — the system only suggests adjustments.

Polish flight-ops software firm StorkJet has secured €1.6 million in EU funding toward a €2.5 million project to replace today's single blanket performance correction with models that account for how individual aircraft actually perform across their full operating envelope. The goal is more accurate fuel planning and lower emissions.

Air India has widened its rollout of Salesforce's AI tools across customer service, with refund processing time falling from around 14 days to about four hours. Passenger name changes are now handled in minutes rather than days.

United Airlines Ventures has invested in Assaia, whose AI platform StandManager processes real-time operational data to help airports and airlines allocate gates and stands more efficiently. The size of the investment wasn't disclosed.

Meta has launched Muse, a personal AI agent that can book flights in the US using travel data platform Duffel, positioning it against similar travel features from Google and OpenAI. It can't yet handle post-booking changes like baggage additions.

Veryon has launched an AI-driven defect analysis platform built to catch chronic aircraft faults that historically took maintenance teams weeks to trace across scattered data sources. Its CTO frames the system's real test as staying accurate under scrutiny, not just fast — arguing an AI that gets more confident without getting more correct is worthless in a regulated environment.

Irish MRO provider Shannon Technical Services has adopted REDiFly SMS to unify reporting, risk assessment and audit tracking that previously sat across disconnected systems. The move is partly a compliance response — the platform is built to align with the latest ICAO safety-management standard and EASA's Part-IS requirements.

Cargo carrier MY FREIGHTER LLC, trading as Centrum Air, has selected International Flight Support's EFBOne as its electronic flight bag across pre-, in-, and post-flight workflows. The airline's technical pilot says the platform's main promised payoff is simpler day-to-day consistency for crews rather than any single new capability.

EFB maker TALORA has integrated ASAP Inc.'s mass-and-balance and runway-performance modules directly into its own platform, covering certified calculations for more than 320 aircraft types. Both companies frame the deal as removing app-switching from the cockpit rather than adding a genuinely new capability to the market.

Three fresh case studies point to the same shift: Google bought Spirit Airlines' internal records to train AI models, Ryanair signed a five-year deal to run Google's Gemini and DeepMind models across 35,000 staff, and Alaska Airlines is using an AI agent to head off overbooking days in advance.

A 100-flight trial saw Cathay Pacific pilots adjust routes on more than 80% of flights based on an AI model from Google that predicts the cold, humid air where contrails form. The airline says the approach is scalable across its long-haul network.

AIRDO has adopted NABLA Mobility's OBST platform, which turns NOTAMs and other raw obstacle data into a structured, visual format for flight-operations teams, after a 2026 trial. The airline says it cut manual workload and reduced the risk of missed checks.

The Icelandic carrier is switching its entire fleet from paper technical logs to Ultramain Systems' electronic logbook, aiming for faster defect resolution and real-time coordination between flight crews and maintenance teams. Ultramain's tool is already used by airlines on five continents.

Ornge has rolled out Ramco's Digital Task Card and Mechanic Anywhere mobile app across all its maintenance bases, letting technicians sign off work digitally on its AW-139 helicopters and PC-12 aircraft. The system is built to meet Transport Canada's compliance requirements.

The A320 operator is in final regulatory review with Cyprus's aviation authority for a paperless cockpit documentation system.

Nearly 90% of the Spanish carrier's pilots are now using StorkJet's flight-path optimisation tool on every flight.

The offline-capable tool has NATO approval for classified information, aimed at operators who can't send data to external servers.

The regulator's competition challenges teams to demonstrate AI-based aviation tools under real operating conditions.

The updated guidance on machine-learning applications marks another step in the regulator's phased approach to certifying AI in aviation.

A new post from the flight-ops software maker argues that dashboards alone can create a false sense of control over daily operations.