StorkJet’s Co-Founder Interview for Aircraft IT Magazine


In the newest release of the Aircraft IT Magazine – Piotr Niedziela, Head of Sales and Business Development at StorkJet shares the passion for innovation and aviation improvement that drives StorkJet.

Please read the text below to check how StorkJet manages the work during COVID and learn more about the newest fuel efficiency platform – FuelPro.

Link to the interview
Link to the full release of AircraftIT Magazine

 

„Piotr Niedziela is the Head of Sales and Business Development at StorkJet. His adventure in aviation started with performing market research in the area of ​​fuel efficiency and raising funds for StorkJet’s development, including several European Union research grants. He introduced StorkJet’s products to the market and successfully led fuel efficiency software implementations for main airlines in Europe or South America. He graduated from University of Economics in Katowice. „

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business? PN: Piotr Niedziela, Head of Sales & Business Development at StorkJet.

Aircraft IT: How did StorkJet get started?
PN: StorkJet started as a university project. Our first task was to develop a tool to read data from black boxes (QAR / FDR) for analysis. With a team of strong analytical minds, we identified many areas for improvement. Aviation was always in our heart, that is why we decided to move forward and invest our funds and time to make aviation more efficient than ever before. Thanks to European Union research grants we were able to conduct very rapid growth.

Aircraft IT: What is the attraction of aircraft-related software?
PN: Work on real aircraft data and the ability to optimize day-to-day airline operations. This is a great topic but also a huge challenge. Thanks to the tail-specific approach and usage of machine learning technology the areas for optimization seem endless. As we are passionate about aviation, we are pleased to do some good for the environment and contribute to a reduction in the carbon footprint.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives StorkJet?
PN: What we see is that each airline is unique, with totally different business models, operation types, or fleet diversification. Depending on the airline, expectations and areas for optimization can differ. That is why our guiding business principle is to work together with the airline towards a common goal. We put a huge effort into supporting customers throughout our whole cooperation as each airline’s success also becomes our success in the end.

Aircraft IT: What has been StorkJet’s greatest technical achievement to date, and why?
PN: With the support of European Union research projects, StorkJet developed tail-specific performance models powered by artificial intelligence to help airlines tap into the full potential of big data. We’ve proven that the average error in fuel burn prediction is only a few kilograms per flight hour, which makes our results the most precise on the global aviation market. This technology was implemented into the newest StorkJet’s fuel efficiency software – FuelPro. Besides tracking over 30 fuel initiatives, airlines can accurately predict fuel consumption at different flight phases and atmospheric conditions to indicate the real saving potential.What is more, pilots can check the most optimum flight path for given conditions and compare it with their own flights to check where they can improve.

Aircraft IT: What has been StorkJet’s greatest business achievement to date, and why?
PN: The biggest business challenge was to enter the aviation market as a startup. While implementing innovation to the market you need to convince customers that your technology is better than existing ones and that you have the appropriate team, knowledge, funds, support etc. to cover their needs and ensure safety. All these steps were positively evaluated by big players in the aviation industry. Today, StorkJet is proud to have long-term cooperation with such airlines as LOT Polish Airlines, WizzAir or Volaris. What we can also boast about is that almost all airlines we cooperate with decide to go for more than one service.That is why we put so much effort to keep them satisfied.

Aircraft IT: What have been StorkJet’s disappointments and what have you learned from them?
PN: In 2020, COVID has been the topic that essentially turned all the industry upside down. We learned however to look for a bright side to this situation. Thus, for StorkJet, due to a reduction of new implementations, COVID became a period for rapid research and development of new products and features.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what StorkJet does for aviation customers?
PN: Support airlines in saving time and fuel thanks to fully automatic and the most precise aircraft performance and fuel efficiency software.

Aircraft IT: What is new on StorkJet’s development horizon?
PN: After a warm welcome for StorkJet’s Aircraft Performance Monitoring (APM) based on the real data, at the beginning of 2020 we added a new product to our portfolio – FuelPro, the fuel efficiency platform.
We started with the development of over 30 fuel initiatives, making FuelPro very comprehensive analytical software. Application of the tail specific performance models into fuel efficiency initiatives results in a clear picture of saving potential and compliance. With FuelPro our customers see low-hanging fruits they were not able to see before.
Now, the goal is to increase pilots’ engagement because their behavior has the biggest impact on the actual fuel savings and reduction of CO2 emissions. At present pilots receive a tailor-made dashboard with intuitive statistics, including their individual performance, targets and knowledge base on improvement areas.
As a next step, StorkJet is working on presenting this information on EFB to guide pilots just before and during the flight.

Aircraft IT: What will be the next big thing in Aviation IT?
PN: COVID will continue to hugely impact on the aviation IT market. Airlines will look at first for tools that bring savings. Profitability is the top priority next to safety, and there will be a huge focus on tools that optimize operations. Also, the current situation brings opportunities for IT providers to focus on new research projects instead of implementations. As a result, new areas of optimization can become available. There will be a huge focus on post-flight and in-flight solutions that improve operational efficiency.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about StorkJet?
PN: We want to be seen exactly how our customers describe us now:
In the overwhelming world of Big Data, StorkJet knows very well how to turn Big Data into small data and let you make use of them. ”Leszek Danielski / Flight Operations Engineer at LOT Polish Airlines
“ On top of having people with knowledge, experience and great tools, StorkJet is a dynamic company, easy to work with, far away from any cumbersome way of making business ”  Marco A. Charles – Manager of Software Governance

Aircraft IT: Piotr Niedziela, thank you for your time.

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