The Diggintravel Podcast

In this episode, we launch our new Airline Digital Innovation Series, where we’ll bring new concepts, technologies and ideas to our audience through conversations with people who are developing and applying them across the airline industry.

We start with digital twins and my guest Will Bryan, CEO of Autonoma, a company built around data science, simulation and innovation.

Before bringing this technology to aviation, Will worked in the high-speed world of autonomous vehicles and driverless racing, including the Indy Autonomous Challenge. Now, he is applying what he learned there to the complex physical world of airline and airport operations.

For years at Diggintravel, we’ve talked about experimentation, scientific decision-making and de-risking ideas.

Digital twins take those principles beyond websites and digital channels. They give airlines and airports a way to simulate real operations, explore possible scenarios and test decisions before introducing them into the live environment.

What if an airport could see the consequences of an operational decision before making it? What if an airline could simulate different responses to a disruption before it happens? And what if experienced teams could safely test ideas that would otherwise be too risky or expensive to try?

Put simply, digital twins could allow airlines and airports to see and test the future before it happens.

In our conversation, Will explains what digital twins really are, why they are more than attractive 3D visualizations, how they are already being applied in aviation and where this technology could take airlines and airports next.

In the following episode, we’ll move from the concept to the practical details and explore what it takes to build a digital twin in the real airline and airport world.

RESOURCES:

Read the companion article with key digital-twin concepts, aviation use cases and highlights from this episode:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-twins/