Pyper Vision founder Emily Blythe and Air New Zealand's chief pilot David Morgan have teamed up on better fog forecasting technology that could save the sector a fortune.
It’s a partnership years in the making, now ready to tackle a multibillion-dollar aviation problem and potentially save passengers plenty of hassle.
Air New Zealand will start a trial with Emily Blythe’s homegrown technology, confirming a beta trial with Pyper Vision’s fogcast to be deployed across the airline’s entire network next month.
“Fog forecasting and fog prediction is inherently inaccurate and we’ve had to live with it as an industry,” Captain David Morgan told the Herald.
Forecasting accuracy varied from place to place. That translated into real operational problems for airlines, which resulted in problems for customers, Morgan said.
“‘Operational surety’ is the phrase that we like to use, so they can give people confidence they’re going to get to their destination.
“And if they can’t, then the airline needs to help them come up with another solution to their travel needs.”
Morgan, the airline’s chief operations, integrity and standards officer and chief pilot, said Blythe approached Air New Zealand perhaps seven or eight years ago.
He said Pyper Vision’s quest to improve fogcasting used innovative approaches which aligned with the airline’s values.
Blythe is the founder and chief executive of Pyper Vision, which is developing a deep-learning model to better predict fog and cut down on false alerts that ground aircraft and delay travellers.
She started learning to fly as a 12-year-old on a farm, and has been working to get her PPL (private pilot’s licence).
‘We’ve looked at the accuracy of forecasting fog in both New Zealand and in the UK. And when you dig down to the crux of the problem, 70% of fog forecasts that go out result in no fog forming,” she told the Herald.
Pyper Vision chief executive Emily Blythe and Captain David Morgan. Photo / Dean Purcell
“So you’ve got, 70% of the time, the industry having to react to a problem that doesn’t actually eventuate.”
Blythe’s Pyper Vision is also raising money to commercialise its FogCast product.
“We’re going out to existing investors. We just had our first close on our raise, which is awesome,” Blythe said.
“It’s our fourth capital raise, and that combined with some of the R&D funding that we’ve got will give us just over a year’s runway, which is awesome, which will see us through these trials.”
Blythe was back in New Zealand after a trip over summer to Britain, where she met with London City Airport, close to the business hubs of Canary Wharf and the City.
Now she’s secured that airport as Pyper Vision’s first international customer.
London City Airport chief executive Alison FitzGerald said Pyper Vision’s technology could revolutionise the aviation industry.
“We are excited to deliver our first forecasts from our weather station in just a few months, which will be used to help operational planning,” FitzGerald said.
Air New Zealand and Pyper had a three-phase programme.
First involved building a model.
The second involved running trials.
And the third phase would involve Pyper Vision providing a product to Air NZ on a commercial basis.
Morgan said for pilots, any fog forecast could not be ignored, and fog rendered many airports inoperable.
“Many airlines like Air New Zealand have the capability of operating in fog. And in the case of New Zealand, the jet fleet is capable of doing that because they’re certified to operate in those conditions, but that’s only on one runway here in Auckland.”
For regional airports, if fog was forecast, operations had to be modified – meaning flights were typically delayed or cancelled.
He hoped Pyper Vision’s technology breakthroughs would mean fewer hassles for pilots and passengers.
