Skailark; AirInsight
A few years ago, AirInsight pivoted towards data-centric reporting. This was a deliberate choice to differentiate us from the plethora of online opinion-driven industry news sources. This is by no means a criticism—there’s a place for every view. We wanted to move towards data-driven analysis and reporting.
Commercial aviation is increasingly a data-driven business. Digital twins are all the rage these days. Aircraft and engines are delivered with sensors measuring everything. When Pratt & Whitney introduced the GTF, their CTO briefed the media about the petabytes of data these engines were generating.
The deluge of data pouring into the commercial aviation silo came as the industry was impacted by one of those regular exogenous events. This time, it was the pandemic.
Companies in the silo frantically cut their staff. It all seemed so rational at the time. But it was overdone, and the need for reliable and accurate decision-support information remained as crucial as ever. The problem was staffing cuts; who would filter and clean the data to remove noise and distill data into information? There was virtually no AI to bridge the gap.
Like others tracking the industry, we used official government data and other sources. But something was missing – the need for an independent granular source had become apparent.
We produced an analysis using the DoT on-time dataset and shared it with readers on LinkedIn. This attracted a comment from somebody we did not know. The comment was appropriate and challenged us. It was also the start of discovering that missing independent industry granular data source. AirInsight and Skailark had found each other.
Two-plus years later, we regularly use Skailark’s data. Their data enabled us to develop a novel ESG report, though it increasingly looks like NetZero may collapse from its hubris.
We also found that Skailark’s data offers an excellent fuel burn source. Fuel burn accounts for 45-50% of an airline’s operating costs, making it the most significant cost input, and monitoring it is crucial.
Skailark has steadily added airlines to its database, allowing for a broader and deeper dataset to mine for insight into how fuel burn is evolving across the industry.
Here is an example. The chart illustrates fuel burn among A220-300 operators. Because the dataset is standardized, comparisons are easy to make and understand. The number of flights drives the ball size.
Moreover, as the chart shows, even odd operations are picked up. Even if an airline has wet-leased capacity for one flight, Skailark captures it.
Here’s another example that looks rather busy. The chart lists full-service carriers by ASM/Block hour and average stage length using twin-aisle aircraft. Busy as the chart is, it contains a plethora of information. We could spend a considerable amount of time discussing the implications of each quadrant.
Furthermore, such a discussion leads to drilling into the details, and Skailark has the details.
Skailark is not sponsoring this note. We want to publicly appreciate their efforts in creating an excellent data source that enables analysts to examine this industry’s performance.
Great data allows stories to tell themselves, and when combined with other information, they create a rich tapestry of insight about what is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating industries.
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