FREEBIRD is an international charter airline that has been carrying out passenger/cargo transport operations in Europe and the Middle East since 2000 with a fleet of 6 Airbus A320s and 2 A321s. They are recognised as a company who embrace aviation industry best practice demonstrated by the fact that they were the first airline in Turkey to achieve ISO 9001:2000 certification in 2002 and also the first charter airline to achieve their IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit).

FREEBIRD administered their Safety Management System by investing in Q-Pulse from Gael and utilising Sagem’s AGS flight data monitoring system. Whilst FREEBIRD were delighted with the individual merits of each solution, they believed that if both systems could be integrated, additional safety and operational benefits could be realised.

Without integration, the Safety department at FREEBIRD had to double key information from the FDM system into the SMS, managed by Q-Pulse. This led to duplication of effort, and at times, inaccurate information in Q-Pulse due to transcription errors and time pressures. Nurla Bayrak, FREEBIRDS FDM Engineer, said: “When flight safety FDM events were identified within AGS we previously had to login to Q-Pulse and manually re-type all the information, this could be up to 28 fields per record. This was time consuming, frustrating and prone to error.”

FREEBIRD, Gael and Sagem got together in Istanbul to work out how to get the two systems to talk to each other. Cem Bozay, Director of Quality Management said: “Q-Pulse already had the technology built in to support the integration. We needed to understand when and how Sagem’s AGS solution could use this in order to help us achieve our goals.”

Gael and Sagem’s development teams worked together to deliver an integrated solution that would eliminate duplication of effort with the outcome being deployed a few months later. FREEBIRD identified a number of benefits immediately. Cem noted: “Apart from saving time and increasing the accuracy of the information entered into Q-Pulse; the real surprise was the increase in user motivation to investigate FDM Events in Q-Pulse.” He continued: “The removal of barriers between the two systems meant that users were significantly more likely to engage with the FDM and SMS systems. This increase in information volume, accuracy and consistency led to more effective investigations and analysis in Q-Pulse.”

This integration project confirms FREEBIRD’s pioneering approach to safety management with the end result being a more centralised view of the SMS. Cem concluded: “Ultimately, we have a clearer view of our FDM incidents and improved visibility of our SMS which results in improved safety levels. The collaboration between Gael and Sagem made this happen for FREEBIRD.”