The International Air Transport Association (IATA) held its first annual Aviation Data Symposium (ADS) last week in Miami, Fla.
The event brought together more than 400 delegates from airlines, airports and technology providers to discuss how to unlock the value of big data in order to improve safety, security and profitability within aviation.
"Big data is transforming our industry," said Charles de Gheldere, director, travel intelligence, IATA. "New aircrafts are basically data centers, generating terabytes of data; passengers are connected with their watches, with their phones and other devices -- there are sensors everywhere. Artificial intelligence is here, machine learning is here.
"Data-driven organizations will take this industry to the next level. The sky is the limit."
Representatives from airlines, airports and even data-driven companies outside of the aviation industry were on hand to discuss topics broken into four educational tracks - technology, safety and operations, passenger distribution and sales and airfreight data.
IATA announced it would hold another ADS in 2018. The second annual event will take place June 27-28 in Berlin.
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Josh Smith
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Josh Smith served as editor of Ground Support Worldwide as editor from 2016 through 2024. He oversaw production of the print magazine, created GSW's newsletters on a daily basis, and updated the latest news on AviationPros.com.