Based in Madrid, Iberia, Spain's flag carrier airline and a founding member of the International Airlines Group (IAG), is the first airline to select DocuNet for the management, control, and distribution of its airline flight operation manuals for its new fleet of 16 Airbus A350s.
The agreement strengthens an existing relationship with the Spanish-based airline which implemented DocuNet, Vistair’s world-leading document management solution, to support the publication of its manuals for its Airbus A330 and A340 fleets in 2017.
As an early adopter of the new Airbus A350, Iberia’s initial order was set for delivery in June 2018. It was the first to feature a performance-improvement package including a higher maximum take-off weight, taller winglets, and a twist in the wing to enhance its aerodynamics.
Rapid Manual Processing of Customised Manuals
New fleet introduction planning is complex and brings to an airline a high level of both commercial and safety risk. From an operational, compliance and safety perspective document management is a key aspect of this risk and with a new fleet, this was especially the case. Therefore, for both Vistair and Iberia initial concerns focused upon the time it would take to produce heavily customised manuals as a result of the Airbus A350 enhancements and the regulatory requirements from the Spanish Air Authority.
With a number of changes to be made to the new MEL, just a few days before their first Airbus A350’s maiden flight, Vistair’s in-house team of publishing specialists worked around the clock completing a total of 522 changes to this complex XML document in the same day – a task that would typically take over a week or even longer for an in-house team.
Leveraging the latest DocuNet technology, Vistair’s dedicated document’s team has particular expertise in the management of both Airbus and Boeing XML documents which, for all of our clients, ensures fast delivery of OEM manual revisions across an entire fleet.
Pedro Gómez Vázquez, Iberia’s Head of Engineering and Flight Support comments: “
“The A350 project is a huge undertaking for Iberia and one we are particularly proud of. As an early adopter of this iconic airplane Vistair’s DocuNet solution was chosen as the application to support the EFB on-board solution and sits alongside the FlySmart performance and Lido charting software. It has been approved by the Spanish Authority and is included in the AOC specific approvals.
“The A350 IBE fleet is going to start commercial operations during July and DocuNet will provide crew access to all manuals during flight. The next step is to install DocuNet in the rest of the IBE A320/A330/A340 fleets and continue a relationship with Vistair initiated in September 2017.”
Update, Maintenance and Future-Proof Technology
As part of the on-going partnership with Vistair, Iberia will continue to benefit from DocuNet’s future-proof technology. This involves upgrades and enhancements to make sure that the DocuNet service supports -their operational needs both now and in the future.
Ian Herbert, CEO, Vistair comments: “Working with Iberia is a real pleasure and their desire to work with us to improve the service we are able to provide is of great benefit for all parties. The A350 project really did show what the Vistair team is capable of delivering ensuring that Iberia remained in total control of this important project.”
Innovative features such as Airbus comparison tool already results in rapid resolution of Airbus document updates, including customisations for Iberia’s full manual suite going forward.
DocuNet’s latest enhancement– The Compliance and Regulation Matrix – will allow Iberia to benefit from sophisticated regulation tagging within their operating manuals, providing direct linkage to both global and local regulatory documents such as EASA Air Ops and IOSA Standards across their Airbus A330, A340 and A350 manual suite.
Further A350 work is planned over the coming year with both British Airways and SAS scheduled to bring A350s into service.
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Image by permission of Rami Khanna-Prade
