Those of you who follow us on social media will no doubt be aware that back in August last year, we applied to take part in the Hangar 51 accelerator run by IAG (the owner of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling airlines). Some 400 companies from around the world applied, and we were very excited to make it to the final 25, who were invited to visit IAG’s headquarters near Heathrow, to pitch to an audience that included the group’s CEO, Willie Walsh.

Following this event, we were then thrilled to learn that Emu Analytics had been selected to join the cohort and embark on the ten-week accelerator, demonstrating our Flo.w software in real, working trials with various parts of IAG’s business.

We originally applied to the category sponsored by IAG Cargo, but ended up in the “wild card” category, which was perfect for us as it meant we could then apply our highly versatile software to two very different use cases for two different sponsors. As such we worked with IAG’s digital team, processing, analysing and visualising flights path impacts at time of air traffic control strikes in Europe, and furthermore also worked with IAG Cargo, implementing a highly intuitive, real-time vehicle telematics analysis and visualisation solution.

You can read a bit more about both of these solutions in the recent article in Air Cargo Week.

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We implemented both of these solutions within the 10 week programme, I think probably surprising a few people along the way with that speed of delivery, and the programme culminated with a rousing demo day held at the Barbican in mid Dec 2018. Amongst the audience this time was Alex Cruz (CEO of British Airways) and Lynne Embleton (CEO of IAG Cargo).

The whole ten weeks was not only a fantastic experience for us but also a significant step in the evolution of our young company. I am very pleased to report that we now list IAG Cargo as a full commercial customer of our technology, continuing to use it in an operational manner, and we hope to broaden our offerings to IAG over the course of 2019. We also met some great other start-ups from the airline industry who I am sure we will continue to cross paths with in the coming years.

A quick word of thanks also to all the IAG and L Marks team members who ran the programme, helped us along the way and continued to be hugely supportive to us.

If you are interested in how our Flo.w platform can benefit your airline’s operations, then please reach out to us at info@emu-analytics.com.

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