SITA acquisition of Big Blue Analytics aims to cut cost of airline IROPS by 30%
AI-enabled disruption management technology will be made available to airlines globally after SITA agreed an acquisition of the specialist developer.
The aviation IT giant has a agreed a deal to buy Big Blue Analytics, the developer of OCCam, a disruption optimisation platform for airline operations.
The deal, announced today for an undisclosed sum, brings one of the world’s most advanced systems into the SITA portfolio, according to the company.
SITA Said disruption is aviation’s “most expensive unsolved problem”, costing airlines tens of billions of dollars every year.
The company plans to scale the platform to airlines worldwide “as the foundation of a broader Intelligent Operations Control Center vision”.
David Lavorel, chief executive of SITA, said: “Airlines have traditionally treated disruption as a fixed cost of doing business, but there is a clear opportunity to approach it differently.
“In an increasingly volatile and fast-moving environment, the ability to recover with the same agility becomes critical. The airlines that act on this first will recover faster, fly more, and protect more revenue than those that wait, and AI-enabled tools like OCCam are making that possible.”
When disruption occurs the OCCam system evaluates aircraft, crew, passenger itineraries, and maintenance, and produces a recovery plan in minutes.
SITA claims airlines using OCCam have cut disruption costs up to 30% because the system completes complex recovery tasks concurrently and through automation.
For an average mid-size carrier operating just over 100 aircraft disruption costs can reach between $70 million and $80 million.
SITA already delivers solutions such as SITA Mission Watch to more than 100 Operations Control Centers worldwide, helping airlines monitor and optimise their operations.
It has also rolled out AI-enabled products to airline operators worldwide at scale with SITA OptiFlight, and says it will take the same approach with OCCam.
The firm has been developing AI in airline operations, including large language models and agent-based systems.
With Big Blue Analytics’ optimisation engine as the foundation, SITA says it can now build systems that predict disruptions earlier, automate routine recovery, and allow teams to interact with complex operations in a simple, natural way.
Yann Cabaret, chief executive of SITA for Aircraft, said: “This is the first step towards a much bigger Intelligent Operations Control Center vision, one where planning, monitoring, and recovery come together in a single system. AI allows us to handle multiple constraints at once and tailor decisions to each airline in a way that was not possible before.”
Pau Collellmir, founder of Big Blue Analytics, added: “With SITA, we can take what we have built further. Reaching more airlines, faster, and turning advanced optimisation into practical tools that help operations teams work smarter every day.”
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