Avianca Pilot Selection Project: Airline Pilot Club and Symbiotics

Excerpt from The Robot in the Simulator: Artificial Intelligence in Aviation Training, a new book by veteran aviation journalist Rick Adams, FRAeS.

Rick will moderate these sessions at the European Airline Training Summit (EATS), 5-7 November in Cascais / Lisbon, Portugal:

· ATO Conference, Wednesday 6 November, Session 4 – AI, 1630-1800

· Pilot Conference, Thursday 7 November, Session 5 – AI/Data, 0900-1030

He will also moderate the Artificial Intelligence table at the Heads of Training meeting, Tuesday 5 November.

· Airline Pilot Club’s Captain Andy O’Shea and COO Cedric Paillard will present in Session 3 (Recruitment) of the ATO Conference, Wednesday 6 November, 1415-1545.

· O’Shea and Paillard will present in Session 5 (AI/Data) of the EATS Pilot Training conference – Thursday 7 November, 0900-1030.

· Aleksandra Kapela, Symbiotics, will present in Session 6 (Instructors) of the Pilot Training conference – Thursday 7 November, 1115-1245

Rick Adams will sign books during EATS: Wednesday afternoon coffee break, Airline Pilot Club (booth 806) and Thursday morning coffee break, Hinfact (booth 314).

In addition to EATS, The Robot in the Simulator can be ordered on the Aviation Voices website: Industry Issues Special Reports – AVIATION VOICES

Avianca Pilot Selection Project with Amelia AI

Colombia-based Avianca is the second-oldest carrier in the world (104 years) and flagship of a group of 10 Latin American airlines. The airline flies throughout South America, as well as to Central America, London, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona.

Avianca has more than 150 aircraft in its fleet, primarily Airbus types – A319 (being retired), A320, A320neo, and Boeing 787, with 51 more neos on order, options for an additional 50, and two more Dreamliners.

The anticipated growth means increases in the number of pilots and instructors required.

Avianca sought to support their recent hiring of 180 new pilot candidates from an applicant pool of 1700 – all of whom have commercial airline flight experience.

To the extent possible, Avianca wanted the short-listed pilots to fit a ‘cultural profile’ of the airline and what they considered to be the ‘optimum Avianca pilot.’

Avianca turned to the Airline Pilot Club (APC), which in turn partnered with Symbiotics, an aviation industry leader in psychometric and psychological assessments for airlines, business jet operators, air forces, and flight training schools.

“We had to interview 1700+ pilots from really wide backgrounds,” said Cedric Paillard, COO of Airline Pilot Club and the person primarily responsible for the company’s foray into AI. An FAA and EASA ATPL-qualified pilot with degrees in electronics and wireless communications, he has led technology projects globally, working with 4G, Big Data and AI.

“Ultimately, after the interview process, Symbiotics psychometric assessment, knowledge test and a simulator evaluation, we recommended 180 pilot candidates. We could have yielded more, but the target was 180.”

APC and Symbiotics established these criteria for evaluating pilot candidates for Avianca:

· Optimum pilot

· Candidate mental processing capacity (cognitive aptitude)

· Candidate workload management capacity

· Candidate situational awareness

· Candidate personal attributes

· Spoken English capability

“We never thought about doing this without data,” said Paillard. We wanted to combine the data with a human factor associated with it. So the process that we have implemented – simulator assessment, the data that's coming with Symbiotics, interview process, knowledge test... helps us draw a full picture, both on the candidate side and the airline side as well.”

“One of the things that is important,” he emphasized, “is we're not going to be able to do this without having different departments of the airline working together. Air flight ops and training department. Try to do it with just air, it doesn't work. The entire process has to get integrated together.”

Read More:

AI in Aviation Training: New Book by Rick Adams to Debut at EATS | Halldale Group

“I’m Here to Learn.” | Halldale Group

Sorry, Siri. Apologies, Alexa. You Cannot Be a Virtual Co-Pilot. | Halldale Group