We are writing to advise you of some recent developments regarding the QantasLink FOQA Program.
As many of you would be aware, the QantasLink Dash 8 FOQA program is governed under a FOQA Agreement signed between the AFAP and Company. The current FOQA Agreement was signed in 2007.
Since that time there have been a large number of technological developments regarding FOQA. One of the major developments has been the consolidation of FOQA (or FDAP or FDM) services by GE. GE has effectively bought out many of the previous FOQA technology providers such as Austin Digital. GE is now the main provider of FOQA services around the world. Almost all large operators in Australia also now use GE technology for their FOQA programs. This includes the Qantas and Virgin groups.
As part of its suite of technology services, GE provides a dashboard App called “FlightPulse”. FlightPulse provides individual users with iPad access to aggregated flight safety data. It can also provide crew with information on their own individual flights performed in the previous 12 months.
GE has successfully marketed FlightPulse to all of the major operators in Australia. FlightPulse has been bought by each of the companies in the Virgin and Qantas groups. It has also been rolled out to and used by Qantas Long Haul and Short Haul crew for a number of years.
The AFAP has generally been apprehensive about the use (or possible misuse) of FlightPulse. More recently we have however taken the position that we will not be able to resist the adoption of technologies such as FlightPulse and that we are better to proactively manage and control its use than simply refuse to acknowledge or allow it.
After a series of meetings with QantasLink Management the Eastern and Sunstate Pilot Councils have reached conditional agreement to the introduction of the iPad application “FlightPulse” within Q400 Flight Crew on the following basis:
- Use of FlightPulse by flight crew is completely voluntary;
- The information presented by FlightPulse is confidential to the crew of each particular flight and will not be available to any other crew or company personnel;
- FlightPulse will operate under the same data protection and privacy protocols as the FOQA program and as such may not be used for safety investigation or performance management purposes;
- Inappropriate use of FlightPulse data is a breach of Qantas Group policies and may result in a Standards of Conduct investigation; and
- The use of FlightPulse and the rules surrounding its use, such as those detailed in the dot points above, will be agreed and written into an updated QantasLink FOQA Agreement within 6 months.
Similar rules around the use of FlightPulse have recently been agreed and codified in a new FDAP Agreement at Virgin Australia. This Agreement was signed by the parties on 25 July 2024.
We are very aware of the sensitivities around individual flight data however we have taken the view that we are better off controlling and agreeing on the conditions around its use than simply refusing access to these technologies and the potential safety and sustainability gains they may provide.
We expect that you will soon see information from the company regarding the roll-out of FlightPulse reflecting the above conditions and restrictions we have agreed on its use.
Questions
Please contact your Council Committee or Simon Lutton at the AFAP on simon@afap.org.au if you have any further questions regarding FlightPulse or the FOQA Program generally.
Regards
Jarrod Blaker, Anthony Berko, Nathan Hayes and Ben Moss
Sunstate and Eastern Pilot Federation Chairs and Vice-Chairs