IATA’s Turbulence Aware platform expands with six new airlines joining in 2024 for safer flights

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that interest in its Turbulence Aware platform continues to grow, with six airlines joining the program in 2024. The latest additions include Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Scoot, and Singapore Airlines.

As air travel demand increases and weather patterns shift, managing turbulence will remain a top priority for aviation safety and efficiency. Turbulence Aware gathers anonymised turbulence data from flights operated by participating airlines. This real-time, precise turbulence reporting allows pilots and dispatchers to select the best flight paths, avoiding turbulence and flying at optimal altitudes to enhance fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.

“Making use of accurate and up to date data in Turbulence Aware helps flight crews’ efforts to avoid or at least mitigate the effects of turbulence. The quality of this data improves with each new airline contributing to the platform. So the strong take up of Turbulence Aware by airlines is important. As ever, the key to improving aviation safety is working together and we look forward to welcoming more airline participants in the coming year,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

What is the Turbulence Aware platform?

IATA launched Turbulence Aware in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence which remains a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries. At present, the IATA Turbulence Aware Platform has over 25 airlines contributing and consuming data through more than 2,600 aircraft. In 2023, a total of 38 million reports were generated. Data from IATA Turbulence Aware is also made available to meteorological offices for turbulence modelling validation and development as well as academic institutes for research purposes.

Along with growing airline participation, the data transmission scope of Turbulence Aware is expanding through agreements concluded with The Weather Company, Lufthansa Systems, PACE TXT, APiJET, BCI and Storkjet over the past 12 months. Through their existing data solutions for cockpit instruments, flight planning, and flight tracking systems, these companies now offer access to Turbulence Aware data. This enables pilots, dispatchers and flight planners to receive turbulence data directly in their main workflows, without relying on multiple screens or tools.