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  • Ask and You Shall Receive: Talking to Data for Smart Insights

    Thomas Burke, Director of Software Engineering, UI Platform, Cirium

    Alex Brooker, VP of Research, Development and Discovery, Cirium

    In a world where data is often referred to as the new oil, the ways we access and analyze it are evolving at an extraordinary pace. Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting advancements in this space is the entry of large language models (LLMs) into the mainstream. Developers across all industries now have access to APIs that allow them to unlock the incredible capabilities of LLMs.

    Among the many promising applications of these technologies is the ability to bring natural language-driven data access into reality. Data practitioners are always on the lookout for efficiencies in extracting information from their data, and LLMs provide compelling new capabilities to achieve this.

    As powerful as LLMs are, it’s important to note that they cannot inherently understand your data, but when properly leveraged they can help you query and summarize data. They need some guidance, though, often provided in the form of metadata to aid in accurately converting a natural language prompt into a data query.

    One common method is Text-to-SQL. Leveraging the power of a general-purpose LLM, it involves providing the user’s question, a “system prompt” outlining the specifics of SQL behavior, and detailed metadata about your database schema to the LLM. The result? A SQL query that you can validate, sanitize, and execute against your database.

    “What is the current location of flight AA 100?”

    Another prevalent strategy is known as Function Calling. This technique employs a language model to generate parameters that can be used to call a function. For instance, to answer the questions “What is the current location of flight AA 100?” “What is the chance my flight could be delayed?”, Function Calling could generate necessary parameters to call the Cirium Sky API, summarize the returned data as natural language, and relay the output to the user without hallucinations.

    The choice between Text-to-SQL or Function Calling depends on the task at hand. While Text-to-SQL is arguably more expressive and can deliver complex insights, Function Calling might be preferable for reasons of reliability and security, dependent on the implementation.

    A Semantic Layer aids in flexible modeling and describing data in a way that’s programmatically accessible.

    Regardless of the technique you opt for, providing access to metadata is crucial. A common and effective solution for this is implementing a Semantic Layer. A Semantic Layer aids in flexible modeling and describing data in a way that’s programmatically accessible. This can help provide a scalable solution to ensuring appropriate metadata is provided to the language model.

    In summary, the integration of natural language-driven data access and analysis augments the capabilities of data professionals, automates complex tasks and promotes efficiency in dealing with substantial data sets. LLMs are only part of the system behind any product, and both Text-to-SQL and function calling are now part of the stack.

    As LLMs continue to evolve, we can expect even more exciting developments in this field. Stay tuned to this space for more updates and reach out to engage with our R&D team.

    Interested in the latest Generative AI technology?

    Contact the team to receive the latest updates or register your interest to work with our labs team. Learn more about Cirium Sky API.

  • Beyond Chatbots: How AI Can Transform Aviation and Its Challenges

    Alex Brooker, VP of Research, Development and Discovery, Cirium

    What is AI and Why is It Important for Aviation?

    AI, or artificial intelligence, is the ability of machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and decision-making.

    AI has the potential to transform the aviation industry in many ways, such as improving safety, efficiency, and customer experience. For example, AI can help airlines optimize their pricing strategies, predict and prevent maintenance issues, and enhance flight operations and air traffic management. AI can also help airports streamline their operations, security, and passenger services, and provide travelers with personalized and seamless journeys.

    What Are the Main Challenges for AI Adoption in Aviation?

    However, harnessing AI in aviation is not without challenges. The aviation industry is one of the most complex and regulated sectors in the world, where safety is paramount and data is critical.

    Some of the Key Challenges That AI Faces in Aviation Are:

    • Data management: Aviation generates huge amounts of data from various sources, such as aircraft sensors, air traffic control systems, weather reports, passenger information, and more. Integrating and harmonizing these diverse datasets into a unified and reliable source for analysis is a major challenge for AI applications.
    • Scalability and safety: Aviation systems involve human decision-making potentially alongside AI, and require rigorous validation and verification processes to ensure safety and compliance. AI systems must be able to explain how they reach their decisions and recommendations, and be audited and monitored for their performance and behaviour.
    • Reward functions and side effects: AI systems can be driven by complex reward functions that define their objectives and motivate their actions. However, designing the semantics that capture the desired outcomes while avoiding unintended consequences is hard in a complex environment like aviation, where there are many interrelated factors and trade-offs.
    • Data distribution shift: AI models are trained on specific datasets, but may encounter different real-world data when they are deployed. This can lead to a mismatch between the expected and actual behaviour of the AI system, and compromise its accuracy and reliability. For example, an AI system that sets ticket prices based on historical demand may fail to account for second order behaviour change by the actors in the system – such as customers responding to a pricing strategy.

    Despite these challenges, the drivers for change go beyond cost or productivity: The well documented acute skills shortage, exacerbated during the pandemic as many experienced professionals retied early, including Air Traffic Controllers, Pilots and other technical roles may necessitate the faster adoption of supportive automation and analytics Ai systems.

    How Can Cirium Help Overcome These Challenges?

    Cirium is a leading provider of data and analytics solutions for the aviation industry. Cirium leverages AI to create new insights and products that help aviation stakeholders solve their most pressing problems and seize new opportunities. For example, Cirium uses AI to infer aircraft maintenance on the ground enabling powerful predictive future utilization capabilities. This helps Cirium customers plan and predict their own but also future competitor availability and performance. Cirium also uses AI to detect and update flight delays and ETAs based on historical and real-time data, helping airlines, travel agents, and passengers communicate and coordinate more effectively.

    Interested in the Latest Generative AI Technology?

    Contact the team to receive the latest updates or register your interest to work with our labs team.

  • Jeremy Bowen on data’s role in aviation sustainability

    Cirium CEO, Jeremy Bowen, talks sustainability in aviation with Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying, in the latest installment of Sustainability in the Air, a brand-new podcast out now.  Listen in to learn how Cirium is empowering the industry to deliver on its sustainability promise with the most accurate data-driven methodology for calculating emissions and more importantly, why it matters.  Read on for six key insights from the podcast.

    Q: What is the key challenge facing the aviation industry in operating sustainably?

    A: The industry is expected to grow substantially but faces challenges in decarbonizing as the world moves to net-zero emissions. Without action, the industry would contribute to significantly higher global CO2 emissions by 2050 and could face restrictions that could be detrimental to its revenues and jobs, such as the banning of flights less than 500 miles.  The industry has been making progress to reduce indirect emissions.  However, the key challenge is that it is particularly hard to decarbonize. We don’t have proven solutions to tackle aviation yet.

    Q: How does Cirium’s strategy align to the idea of an emissions free industry?

    A: Cirium has an opportunity to make a significant play in Sustainability. Cirium’s vision is to become the industry’s trusted partner in sustainability, leveraging our unique data assets and independence to deliver the most accurate source of both historic and predicted carbon emissions data for the aviation industry; empowering the industry to deliver on its sustainable promise and future.

    Q: What role is Cirium playing in helping the industry to address this challenge?

    A: As corporations around the globe sign pledges to align with the universal goal set forth by the Paris Agreement (become Net Zero by no later than 2050), inaccurate calculations and reporting can lead to businesses and travelers making the wrong decisions about strategies, practices, and purchases.

    Our emissions calculations methodology is unrivalled in the industry. We’ve taken a data-driven approach to emissions; fusing data from varied sources and all angles of the aircraft to deliver more accurate and precise estimates.

    Q: How is your emissions calculator different and what problems can it solve that can’t be solved by other carbon calculators that exist?

    A: Cirium has prioritized accuracy in its sustainability offering so that we earn trust from the industry. Leveraging our vast data sources, we consider significantly more inputs in our carbon calculation reflecting airline investments in operating efficiently. A less accurate methodology does not account for improvements in operational efficiencies and do not incentivize the airlines to make these investments.

    There are six key differentiators in Cirium’s methodology:

    • We utilize fuel burn models on aircraft master series, engine master series and winglet type, giving us 170+ different fuel burn models based on the aircraft operating the flight.
    • Our flight emissions methodology is flight time-based as opposed to other carbon calculators using flight distance based. By using taxi time and airtime, emissions are calculated based on the operational efficiency of the flight.
    • When allocating carbon to a given seat/passenger, Cirium recognizes it’s not as simple as dividing the flight carbon between the number of seats on the aircraft. We use our aircraft cabin data to accurately reflect the occupied cabin space for each seat class and allocate the carbon accurately.
    • By predicting fuel use and carbon emissions for each passenger operated flight, we are not reliant on airlines submitting us data. This positions Cirium as a neutral party within the industry in comparing performance.
    • We have validated our carbon methodology through data sharing with our strategic airline partners. These validation exercises showed our fuel estimates can achieve 98-99% accuracy against reported fuel use.
    • Cirium methodology uses seat-level vs. flight-level data.  Flight-level emissions data conveys the emissions generated by the operation of a flight.  Seat-level emissions data is calculated by taking flight-level data and removing emissions associated with the weight of cargo transported, leaving the portion of the flight emissions associated with the passengers transported.  We then take the passenger portion and distribute it across the total number of seats on the aircraft based upon the dimensions of each cabin seat. This is an important differentiation for Cirium as most methodologies apply standard weighting factors that limit transparency.

    Q: Why Cirium?  What are Cirium’s competitive advantages?

    A: Cirium has four key advantages over others in the field:

    • Cirium is a trusted market leader with decades of providing comprehensive industry data – including fleet, schedules, flight status, etc.
    • Cirium has accurate and granular data – tracking all aspects of the flight. Cirium also actively maintain and update the data ingredients that go into our emissions calculations, so our customers are sure to get continuous transparency into emissions as the entire ecosystem continues to take actions to improve fuel and operational efficiency.  Our coverage includes nearly all commercial passenger flights globally.  This gives us flight emissions for 800+ airlines globally.
    • Cirium maintains neutrality in the market and as an independent provider, we can provide unbiased data and insight.
    • Cirium expertise includes deep industry knowledge and unparalleled experience.

    Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges on the horizon?

    A: The biggest opportunity for the industry is to continue to grow and provide safe, efficient transportation to people around the world while reducing the impact on our planet.  In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of our climate crisis and the aviation industry has a significant role to play. 

    Regarding challenges… there are plenty. But one challenge that immediately comes to mind is changing human behavior. We all need to make sustainability our problem – not just someone else’s problem.  Each of us needs to personally commit to reducing our carbon footprint.  We have become accustomed to convenience and didn’t think twice about jumping on a plane for a quick meeting but that’s changed. We must change our behavior to scrutinize the effect of our actions…big and small, it all matters.

    To listen to the complete interview with more questions and insights, visit the SimpliFlying website here.

  • Accurate flight emissions data now available via Cirium Sky

    • Cirium’s CO2 emissions calculations, commended by American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic for accuracy, are now available in Cirium Sky
    • The Cirium Sky, aviation data warehouse, provides secure cloud access to Cirium’s comprehensive datasets
    • Cirium Sky democratizes data and unifies it in one place enabling it to drive operational efficiencies and faster decision making

    The air travel industry now has easy access to the most accurate carbon emissions data from the aviation analytics firm, Cirium, through its new aviation data warehouse, Cirium Sky.

    Jeremy Bowen, CEO at Cirium said: “We developed Cirium Sky to offer a single-source solution to the market, where businesses can access Cirium’s extensive data warehouse in the cloud, at any time or place.

    The level of precision and accuracy of Cirium’s CO2 emissions calculations for flights far exceeds estimates available today and accessing this data via Cirium Sky enables our clients to fulfill their sustainability objectives faster and more cost effectively.”

    Cirium Sky enables our clients to fulfill their sustainability objectives faster and more cost effectively.

    Jeremy Bowen

    As the aviation industry rebuilds from the impact of the pandemic, the need for businesses to report on their Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) footprint has increasingly taken center stage.

    Reducing aviation’s emissions will require for airlines, airports, Air Service Navigation Providers (ANSPs), aircraft financiers and manufacturers, and travel companies to use accurate data which considers many variables that can impact a flight’s emissions, including but not limited to, aircraft and engine specifications, airline schedules and actual flight operations.

    Andrew O’Connor, VP of Journey and Sustainability at Cirium said: “We have seen a lack of consistency in the flight emissions reporting so far, which has driven less consensus on agreed metrics to be used to measure emissions effectively.

    The Cirium team is on a mission to establish the standard for accurate carbon emissions data and are focused on historical and predicted fuel burn and emissions per aircraft, the flight and the cabin seat class. These building blocks are core to almost all aviation sustainability use cases.”

    These building blocks are core to almost all aviation sustainability use cases.

    Andrew O’Connor

    Cirium Sky leverages the latest technology to democratize data and unify it in one place to enable businesses to identify operational inefficiencies, lower costs, reduce financial risks, and identify new service opportunities.  

    With the availability of comprehensive historical and predicted aircraft fuel burn and CO2 emissions data, Cirium Sky offers the most complete and deepest range of aviation datasets in the industry, including global schedules and connections, flight status, air traffic management, weather, global aircraft fleet, and fares and passenger traffic

    The accuracy of Cirium’s data and analytics is supported by strong data partnerships with over 900 airlines, airports worldwide, ADS-B satellite tracking, Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and more.

    Find out more about Cirium Sky.

    About Cirium 
    Cirium® is the world’s most trusted source of aviation analytics. The company delivers powerful data and cutting-edge analytics to empower a wide spectrum of industry players. It equips airlines, airports, travel enterprises, aircraft manufacturers, and financial entities with the clarity and intelligence they need to optimize their operations, make informed decisions, and accelerate revenue growth. 

    Cirium® is part of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a RELX business, which provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.  The shares of RELX PLC are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. 

    For more information, follow Cirium® on LinkedIn or visit cirium.com.

    For media enquiries please contact:
    Cirium media team: media@cirium.com
    US: Mike Arnot at cirium@juliettalpha.com
    EMEA: The PC Agency at cirium@pc.agency

  • Cirium to set the standard for airline CO2 emission reporting

    • Cirium develops a methodology to calculate the most accurate, historic, and predicted flight emissions data in the marketplace
    • American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways commend Cirium’s approach for estimating fuel burn and allocating emissions at a passenger level
    • Leading insurance firm, Zurich, partners with Cirium to measure their corporate travel emissions and influence their travel strategies


    Jeremy Bowen, CEO at Cirium said: “The level of precision and accuracy of Cirium’s CO2 emissions calculations far exceeds estimates generally available today.”

    American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic each have independently commended Cirium for the superior approach and accuracy of Cirium’s fuel burn estimations through their own extensive analysis.

    Holly Boyd-Boland, Vice President, Corporate Development at Virgin Atlantic said: “Virgin Atlantic operates one of the youngest and most fuel-efficient fleets across the Atlantic. Accurate measuring, monitoring, and forecasting of CO2 emissions is critical as we target and monitor progress to Net Zero 2050, allowing us to better understand our environmental impact. Importantly, it also provides a tool to empower our customers to track and choose airlines with the lowest carbon footprint.”

    “Cirium is leading the way in this field, building data and forecasting capabilities that are the most accurate we have seen to date, as verified against our own historical fuel burn and emissions data.”


    Jill Blickstein, Head of ESG, at American Airlines said: “To reduce our emissions and reach net zero by 2050, we’re taking action to run a more fuel-efficient operation with more fuel-efficient aircraft powered increasingly by low-carbon fuel. And we’re holding ourselves accountable by becoming the first airline in the world with a 2035 target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.”

    “Reducing aviation’s emissions will require partnership among the airlines, our suppliers and our customers – and it’s important to build those partnerships on sound emissions data and calculations. Cirium brings deep aviation expertise to the table on this important topic, and the approach they’ve taken considers numerous variables of an aircraft and its operations.”

    Cirium has fused numerous data elements including but not limited to, aircraft and engine specifications, airline schedules, and actual flight operations to create a holistic view of the actual emissions footprint. This enables Cirium clients to view the emissions by operator, aircraft type or geographical region and on a historical, or predictive basis, solving a variety of use cases.

    “Our mission is to establish the standard for accurate fuel burn and carbon emissions data to empower the aviation industry to deliver on its sustainability targets. For the industry to achieve their goals of halving CO2 emissions by 2050 compared with 2005, a clear methodology is needed,” said Bowen.

    “We are thrilled to have our model corroborated by leading carriers around the globe.”

    The emissions data can also be merged with passenger booking information to provide corporations with their carbon footprint. This enables corporations to gain more insight into their emissions and uncover where opportunities exist to reduce their emissions, and help travelers understand their own carbon footprint associated with the flights they choose.

    Cirium’s unrivaled emissions data is also being used by leading corporate travel departments, including organizations such as Zurich Insurance, a global insurance firm. Zurich is using Cirium’s calculations to measure their corporate travel emissions, explore opportunities to reduce emissions, and empower their employees to make better travel decisions.

    Kara Brayton, Assistant Vice President, Head of Corporate Travel Management at Zurich said: “It’s been exciting to collaborate with Cirium under a proof-of-concept, utilizing data to help provide Zurich with insight to better inform our employees around the carbon impact of their decisions when booking airfare.”

    “With travel being such a large category of emissions, these types of relationships are key to leading sustainable business travel programs of the future. I am thankful for Cirium’s willingness to engage and explore a personalized solution with us.”

    Cirium’s CO2 emissions calculations are being made available through existing products in Cirium’s portfolio and in new products, to meet the evolving market needs. Learn more.

    For media enquiries please contact:
    Cirium PR: media@cirium.com
    The PC Agency (EMEA): cirium@pc.agency or +44 207 768 0001
    Juliett Alpha Media Relations (Americas): cirium@juliettalpha.com
    TrainTracks (Japan): cirium@traintracks.com

    About Cirium 
    Cirium® is the world’s most trusted source of aviation analytics. The company delivers powerful data and cutting-edge analytics to empower a wide spectrum of industry players. It equips airlines, airports, travel enterprises, aircraft manufacturers, and financial entities with the clarity and intelligence they need to optimize their operations, make informed decisions, and accelerate revenue growth. 

    Cirium® is part of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a RELX business, which provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.  The shares of RELX PLC are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. 

    For more information, follow Cirium® on LinkedIn or visit cirium.com.