Airbus Institutes e-Deliveries

Airbus has turned to a new “e-Delivery” aircraft handover process designed to keep the company’s delivery system moving while meeting heightened healthy and safety requirements during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Pegasus Airlines became the first Airbus customer to adopt the process, taking delivery of three new A320neo family aircraft over the last few days. According to Airbus, the e-Delivery process involves delegation of technical acceptance completion (TAC) tasks to Airbus or to a third party appointed by the airline, an electronic transfer-of-title (ToT) and a ferry flight to the customer’s base.

TAC tasks to be completed by the airline’s delegate include a ground check, acceptance test flight, acceptance manuals and procedures and any minor cosmetic rework needed. To manage the electronic title transfer, Airbus says it is making use of a “secure collaborative platform” that allows the company and its customers to handle contractual transactions such as drafting and commercially negotiating the delivery documents and digitally signing the ToT in a real-time “virtual environment.”

“After the TAC and ToT formalities are complete, the subsequent ferry-flight is also performed in a health-wise safe manner whereby the customer’s own flight crew (or an appointed third party) can pick-up the sanitized aircraft and fly it straight back from the delivery center to the airline’s home base,” Airbus said. “As well as affording a means of safe business continuity during the current COVID-19 crisis, the e-Delivery process, especially its new collaborative digital aspects—which confer enhanced workflow efficiencies, flexibility, transparency, plus a more environmentally-friendly and smoother overall customer experience—could become the blueprint for Airbus and its customers going forward.”