Artificial intelligence in air traffic management – quantitative business model assessment

Austro Control Digital Services GmbH has developed an AI-assisted software called TRAVIS that uses current weather data to support the planning of flight routes. Similar to the traffic jam reports used in navigation apps, TRAVIS forecasts thunderstorm cells along the route and then calculates the optimal route to the destination airport. This reduces fuel consumption and minimizes and predicts delays in arrival time. The latter also reduces complexity at the destination airport, as air traffic is based on fixed planning.

Based on the Corporate Finance expertise of the UNITY Innovation Alliance, UNITY conducted an assessment of the business model and the business case of the product in terms of a fair value proposition. Therefore, the market environment was analyzed and the target customers were defined. In order to be able to further develop and concretize the business model, a pricing and revenue plan were then derived. In the project, a business case for the product was developed and a 5-year forecast was derived. Finally, a quantitative business model evaluation was conducted based on discounting and multiplier methods – this serves the company in its further business planning.