AI in aviation has a “great potential”, says EASA’s manager

“ ANDu I see innovation [in aviation] in two different aspects. The first is that innovation aims to increase capacity and productivity. The second, perhaps the least visible, is that innovation must be implemented to solve the problems we face,” EASA’s ‘flight standards director’, Francesco Gaetani said.

This EASA officer, who spoke in Brussels at a conference in Connecting Europe Days, explained that the agency is responsible for promoting safety standards in civil aviation and the certification of aircraft and their components.

In this sense, he needed that his role is to be “a little pessimistic” by systematically asking questions about the security guarantee of a particular project presented to him.

Still, he said that all those responsible for the aviation sector have already seen situations where “little” a certain risk has not been fulfilled and that many projects, despite having a good design, are in practice not functional, so they have to be refused.

“ The European aviation sector is in full activity and the certification issued is also of value in the world market,” he said.

Asked whether the requirements of EASA cannot constitute an obstacle to innovation, for the time involved in the whole process, Gaetani said he was working to prevent this from happening, highlighting partnerships between suppliers themselves and certification entities, but insisted that it takes time to ensure security.

As far as Artificial Intelligence (IA) is concerned, Francesco Gaetani said that innovation in this field evolves very quickly and considered that there is a “great potential” with regard to collaboration between humans and AI.

“ We have quite an advanced structure. Once we gain experience in automation, in which the human being maintains total control, that is, in which there is an AI supervision, we will explore what could become a more advanced automation, in which the decision-making power is shared or fully delegated to the AI”, he added.

However, he ended his speech leaving a warning: “How would humans, already used [to control] the AI, react to a failure?”.

Connecting Europe Days, which will take place until 1 October, bringing together politicians, representatives of the transport sector, industry and the European Commission, aim to put forward measures and best practices for a safer, more sustainable and competitive transport sector in Europe.