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A first for a Canadian commercial air carrier, Porter Airlines has achieved Transport Canada approval for paperless maintenance records management using the RAAS maintenance and engineering software from Aviation InterTec Services (AIS).
The move to paperless workflow allows Porter Airlines to dispense with wet ink signatures and the related requirement to retain paper-based aircraft maintenance records, allows real-time electronic receipt of maintenance compliance details from all maintenance locations, eliminates transcription errors, increases technical records and quality assurance efficiency, allows for finer-grained reliability analysis and enables real-time aircraft status reporting for flight operations. The gains can be measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
RAAS had previously been approved for paperless maintenance management workflow under FAA Part 121 commercial operations regulations so AIS was well positioned to help Porter Airlines work with Transport Canada to establish an acceptable paperless workflow solution.
Porter Airlines began trials at its YQT and YSB maintenance bases in January of 2019, transitioned all remaining maintenance bases on July 16, and is now completely paperless. The very short run-up and trial periods are a reflection of the quality of focus Porter Airlines maintenance management administrative personnel applied to this project as well as RAAS’ inherent suitability to the task.
Eric Hansen, CEO at AIS said, “For obvious reasons of paperweight, auditability and cost saving, the aviation maintenance industry is moving toward paperless. AIS is proud to have helped Porter Airlines set a new precedent within the Canadian regulatory environment, which we expect will enable a smoother transition to paperless for other Canadian carriers who are seeking similar efficiencies.”
