The fleets history project is our largest data release since we started ch-aviation PRO in 2012. It is the first time we add a historical dimension to our aircraft data as you can now clearly see how an airline’s fleet developed over time or how certain aircraft types became more popular in usage than others. This module has been “the” missing piece, which complements very well other fleet data we are currently tracking like Engine, Aircraft Ownership, or Utilization data.

In the video below, you can see how important this project was to us, how our team managed the workflow and operations, and how glad we are to present it to you finally:

The project kick-off started with splitting the aircraft by production lines and assigning researchers to rebuild history for every single frame depending on the aircraft’s current status: the ones with an operator have got the full history rebuilt and the other’s history of the year 2000. We were facing many single frame issues, unknown change dates, operator changes, and obviously, we did not foresee the COVID-19 effect and the changes back then either.

Still, we have managed to release the historical data for 44.436 aircraft, with the following methodology:

  • If an aircraft is with an operator – full historical data is presented
  • For all inactive aircraft that operated during the 21st century (2000-today), we show the history back till the year 2000.
  • Aircraft built and retired before 2000 – no historical data is presented.

We would also like to emphasize our quality assurance process. By now, we have around 20 quality assurance reports that are cross-referencing databases for any illogical issues just for the aircraft history database. With every weekly upload of the aircraft database, we are re-checking all the data, starting from the first uploads. But that is what is important in this business: making sure we keep the data quality.

 

AIRCRAFT HISTORY SEARCH ENGINE – The possibilities for fleet analysis are now endless.

Our intuitive fleet development graphs allow you to filter for specific types, enabling you to get the full picture on, for example, how an airline switched from a Boeing to an Airbus fleet. By filtering out between those two manufacturers, you can see in which year that transition happened.

It is also interesting to see how the fleet of a specific airline grew over time, and not only that; you can also precisely see how much they grew with factory new aircraft vs. used market ones.

If you are looking to buy a used aircraft, you can now easily drill into a specific serial number or registration and see who operated the aircraft throughout its lifetime. You can also determine when and how long the aircraft was stored in transition periods between two operators.

To travel back in time and see how the global airline fleets looked like in, for example, 2002,  you just need to select the dates, and the search results are here.

Fleets history module is an addition to ch-aviation PRO and ch-aviation fleets advanced. More details on the features and the pricing can be found on the fleets history product page.

FLEETS HISTORY INTRODUCTION WEBINAR: Join one of our product update webinars and learn how to use and browse throughout the historical data. Please click here to subscribe.