World’s longest running airline uses library of Matterport digital twins to improve operating efficiencies
Matterport, Inc., the leading spatial data company driving the digital transformation of the built world, announced that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (“KLM”), part of the Air France-KLM Group and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance with services across 90 European cities and 70 intercontinental destinations, has adopted Matterport to create a digital twin of each type of aircraft in the fleet. KLM is using Matterport to train ground crews and to provide an immersive virtual experience for customers. The global air carrier has received nearly 1 million views of its digital twins from ground crews, flight attendants, pilots, and travelers.
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“Matterport digital twins have permanently changed the way we train our employees and we have expanded our use of them over time for customer engagement,” said Chris Koomen, Virtual Reality Specialist at KLM. “Digital twins are now integral to our business. We regularly use them for training across our global operations. Cleaning crews work more efficiently, flight attendants learn the layout of an aircraft ahead of time, and pilots reference digital twins during safety checks. With remote access to digital twins, trainees avoid disrupting the maintenance work of an aircraft, enabling our fleet to return to service faster. All of this adds up to performance efficiency.”
KLM began using Matterport in 2017, capturing the first digital twin of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to train ground crews on cleaning the aircraft. When crews reduced cleaning time by 30 percent, KLM recognized the potential of Matterport digital twins to streamline training for other departments and utilized Matterport to further capture digital twins of its entire fleet. Today, KLM manages a library of 104 digital twins that have been viewed nearly 1 million times, including multiple versions for each of the 14 types of Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer aircrafts that make up its fleet. Flight attendants utilized Matterport’s digital twins to learn where important safety and hospitality items are located such as beverage carts, while an annotated digital twin for ground crews illustrates where service trolleys are stowed. Meanwhile, pilots easily refer to an aircraft’s digital twin during a pre-flight safety check if an issue is detected.
Equipped with Matterport digital twins, KLM employees do not need to travel to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for training and instead use immersive digital twins. Since virtual trainees no longer interrupt the maintenance work of an aircraft with in-person visits. It helps to get the aircraft to return to service faster and with less downtime. In addition, KLM’s digital twins have helped streamline its fleet management. For example, when upgrading the Wi-Fi routers used on a specific aircraft, KLM used the highly accurate data within a digital twin to confirm measurements and optimize the placement of new routers.
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Beyond training its internal teams, KLM uses digital twins to showcase its aircraft cabins to travelers. Passengers can virtually experience a cabin, compare sections, and view their ideal seat before purchasing. KLM’s Boeing Dreamliner digital twin, which has garnered more than 70,000 views to date, highlights the individual privacy partitions and top-tier entertainment systems available to business class travelers.
“As the transportation industry reinvents itself to drive growth and operating efficiencies, airlines like KLM have demonstrated the value of accelerating digital strategies to provide a better experience for customers and within their organizations,” said Bill Linehan, Head of Global Strategy for Travel & Hospitality at Matterport. “By using Matterport across its entire fleet of aircraft, KLM has created leading, visually rich, immersive training programs, best-in-class maintenance processes, and an engaging customer experience. We look forward to continuing to help KLM to improve its operations with Matterport-enabled solutions.”
