( MENAFN - AFP) A cutting-edge facility featuring artificial intelligence (AI) -- Easyjet's new control centre is tasked with handling about 2,000 mostly-European flights per day as the British airline eyes high summer demand. The Integrated Control Centre (ICC), close to Luton airport north of London, is central to Easyjet operations, from urgent flight changes to monitoring a passenger aircraft's health mid-air. As well as analysing engines in real time, technicians can also see if a toilet needs fixing.
As the aviation sector recovers following Covid lockdowns that grounded planes and caused huge job losses, Easyjet has been on a big recruitment drive. The number of staff overseeing control centre operations has more than doubled in two years to 266 people working around the clock, their eyes glued to large curved screens. - 300,000 passengers daily - "It's going to be our busiest summer since Covid," Easyjet's director of network control, Gill Baudot, told journalists given a tour of the new centre overlooking the runway on which the company's orange planes take off and land.
"Over the next few months we'll be flying...
300,000 passengers a day," she added, as an Easyjet plane with its muffled roar flies over the centre before quickly disappearing. Should a plane fail to fly, for reasons ranging from challenging weather to technical difficulties and strikes, the ICC steps in to amend logistics. To aid such urgent changes, Easyjet is using an AI tool akin to ChatGPT.
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