Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs have announced the launch of their first joint startup product, Odysee, at the UP.Summit. Odysee aims to address critical strategic challenges in the aviation sector by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize operational logistics. With a focus on improving flight scheduling, the platform seeks to enhance the efficiency and profitability of airline operations.

An Innovation in Flight Scheduling

Odysee is an AI-enabled software platform designed to optimize flight scheduling for airlines and logistics operators. The platform, which launched with $5 million in seed funding led by UP.Partners, offers real-time insights into the impact of schedule adjustments on revenue, profitability, and operational reliability. By utilizing advanced algorithms and big data, Odysee can assess various scheduling scenarios within seconds, allowing airline operators to make informed decisions.

The development of Odysee represents a significant milestone in the partnership between Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs, which began a year ago at the UP.Summit. This venture aligns with Alaska Airlines’ vision of utilizing innovative solutions to solve key business challenges in aviation and mobility.

Key Features of Odysee

Odysee’s platform offers several benefits to airline schedulers:

• Rapid Insights: The software employs operations research techniques to assess the impact of schedule changes on various performance metrics quickly.
• Enhanced Simulations: Odysee can run hundreds of simulations within seconds, offering precise insights at the flight level to test future schedules.
• Beyond Human Capabilities: With the ability to evaluate more options and variables than human operators, Odysee enables teams to make better-informed decisions for optimizing schedules.

“Odysee’s ability to evaluate trade-offs in scheduling empowers airline schedulers to make informed choices,” said Steve Casley, CEO of Odysee. “We are excited about the efficiency and power this technology brings to Alaska Airlines and future customers.”

Strategic Partnership for Innovation and Growth

Alaska Airlines’ CEO, Ben Minicucci, highlighted the value of Odysee for optimizing aircraft utilization and enhancing operational reliability. As part of Alaska Star Ventures, Alaska Airlines’ investment arm, the partnership with UP.Labs focuses on driving innovation in the aviation industry. The goal is to develop additional startups over the next three years to address further challenges in transportation and mobility.

UP.Labs, a venture lab that is part of the broader UP.Partners ecosystem, plays a central role in the development of Odysee. The ecosystem includes UP.Ventures, a mobility-focused investment fund, and the UP.Summit, which brings together industry leaders to explore the future of transportation.

“The launch of Odysee represents a significant achievement, combining the expertise of UP.Labs and Alaska Airlines to reshape flight schedule optimization,” said John Kuolt, Founder and CEO of UP.Labs. “Together, we’re driving growth and setting new standards in the industry.”

Looking Ahead

With the introduction of Odysee, Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs are taking a forward-looking approach to tackle the complexities of flight scheduling. By utilizing AI and real-time analysis, Odysee is poised to streamline logistics and improve decision-making processes, setting a new benchmark for innovation in the aviation sector. As the partnership continues to evolve, both companies remain committed to creating solutions that enhance the future of transportation.

Analysis

The partnership between Alaska Airlines & UP. Labs was announced last year Odysee is the first of what sounds to be many products. For passengers often flight scheduling and routing is an afterthought but it can make a huge difference in the passenger experience. For example, if an inbound plane is scheduled to arrive at noon and depart again at 12:30 pm. The ground crew takes around 45 minutes to turn the plane around. It becomes clear that the 12:30 pm departure time will not happen. Odysee could tell the airline if that flight schedule is realistic.

This is a good application of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Most Machine learning models take a copious amount of data to train correctly. These models also tend to be good at defining various variables. I am excited to see how this changes Alaska’s operations and provides a smoother customer experience. I’m guessing at some point they may release this product to other airlines and it will be interesting to see which other airlines also use Odysee.