The best of Thales at the Singapore Air Show 2018

It has been a great week for Thales at the Singapore Air Show 2018, one of Asia’s largest and most important aerospace and defense exhibitions. From 6 to 11 February, Thales was present as an advocate of cooperation on cybersecurity in aviation, to announce recent contracts – and of course to showcase its latest innovations for airlines, airports, air traffic management and the battlefield!

A series of business successes

Thales took advantage of this year’s air show to announce a series of business successes, including a contract with Garuda Indonesia for Thales’s AVANT in-flight entertainment systems and Cebu Pacific Air’s adoption of Thales’s Aviobook Electronic Flight Bag solution.

In addition, our long-time customer and partner Airbus has entrusted its avionics components repair operations in the Asia-Pacific to Thales, with all repair operations set to be done out of Singapore.
And as we move forward in digital, Thales signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to collaborate on the development of next-generation air traffic management (ATM) technologies, including through the application of artificial intelligence in ATM. Within the region, Thales also secured ATM contracts in Laos and Malaysia.

The full press releases can be read on the show’s dedicated event page on the Group site.

Highlights at the Thales stand

There were many reasons to be excited about the Thales stand at this year’s Singapore Air Show. From a life-size fuselage and the VR-based flight training demonstrator HeliMission to an interactive wall that told the story of radars, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed by Thales, the booth provided visitors with a truly digital experience.

Patrice Caine, CEO & Chairman, and Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive VP for International Development, were both present at the stand and welcomed a host of other distinguished guests, including Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, Singapore’s Minister for Transport and Mr. Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s Deputy Minister for Defense.

Cybersecurity in aviation

A key digital trend to watch over the coming years, in Singapore and beyond, is the development of increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity systems for the aviation industry. Digitalisation and the rise of connected systems in aircraft mean that the concern for safety in aviation is greatly evolving. What can we do to make aerospace a cybersafer place?

In a LinkedIn article published on 7 February, Patrice Caine posed this question to aviation actors meeting at the Singapore Air Show – and shared his reflections on this major challenge. Separately, Nathalie Feyt, Cybersecurity Design Authority for Avionics at Thales, shared her thoughts on the topic in a phone interview on 1 February.

The two agree on the threat assessment: digitalisation does mean new vulnerabilities, but the aviation industry benefits from a history of stringent safety designs. The industry is well-geared to resilience and to learning from mistakes. As pointed out by Nathalie Feyt, the current challenge is to keep up with the pace at which cybertechnologies are evolving, to future-proof systems for the duration of their lifecycle and to constantly check that safety designs cover all possible types of cyberattacks.

The course of action envisioned by both Patrice Caine and Nathalie Feyt is one of active collaboration. In aviation, Thales is part of an ecosystem where robustness of the entire value chain is of crucial importance, and all actors share the responsibility to maintain this chain of trust. The decisive moment to act, to share information and resources, is now. This was one of the main messages Thales delivered at the Singapore Air Show 2018, which proved to be a highly successful event to kick-start the year.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to making it a success!