ATR Using Device GPS Data To Understand Trip Patterns

Turboprop manufacturer ATR is tapping into smartphone GPS data to better understand how people travel, using the insights to identify underserved air transport markets and support network planning.

“We are purchasing an enormous amount of data sets from location devices, like smartphones or any GPS-based device. These are anonymized, of course. We are not tracking people. We are just monitoring where devices go, from A to B, and how fast,” ATR SVP of commercial Alexis Vidal told ATW.

ATR’s MobilityMonitor collaboration with Georgia Tech University provides insights into billions of trips, showing how people—and their devices—move between cities.

“When you narrow it down to 400 nm, which is a regional aircraft kind of network, that's where it gets very interesting,” Vidal said. “The very big difference, I believe, between what we are doing and maybe how others approach it is we are looking at the patterns of today. We are not trying to forecast what might be the mobility of tomorrow.”

Proprietary software and tools are used to filter and clean the data. “That works pretty well. Using AI would be another stage,” Vidal said. “Even though it's a proprietary model, we are very eager to partner with universities or companies in different countries.”

Responding to a question about solo travelers with multiple devices, duplicating journey data, Vidal acknowledged that the model has limits. For example, not all travelers will carry a GPS-enabled device, and some will carry several. However, very large data sets give a strong indication about what is happening on the ground. “What we are sure about is the share of modes of transport, because it's very easy to look at where are the devices moving, whether it’s by road, or rail, or between two airports. That is very robust.”

ATR has performed MobilityMonitor analyses on the Indian and US markets, with three other countries under development, including Indonesia. Vidal said Brazil will be “very interesting,” given the number of secondary and tertiary airports.

ATR has about 70 aircraft placed with three Indian airlines, and Vidal is convinced that MobilityMonitor has generated new aircraft demand. For example, Indian regional airline FLY91took on two new ATRs earlier this year. “Their leadership team is saying they want to go to about 60 airplanes, from six today, and our analysis can help a lot,” he said.

“In India, as an example, we estimate that about 4.6 billion of intercity journeys are conducted every year,” he said. “From the data set, we see that only 3% of the 4.6 billion intercity trips are conducted by air.”

Meanwhile, in the US market MobilityMonitor revealed only 4% of journeys are made by air. “That tells us there is an immense reservoir of mobility that can be conducted by air,” Vidal said. “Other jurisdictions would be 7%, 8%, or 9% market share for air.”