Boeing, Microsoft join forces in the cloud

Soon, jetliners won’t just fly through clouds, they’ll store their health data there, too.

The Boeing Co. is teaming with Microsoft to create a cloud-based platform for analytic tools and services that Boeing offers to airlines and others.

The programs from Boeing and two subsidiaries — AerData and Jeppesen — generate huge amounts of real-time information meant to improve customers’ efficiency. Airlines, aircraft lessors and maintenance suppliers use the data to make better decisions about big things like buying and leasing airplanes to more mundane matters such as scheduling crew training and managing spare part inventories.

Boeing and Microsoft aim to make the data easier to access and more flexible in its use by moving into Microsoft’s Azure cloud system.

The partnership “will accelerate innovation in areas such as predictive maintenance and flight optimization, allowing airlines to drive down costs and improve operational efficiency,” said Kevin Crowley, Boeing vice president of Digital Aviation in a statement Monday.

Crowley took over as chief executive at Jeppesen on July 1.

The news release from the two companies did not give a timeline for the work.

The services offered by Boeing cut crew scheduling costs by as much as 7 percent and save significant fuel on each flight, the company said in the release. More than 3,800 airplanes provide real-time performance and operations data to their operators.