Innovation Challenges

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Challenge Owner(s) Singapore Airlines
Organiser(s)
Singapore Airlines, Agorize
Industry Type(s)
Air Transport, Circular Economy & Sustainability, Digital/ICT, Food Services, Healthcare & Biomedical
Opportunities and Support Solutions with business potential will be fast-tracked into the SIA Accelerator Programme
Application Start Date 17 May 2021
Application End Date 30 June 2021
Website Click here to learn more

About Challenge

Singapore Airlines AppChallenge is the airline’s annual digital innovation challenge. This year, as travel regains momentum, Singapore Airlines is well-positioned to lead the wave in international air travel. Through 9 exciting challenge statements across 3 key themes, we are calling out to startups and scale-ups from all over the world. Whether you hail from New York, Beijing, Jakarta or anywhere in between, if your digital solution has the potential for the airline to lead the new world, join us in this exciting journey!

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT

Singapore Airlines

After a year of unprecedented changes in the travel industry, consumer travel behaviour has changed drastically.  In this “new normal”, health and safety has become a key priority for travellers.

We expect that there will be an acceleration in the use of digital technologies, both on the ground and in the air, to reduce risks and support the customer experience. This includes working with partners to facilitate Covid-19 testing for travellers, digitising test results and integrating the verification into the check-in process. Singapore Airlines has rolled out various initiatives, such as the IATA travel pass, as well as smart travel features that promote contactless travel.

What We Are Looking For

In this challenge statement, we invite start-ups to propose new solutions that will enable Singapore Airlines to anticipate and meet travellers’ changing expectations, and ensure a seamless and safe travel experience at various touchpoints on the ground and on-board as air travel begins to recovers, and the number of travellers increase.

Selected startups will be working with the SIA Customer and Ground Experience teams to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT

Singapore Airlines

There are 2.5 billion gamers across the world. Mobile gaming comprises the largest share of the industry (45%) and it is expected to grow even more. Asia Pacific, with Singapore at the heart of it, is the most valuable geographical area (47% of the market), where popular games can reach more than 100 million active users every month.

The advancement in the capabilities of personal entertainment devices (PED) creates potential for new formats for casual games which require less data transmission - an important factor for an airline, as onboard Wi-Fi is costly and intermittent.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking out for a solution that enables Singapore Airlines to launch a unique mobile gaming experience with little to none hardware requirements.

Selected startups will be working with the Product Innovation team to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Hospitality

Singapore Airlines

Self-planning for travel is on the rise and travellers are always on a constant lookout for travel inspiration and hidden gems, especially in the early stages of their travel planning journey.

As a newly established online travel platform, Pelago is exploring ways to provide customers with travel ideas, help them plan and book their travel itinerary, and stay up to date with the latest Covid-19 safety guidelines. Most of our customers are first time visitors and as such, we lack data for recommendation engines.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a digital solution that is able to personalise travel itineraries and provide insightful recommendations and ideas for customers who are in the itinerary-planning stage.

Selected startups will be working with the Pelago team to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT, Healthcare & Biomedical

Singapore Airlines

Mental health is gaining more attention in 2021. More and more organisations recognise the need to safeguard their employees’ mental and emotional well-being. At SIA, we recognise that our pilots face various stressors due to their unique working conditions, such as irregular schedules and extended periods away from home, all of which may lead to physical and mental fatigue. In addition, Covid-19 quarantine requirements imposed by the authorities may require pilots to be isolated after their flight, which could be another potential stressor in their line of work.

Prolonged periods of stress without effective management are detrimental to a person’s mental well-being. Furthermore, stigma against mental health may discourage people from seeking help, due to fear of discrimination.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking out for solutions that will enable our pilots to take care of their mental wellness through effective monitoring and action recommendations.

Selected startups will be working with SIA Flight Operations team to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines Engineering Division has been working with research institutes and aviation partners on analytics initiatives, e.g. predictive maintenance, to enhance work efficiency.  This is an ongoing journey, working with aviation and innovation communities to explore more of such use cases.

One key activity of our operations involves the sale of aircraft to buyers and returning of aircraft to lessors. Whenever an aircraft is undergoing this activity, the buyer/lessor would audit all physical copies of maintenance records.  Incomplete maintenance records such as missing entries, wrong references, no signoff etc, often results in redoing the maintenance tasks to fulfil the aircraft return conditions.  This wastes time and resource and increase unnecessary costs.

What We Are Looking For

In this challenge, we are looking for a solution that is able to leverage on computer vision and AI to pick up anomalies in the physical aircraft maintenance documents, after the maintenance work is carried out and before submission.

Selected startups will be working with the SIA Engineering Division to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT

Singapore Airlines

Singapore is currently one of the world’s leading Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, responsible for 10 per cent of the global output. We are home to a big and diverse cluster, with over 130 companies providing a whole range of services for engines, components, avionics as well as aircrafts. SIA Engineering Company is one of the key players that denote trust in the trajectory of Singapore’s aerospace sector. 

What We Are Looking For

Leveraging on digital to optimise operations for service excellence has been a major focus for SIA Engineering company.  In this challenge statement, we are looking for a solution that is able to help the team to use advanced analytics to streamline repair activities.

Selected startups will be working with the SIA Engineering Company to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Food Services

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines is the world’s very first airline to roll out a network-wide pre-ordering service for passengers in Suites, First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy Class, for main courses on their flight.

Passengers may view their in-flight menu on SIA’s website and pre-order their main courses, guaranteeing their choice of meal. Pre-selected meal choices can be made anytime from three weeks before travel up to 24 hours before departure. This service compliments the existing Book-the-Cook programme.

The pre-ordering service leads to benefits for the environment. By uplifting exact orders, the airline can avoid over-catering, leading to reduction of food waste. Yet, it has been a challenge to launch a similar service to the Economy Class passengers, due to the larger number of customers and greater logistical challenge for the cabin crew.

What We Are Looking For

In this challenge, we invite solutions that will enable Singapore Airlines to extend pre-order services to Economy Class passengers flying with us.

Selected startups will be working with SIA Inflight Services & Development and Cabin Crew teams to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Digital/ICT

Singapore Airlines

Aviation fuel consumption is one of the major contributors to operational costs for an airline. The ability to optimise the consumption of fuel helps to provide a competitive edge for airlines.

Vistara has a domestic and international network of operations, with a fleet of Airbus A320, A321, Boeing B737 & B787 aircraft. On top of operating a modern and fuel efficient fleet, airline organisations implement fuel optimisation measures to gain cost benefits. While such gains for each flight sector could be low, the cumulative effect across the operations would result in significant gains. 

What We Are Looking For

In this challenge, we are looking at the development of predictive tools for end users to achieve optimal fuel planning.

Selected startups will be working with the Vistara team to fine-tune your submissions.

Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)
Air Transport, Circular Economy & Sustainability, Digital/ICT, Food Services

Singapore Airlines

Half-eaten meals, tossed beers, empty plastic water bottles, napkins, discarded packaging - are all waste generated in serving customers during a flight. According to IATA, airlines will produce over 10 million tons annually by 2030. Fortunately, many airlines have increased their push towards reducing in-flight waste in pursuit of a “greener” flight, and some airlines have already implemented zero-waste flights and onboard cabin recycling. Singapore Airlines is also a forerunner in pushing for reducing on-board waste, and initiatives such as replacing condiments’ disposable packaging with shakers and becoming plastic straw-free in 2019 have already been implemented.

What We Are Looking For

Singapore Airlines is committed in integrating sustainability into our daily operations and implementing solutions to reduce its environmental footprint, along with our partners and stakeholders. Through this challenge, we are looking out for a digital solution that enables us to effectively track and reduce packaging waste generated throughout the supply chain. 

Selected startups will be working with the SIA Sustainability Office, Procurement and In-flight service and development teams to fine-tune your submissions.

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Challenge Owner(s)Singapore Airlines
Industry Types(s)Air Transport

Singapore Airlines

Many countries have imposed entry restrictions in response to the Covid-19 situation. Travellers are now required to possess additional documents such as approval letters of entry, pre-departure Covid-19 test certificates, quarantine hotel bookings and health declaration forms. As travel requirements vary from country to country, it can be a confusing and frustrating experience for travellers. Singapore Airlines provides helpful travel information via our online Covid-19 information centre, but customers may sometimes require additional help or clarification from our frontliners.

What We Are Looking For

In this challenge statement, we are looking for solutions that will help our frontliners understand travel requirements easily and accurately, so that they can provide accurate and timely information to our customers, as well as ensure that our customers have all the required travel documents before accepting them for the flight.

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