Aer Lingus deploys AI maintenance planning platform after successful IAG accelerator trial

Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus has signed a multi-year agreement with AI start-up AISmartPlan to automate maintenance production planning across its engineering operations, following a live operational trial conducted through the IAGi Accelerator programme in 2025.

According to Aviation Business News, AISmartPlan's platform combines flight schedules, aircraft availability and workforce constraints to generate optimised maintenance plans automatically, matching engineers with aircraft and tasks while providing visual tools that allow teams to adapt schedules in real time. The platform moved from proof of concept to a functioning operational solution in three months.

The system is now active within Aer Lingus's maintenance production planning activities. Both companies have indicated potential for wider deployment across other airlines within the IAG group, which includes British Airways, Iberia and Vueling alongside Aer Lingus.

Lucas De Almeida Ramos Faria, maintenance production planning manager at Aer Lingus, said the previous allocation process was highly manual and time-consuming, limiting how far ahead teams could plan. "This partnership marks a fundamental change in how we plan and optimise maintenance. What used to take hours each day can now be done in minutes, and with far greater confidence in the outcome," he said.

Nicolas Grondin, founder of AISmartPlan, said the Accelerator programme had provided an opportunity that early-stage companies rarely receive. "Aer Lingus' feedback directly shaped the product and proved its market fit in aviation," he said, adding that the goal had always been to fully automate maintenance planning and make complex plans instantly visible and actionable.

The IAGi Accelerator is designed to identify and scale early-stage technology solutions across IAG's operating airlines, with participating start-ups working directly with airline teams to test and refine solutions in live operational environments.

AI-powered planning tools are gaining traction across airline maintenance operations globally as carriers seek to reduce manual scheduling workloads, improve engineer utilisation and extend the planning horizon for complex line and base maintenance programmes. The ability to process multiple operational variables simultaneously represents a significant capability advance over traditional spreadsheet-based scheduling approaches still widely used across the industry.

Find the full deployment story and programme background in the full report.