Untangled from Boeing, Jeppesen ForeFlight bets big on AI

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HEAR FROM THE AIR CURRENT

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When digital services company Jeppesen ForeFlight was spun off from Boeing in November, its new private equity owner Thoma Bravo declared “the original innovators of aviation technology are back in a big way.”

The company has since faced an uphill battle convincing skeptics that this proclamation is true. Its first acts after the transaction closed were straight out of the private-equity playbook: laying off employees and then raising prices for its popular ForeFlight flight planning product. These actions prompted accusations the company was being sucked into private equity’s relentless drive to maximize short-term profits. 

Now fully divested from Boeing, Jeppesen ForeFlight is implementing an ambitious expansion strategy that centers on building trust around the use of AI in aviation. CEO Brad Surak cited the technology as a reason it could slim down when it notified employees of layoffs last year. 

“A lot of people are rushing to get to market quickly with this stuff, as if that’s the right answer. I don’t think that’s the right answer in aviation,” Surak told The Air Current in a wide-ranging interview in May. “We’re not going to be the first ones showing a cool demo on some of this stuff, but we’re going to be the ones that you can trust whenever we put something into the EFB. It’s going to be something that you know is trustworthy and works, just like always.”

If successful, Jeppesen ForeFlight — which is responsible for some of the most important pieces of aviation’s digital infrastructure, used by more than 75% of the world’s pilots — could cement itself as a trustworthy steward of AI in an industry grappling with how to adopt the technology. A public failure, however, could amplify concerns about both the company’s new ownership and the risks of introducing AI into aviation.

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