On Nov. 17, Boeing and Air China said that the initial release of Boeing's Airplane Health Management (AHM) system is now active on 40 airplanes in the airline's Next-Generation 737 fleet, providing information on the condition of airplanes during flight operations.

"We are quite excited to begin seeing the benefits of Airplane Health Management," said Zhong Dechao, deputy chief engineer of Air China. "AHM will help us improve our maintenance efficiency and will benefit our passengers with an even higher level of on-time performance."

Airplane Health Management allows Air China to gather and evaluate critical real-time in-flight flying condition data, relaying airplane information to ground controllers. This visibility allows the airline to better plan and perform repairs, minimizing scheduling impacts.

AHM also supports long-term fleet reliability by helping airlines identify and respond to faults proactively. Fleet-wide history and knowledge from multiple operators is available to help guide repair decisions on same-model airplanes, improving reliability and efficiency.

Air China last year contracted with Boeing for AHM on a total of 117 Air China 737s that are in service and on order. Air China is Boeing's first Chinese customer for AHM.

Airplane Health Management is a key component in Boeing's larger vision of Lifecycle Solutions -- improving airline efficiency with digital productivity tools, product and industry expertise and the power of aviation's leading integrated supply chain, supporting Boeing airplanes from order placement through retirement.