We’re building an integrated ecosystem of AI software and smart vehicles that optimally connect ground crew, aircraft, and ground support equipment to efficiently service flights.

Our long-term vision is to handle aircraft autonomously from touchdown to takeoff, providing seamless aircraft turnarounds for a streamlined airport experience.

In spite of the current advancements in aircraft technology, the infrastructure and processes required to enable modern air travel have been largely left out of the equation. With some exceptions, airports have not evolved past the traditional check-in counter and lengthy boarding processes to transit passengers from door to gate.

On the airside, where aircraft get prepared for their next flight by ground handlers, operations have remained technologically stagnant. Ground handling services manage everything from baggage loading to aircraft fueling, cleaning the cabin, and filling it with snacks. It is effectively the backend of the airport, a massive cross-functional logistical effort across an airline’s different teams.

Despite their importance, ground operations have historically received very little attention. Aircraft turnarounds (the process of servicing aircraft between flights) are still largely coordinated through walkie-talkie and paper. Ramp agents increasingly use the internet and open-source tools to track flights, where last-minute changes disorient teams and timesheets complicate real-time scheduling. Furthermore, GSE whereabouts are commonly unknown and most equipment gets misallocated every day.

Collaborative airside decision-making is broken, costing airlines upwards of $30B every year across delays, accidents, and fuel costs. Moonware is leveraging the advances in software to depart from outdated turnaround procedures and further improve the passenger experience.

Automated ground handling workflows can reduce turnaround times, delays, and GSE fuel emissions. Migrating time-sensitive decision-making (such as crew dispatching & vehicle allocation) over to digital infrastructures that can process large amounts of information in real-time will go a long way in addressing operations that are frequently breaking.

Fundamentally, a software-first approach allows us to collect large amounts of data that are virtually absent on GSE whereabouts and movements, interactions between ground handling agents, and service time punctuality. We can further use this data to build robust machine learning models that take into account airfield traffic patterns and airport-specific constraints. This enables us to inform where the greatest bottlenecks in ground operations are occurring and how these processes can be augmented by ‘last-mile’ ramp services with autonomous GSE.

Moonware’s inception originated in the Urban Air Mobility industry, stemming from a collaboration with Uber Elevate (acquired by Joby Aviation) to develop ATLAS, our autonomous & electric pushback vehicle to tow eVTOL aircraft in vertiports.

Our origins as an autonomy company have informed our thesis on the direction that airside operations must take in order to evolve. As aircraft become more fuel efficient, electric, and autonomous, airports and the hubs uniting these modes of transport will also need to adapt to accommodate advanced aerial mobility.

Next-generation aircraft are increasingly being designed around long-term autonomous flight. During their initial years of service, these aircraft will use existing infrastructure, resources and air traffic control (ATC) procedures. However, they are being engineered with advanced software-enabled capabilities and will ultimately be controlled by next-generation ATC tools.

Moonware aims to be the ground complement of advanced airspace management, building efficient surface movement systems enabled by the advances in software.

This mission allows us to build value in existing markets such as commercial and cargo aviation, as well as in the nascent ones such as Urban Air Mobility, where we will establish the foundations for a new frontier of aviation.