Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs, known for their innovative collaboration, have taken a significant step forward in the world of aviation. At the UP.Summit, they unveiled their latest venture, Odysee, an AI-powered startup designed to revolutionize flight scheduling and operational logistics. This initiative, backed by a $5 million seed investment led by UP.Partners, signifies a pivotal moment in the airline industry’s evolution.
Odysee harnesses the power of advanced artificial intelligence and computing capabilities to support real-time decision-making in operational logistics, starting with flight scheduling. The platform’s core focus is on optimizing the utilization of aircraft assets and their interconnections, enabling teams to enhance efficiency in one of the airline industry’s most complex areas.
What truly sets Odysee apart is its ability to help airline schedulers understand the complex tradeoffs that arise from various schedule changes. This allows them to make informed decisions while building comprehensive flight schedules, ensuring optimal performance. Odysee employs an operations research-based methodology to construct flight schedules, swiftly analyzing the impact of schedule changes on revenue, profitability, and reliability. The platform can run hundreds of simulations within seconds, providing precise flight-level insights to stress-test potential schedules. By evaluating more options and variables than a human can process, Odysee empowers teams to make well-informed decisions with greater confidence, optimizing the airline’s operations and enhancing overall performance.
Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Airlines, highlights the strategic importance of optimizing aircraft utilization, stating, “As CEO and a former COO, I know that configuring an airline to use each airplane optimally is a key lever for operational reliability, a remarkable travel experience for our guests, and maximizing revenue.” He expresses his enthusiasm for Odysee, emphasizing its potential to help Alaska Airlines achieve these goals.
The collaboration between UP.Labs and Alaska Airlines, formed under Alaska Star Ventures, aligns perfectly with Alaska’s commitment to innovation and sustainability. Over the next three years, this partnership aims to launch additional startups addressing critical challenges within the aviation and mobility sectors. UP.Labs, a venture lab integral to the UP.Partners ecosystem, also includes UP.Ventures, a mobility-focused investment fund, and the exclusive UP.Summit, a gathering of 300 global leaders dedicated to redefining the future of transportation.
The launch of Odysee signifies a momentous milestone, merging the expertise of UP.Labs and Alaska Airlines to create a startup that redefines how flight schedules are built, analyzed, and optimized. This partnership promises to drive significant advancements in the industry, creating new opportunities and setting a new standard for efficiency and innovation in the aviation sector.
