AIR FRANCE-KLM

Air France-KLM: How mixed reality became a training solution across an entire airline

When the world's oldest airline invested in mixed reality, they revolutionised training and built a better prepared workforce, able to provide a safe service to passengers, while saving the company valuable time and money.

Airline staff wearing a Meta Quest headset, engaging in immersive training at Air France-KLM.

The challenge

For Air France-KLM and the aviation industry, safety is paramount. Maintaining the highest standards requires constant training across a wide range of people and skills. Ground staff, cabin crew, flight deck crew and more need access to tools and guidance to carry out tasks safely and efficiently.

A huge logistical effort is needed to provide effective and efficient training. The KLM team hire actors to replicate passenger emotions and teach cabin crew vital communication skills. Learning how to safely deploy and use evacuation slides requires the use of swimming pools. Putting these facilities in place uses vital time and budget resources.

Traditional training methods also have their limitations. Trainee pilots are given diagrams on posters to familiarise themselves with cockpit controls. When they step into a conventional simulator, it takes them valuable time to familiarise themselves with the physical controls.

The challenges don't stop there. When it comes to fire safety training, the KLM team find it difficult to recreate the conditions of a fire on board a plane. Without a realistic simulation, the airline runs the risk of cabin crew feeling unprepared if they were to face a fire in the real world.

About the company

KLM Group serves 1,063 destinations across 173 countries, and not just passengers. The Group's core activities also include cargo and engineering and maintenance.

Industry

Aviation

Werner Soeteman,
Senior IT Manager,
Air France-KLM

“

Now, when the pilots know a new plane is coming, they're asking us straight away; when do we get our MR training for this?

WHY MR

Why Meta Horizon managed solutions?

For Werner Soeteman at the Air France KLM – XR Center of Excellence, Meta Quest was the perfect platform to migrate training to. Integration – Meta Horizon managed solutions were key to Air France-KLM's success and worked seamlessly with existing IT systems. Cost – Traditional flight simulators, expert trainers and professional actors are expensive. Meta Quest gave Air France-KLM the means to host multiple training scenarios while minimising costs, especially with affordable headsets.

Portability – Giving staff the opportunity to take headsets home and train as often as they wanted helped to improve learning outcomes. The option to use Meta Quest headsets without additional equipment made it possible.

Integration – Meta Horizon managed solutions were key to Air France-KLM's success and worked seamlessly with existing IT systems.

Costs – Traditional flight simulators, expert trainers and professional actors are expensive. Meta Quest gave Air France-KLM the means to host multiple training scenarios while minimising costs, especially with affordable headsets.

The solution

KLM's first immersive experience set out to upgrade pilot training. An in-house team created a virtual cockpit to help trainees familiarise themselves with controls before using a conventional simulator. The interactive content proved to be more engaging than diagrams on posters and improved retention rates. Students were more confident when stepping into simulators, and lessons could be tailored to meet their individual learning needs.

The success of the virtual cockpit opened the departure gates for new immersive experiences. Virtual training for ground crew covered how to de-ice planes and push aircraft into position around the runway. It wasn't long before a whole immersive apron was created, the area where planes are loaded, refuelled and maintained.

Other areas of airports were recreated in mixed reality too. KLM's virtual replica can be experienced in the daytime and at night, and in varying weather conditions for improved simulation scenarios. Mixed reality has even given staff the opportunity to train in new aircraft before their physical counterparts are delivered.

A "VR Unless" initiative has transformed training standards for Ground Services who now train in mixed reality as standard, unless physical elements are completely necessary.

Immersive content was made for flight crew too, with training covering the safe opening and closing of aeroplane doors, deploying slide rafts and extinguishing fires during flights. The customer-facing employees can take Meta Quest headsets home for two weeks at a time to practise these skills as often as they wish.

Meta Quest has been used for soft skills training too. A recently launched Cabin Communication Trainer has helped employees learn how to optimise passenger announcements while coaches adjust passenger behaviour in real time. Sessions are recorded in-headset for detailed evaluation later.

Another of KLM's breakthrough uses of mixed reality is designed to help reintegrate staff back into work after an extended time away. The soft skills content recreates a typical working day and environments to help ease employees back into their role.

Werner Soeteman,
Senior IT Manager,
Air France-KLM

“

Our MR experiences became most impactful when they reached our employees in a fully supported way. True success was only possible because the Meta Quest ecosystem seamlessly integrated with our IT landscape.

The results

Immersive learning has helped to maintain safety levels and improved staff competence and confidence across a wide range of hard and soft skills.

Benefits of KLM using Meta Horizon managed solutions include:

40-50% of KLM planes, vehicles and equipment recreated in mixed reality
Savings on time and money spent on staff training
A personalised training approach for better learning outcomes
Minimised reliance on, and damage to, expensive equipment

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