By Joe Buchling, Business Development Lead – CDS
This year, I had the opportunity to attend two Electronic Flight Bag Users Forums hosted by ARINC – one in Montreal in June and another in Miami in November. Both reinforced just how central EFBs have become to day-to-day flight operations.
What began as a digital replacement for paper manuals has turned into a deeply integrated cockpit workspace. Today, pilots routinely use ten or more EFB applications to handle everything from flight planning and charts to performance calculations, weather, manuals, and communications. EFBs are no longer optional add-ons; they are mission-critical tools that airlines depend on to deliver reliable, real-time, safety-enhancing information throughout every phase of flight.
As the world’s only global, space-based ADS-B surveillance provider, Aireon offers 100% worldwide coverage across all types of terrain, including oceanic and remote regions. Having this complete, real-time picture of global aircraft movements was a major part of the discussions I had with operators, OEMs, and developers at both forums.
In 2025, Aireon introduced two new capabilities that align directly with themes raised by operators, OEMs and EFB developers:
- GNSS Interference Detection and Position Assurance
- By leveraging space-based ADS-B, Aireon can identify GNSS anomalies and independently validate an aircraft’s position, even during GPS jamming or spoofing events. This data adds resilience and confidence in environments where navigation performance may be degraded.
- Global Turbulence Detection from ADS-B
- Aireon now derives turbulence information using real-time ADS-B vertical rate data from more than 15,000 aircraft in flight at any given moment. The result is a continuous, global turbulence picture without relying on dedicated onboard sensors.
Both capabilities are designed to integrate directly into EFB platforms, either through airline systems or via direct app integration. This was a recurring theme at both forums, where operators emphasized the need for dependable data sources that improve situational awareness and support better operational decisions.
Both forums had similar key takeaways: EFBs are quickly becoming the primary workflow environment for pilots, and the need for high-quality operational data continues to grow.
Aireon is well positioned to support this transformation. With global ADS-B surveillance and new value-added products like turbulence and GNSS interference detection, we are helping operators, OEMs, and app developers bring richer insight directly into the cockpit.
I’m looking forward to returning to the ARINC EFB Users Forums in 2026 and continuing the conversation with those working to bring the next generation of aviation data into flight operations.
