Network Automation That Keeps Aviation Operations Flying

Frequently Asked Questions

What is IT service for airlines?

IT service for airlines is the work of keeping the networks behind reservations, baggage, dispatch, and tenant operations continuously available, compliant, and recoverable. NetBrain is the network automation platform aviation operators use to deliver it — through continuous network assessment, automated incident response, and governed change validation across the entire airline or airport estate. Customers running NetBrain have cut MTTR from 60 hours to minutes, auto-closed up to 65% of tickets, and saved $10M+ in the first year of deployment.

What causes most airline network outages?

The majority of aviation IT outages trace back to configuration drift — devices that gradually diverge from their intended state — or change errors introduced during maintenance windows. The US Government Accountability Office documented 34 IT outages across 11 of 12 US airlines in a single three-year period, most of them following this pattern. A reactive NOC, where every incident starts without prior context, makes recovery slower and the next incident more likely.

How does network automation help airlines prevent outages?

Network automation prevents outages by continuously checking the network against its golden configuration state and catching deviations before they cause failures. When an incident does occur, automated first-response diagnostics attach full context to the ticket immediately — path analysis, device health, recent changes — so the team resolves the issue faster and learns from it. Airlines using NetBrain have reduced MTTR from 60 hours to minutes on priority incidents and cut ticket volume by automating the top recurring incident types.

What is the difference between airline and airport network operations?

Airline networks are privately operated and tied directly to revenue — reservations, check-in, baggage, crew scheduling, and dispatch all depend on uptime. Airport authority networks are often public-entity infrastructure where airlines are tenants, and the network underlies not just IT but also operational technology: baggage systems, access control, jet bridges, HVAC, video surveillance, and concession POS. The failure cost is different — DOT metrics for carriers, public accountability for airports — but both require continuous assessment, automated incident response, and governed change management.

How does NetBrain work with Cisco ACI environments at airports?

NetBrain automatically maps ACI underlays and VTEPs as part of its network discovery, and provides a single-IP lookup that collapses a multi-step, multi-team MAC-to-firewall-to-ACI workflow into one query. This is particularly useful at airports where the data center fabric supports multiple tenants and operational systems simultaneously. The same dynamic map that covers ACI also extends to tenant, field, and OT spaces — baggage, FIDS, CUPPS, and remote concourse infrastructure — on one operational surface.

How does NetBrain integrate with ServiceNow and existing ITSM tools?

NetBrain integrates bidirectionally with ServiceNow: alerts from the monitoring stack trigger automated diagnostics that attach to the ServiceNow ticket, and resolved incidents update the CMDB. Runbooks can be triggered directly from a ticket, and post-incident documentation is produced automatically. The same integration pattern applies to Jira, Splunk, SolarWinds, and other common ITSM and observability tools in the aviation stack. No seat licenses are required for tier-1 staff to execute runbooks via a chat interface.

What results have aviation operators seen with NetBrain?

A major US carrier reduced MTTR from 60 hours to minutes on priority incidents across a 34,576-ticket analysis, generating over $10 million in first-year savings. A major international hub airport cut network map generation from 10 hours to 10 minutes and problem diagnosis from 12 hours to 1 hour. Across production deployments, aviation operators see up to 65% of tickets auto-closed and 50% faster automated first response. Fifty percent more changes are shipped safely per maintenance window compared to manual change workflows.