Developed and validated through five years of continuous commercial operations. Cuts short-haul catering handling costs by up to 40 percent. Available now to short-haul carriers with no upfront cost.
Altura, the only truly independent onboard retail provider, today launched LoadIQ, its AI-driven service that optimises catering loading for short-haul airlines. Developed and refined through five years of continuous operation across several live commercial deployments, LoadIQ has cut catering handling costs by up to 40 percent across live routes.
LoadIQ is designed for airlines running buy-on-board or complimentary catering programmes. It integrates alongside existing caterers and logistics partners with no changes required to crew, product, or supplier arrangements.
How LoadIQ works
LoadIQ replaces fixed catering schedules with dynamic loading driven by an AI platform trained on airline operational data. The system predicts demand per flight and computes the optimal load, frequency and loading base. This provides an opportunity to reduce the number of aircraft touches and tailor the loading plan according to demand. Plans can be updated several times a day and each plan is validated by experienced Altura ops specialists before it is issued into the operation.
“The model has been developed utilising multiple historic data sources and is then trained on the airline’s own operational data to forecast the schedule. It never rests and retrains continuously as new demand signals come in,” said Marc Serra, IT Director at Altura. “The combination of a dynamic AI platform and the knowledge of our team ensure it stays accurate across seasonal shifts and network changes. LoadIQ is not a periodic optimisation exercise; it is a live decision service that runs every day.”
The result is fewer truck movements to and from aircraft; loads matched to actual passenger demand rather than rotation count and stock availability maintained across the network. Fuel and airport slot costs fall as a direct consequence of fewer touches, delivering an ESG dividend on top of the cash saving.
“We built and validated LoadIQ inside live operations from 2020 onwards but the huge advances in AI have enabled the platform to be a true gamechanger,” said Neale Jouques OBE, Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder of Altura. “Five years of continuous deployment has given us confidence in the model and in the commercial arrangement. It works, we can use our modelling to produce decision making simulations before implementation and it can function without disruption to the airline’s crew, product, or existing supplier relationships.”
People design, machines execute
Every load recommendation produced by LoadIQ is reviewed by Altura ops specialists before it reaches the airline. The design philosophy is deliberate: the AI proposes the optimal load, and experienced operators confirm it before anything reaches operations. No autonomous decisions reach the tarmac.
“AI is very good at proposing the optimal load,” Serra said. “Our experienced operators are better at spotting the edge cases where the optimum on paper does not fit the reality on the ground or the one-off activity that might distort the picture. Combining the two has made LoadIQ so effective in commercial operations for five continuous years and is why we have not lost a route to an availability issue in that time.”
Commercial model
The service carries no upfront cost to the airline. Altura earns a share of verified savings under a typical 80/20 split in which the airline retains the larger portion. A jointly agreed baseline is defined and signed off by both finance teams before go-live, and monthly savings are audited through joint governance with transparent attribution.
Airlines can run the model against their own historical data during a four-week simulation phase before committing to a live pilot. Full network rollout typically follows within six months of the initial simulation.
“Our commercial arrangement is straightforward,” Jouques said. “We are not selling software, and we are not asking airlines to invest. We simulate the savings on the airline’s own historical data first. Only when they see the number and approve it does anything change in operations, and we are paid only from savings that are jointly verified.”
Track record
LoadIQ is in continuous live deployment with a European short-haul carrier, running across more than 20 bases on a mixed Airbus and Boeing fleet. Average catering touches per aircraft per week have fallen from three to just over two under the model. Savings are independently verified through joint finance governance every month.
Availability
LoadIQ is available now to carriers operating retail or complimentary catering programmes. Airlines can request a simulation on their own operational data by contacting Altura via info@alturaservice.com.
