Altura has launched LoadIQ, an AI-driven service designed to optimise catering loading for short-haul airlines, with the company claiming it can reduce catering handling costs by up to 40%.
The service has been developed and validated through five years of continuous commercial operations across several live deployments. It is designed to work with both buy-on-board and complimentary catering programmes and can operate alongside airlines’ existing caterers and logistics partners, without changes to crew, products or supplier arrangements.
LoadIQ replaces fixed catering schedules with dynamic loading plans based on predicted demand for each flight. The platform calculates the optimal load, loading frequency and loading base, with the aim of reducing aircraft touches and ensuring catering is matched more closely to passenger demand.
Plans can be updated several times a day and are reviewed by Altura’s operations specialists before being issued into the airline’s 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,” said Marc Serra, IT Director at Altura. “It never rests and retrains continuously as new demand signals come in.”
According to Altura, the combination of dynamic demand forecasting and operational oversight can reduce truck movements to and from aircraft, while maintaining stock availability across the network. The company says this can also deliver secondary savings through reduced fuel consumption and airport slot costs.
“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.”
Human oversight remains central
Altura says LoadIQ is deliberately designed as a human-in-the-loop system, with every load recommendation reviewed by its operations specialists before reaching the airline.
“AI is very good at proposing the optimal load,” said Serra. “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.”
The company says the approach has helped it maintain availability across live operations, with no route lost to an availability issue during the five years of deployment.
No upfront cost
LoadIQ is offered without an upfront cost to airlines. Instead, Altura takes a share of verified savings, typically under an 80/20 model in which the airline retains the larger share.
A baseline is agreed and signed off by both parties’ finance teams before implementation, with monthly savings audited through joint governance.
Airlines can first run LoadIQ against their own historical data during a four-week simulation phase. Altura says a full network rollout typically follows within six months of the initial simulation.
“We are not selling software, and we are not asking airlines to invest,” said Jouques. “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.”
Live deployment
LoadIQ is currently in continuous live deployment with a European short-haul carrier across more than 20 bases and a mixed Airbus and Boeing fleet.
Altura says average catering touches per aircraft per week have fallen from three to just over two under the model, with savings independently verified through monthly joint finance governance.
LoadIQ is now available to short-haul carriers operating retail or complimentary catering programmes. Airlines can request a simulation using their own operational data by contacting Altura.
