Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs Unveil Odysee, a Revolutionary AI-Driven Flight Scheduling Startup

• Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs have introduced their first startup, Odysee, at the UP.Summit. The venture aims to solve core strategic challenges for the aviation industry through innovative solutions.
• Odysee is an innovative, new flight schedule optimization software platform that leverages AI and big data to optimize asset configuration for the airline industry and other logistics operators.

(IN SHORT) Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs have launched Odysee, a new startup focused on enhancing flight schedule optimization using artificial intelligence. Introduced at the UP.Summit, Odysee aims to address significant challenges in the aviation industry by streamlining operational logistics in real-time. The startup has secured $5 million in seed funding and leverages advanced AI and big data to facilitate informed decision-making for airline schedulers. Key features of Odysee include rapid insights into schedule changes, the ability to run hundreds of simulations in seconds, and evaluation of numerous variables beyond human capability. The partnership is part of Alaska’s commitment to innovation and sustainability, with plans for more startups addressing aviation challenges in the future.

(PRESS RELEASE) SEATTLE, WA, 2024-Oct-3 — /Travel PR News/ — At the recent UP.Summit, Alaska Airlines, in collaboration with UP.Labs, proudly introduced Odysee, a groundbreaking startup focused on revolutionizing flight schedule optimization through artificial intelligence. This innovative platform promises to address key strategic challenges within the aviation sector by streamlining operational logistics in real-time, starting with flight scheduling.

Following a year of partnership aimed at fostering innovation to tackle business challenges, the launch of Odysee represents a significant step forward for Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs. The startup, which has secured $5 million in seed funding led by UP.Partners, harnesses advanced AI and big data to facilitate real-time decision-making in operational logistics, ensuring optimal asset configuration for airlines and logistics operators alike.

Steve Casley, CEO of Odysee, remarked, “What differentiates Odysee is its capability to enable airline schedulers to evaluate various trade-offs associated with schedule adjustments, empowering them to make more informed choices in constructing comprehensive flight schedules. Our team is enthusiastic about the efficiency and power this technology will bring to Alaska Airlines and future clients as we continue to enhance its functionality.”

Key Features of Odysee’s AI-Powered Optimization:

• Rapid Insights: Utilizing operations research methodologies, Odysee constructs flight schedules and quickly quantifies the impacts of any schedule modifications on revenue, profitability, and reliability.
• Enhanced Simulations in Seconds: The platform can execute hundreds of simulations within moments, delivering precise flight-level insights to stress-test potential schedules.
• Beyond Human Limits: Odysee’s technology can evaluate numerous options and variables that surpass human capabilities, thus enabling teams to make better-informed decisions.

Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Airlines, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative, stating, “With my background as CEO and former COO, I recognize that optimizing each aircraft’s deployment is essential for operational reliability and enhancing the travel experience for our guests. I am thrilled that Odysee, as the inaugural company born from our collaboration with UP.Labs, utilizes AI to ensure our planes are in the right place at the right time.”

The collaboration between UP.Labs and Alaska Airlines falls under Alaska Star Ventures, the airline’s investment arm, reflecting Alaska’s dedication to innovation and sustainability. Over the next three years, this partnership aims to launch additional startups targeting pivotal challenges in aviation and mobility.

John Kuolt, Founder and CEO of UP.Labs, added, “The launch of Odysee signifies a remarkable milestone, combining the strengths of UP.Labs and Alaska Airlines to create a startup that transforms how flight schedules are developed, analyzed, and optimized. By merging our expertise and shared vision, we are paving the way for new opportunities and setting a new standard in the industry.”

About Alaska Airlines

Alaska Air Group, Inc. is based in Seattle and comprised of subsidiaries Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Holdings, Inc., Horizon Air and McGee Air Services. With our recent acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, we now serve more than 140 destinations throughout North America, Central America, Asia and across the Pacific. We are committed to safety, remarkable customer care, operational excellence, financial performance and sustainability. Alaska Airlines is a member of the oneworld Alliance. With oneworld and our additional global partners, our guests have more choices than ever to purchase, earn or redeem on alaskaair.com across 30 airlines and more than 1,000 worldwide destinations. Book travel throughout the Pacific on Hawaiian Airlines at hawaiianairlines.com. Learn more about Alaska Airlines at news.alaskaair.com and Hawaiian Airlines at newsroom.hawaiianairlines.com/blog. Alaska Air Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as “ALK.”

About UP.Partners

UP.Partners is Transforming the Moving World by building and investing in companies that move people and goods cleaner, faster, safer, and at lower cost — on the ground, in the air, on the sea, and in space. The multi-strategy firm achieves this goal through its unique and virtuous ecosystem encompassing UP.Ventures, UP.Labs, and UP.Summit. UP.Ventures invests in companies and technologies to enable the future of mobility, working with some of the world’s most innovative investors and entrepreneurs. With flagship launch partner Porsche, UP.Labs is a first-of-its-kind venture lab, partnering with the world’s largest corporations to identify the most pressing challenges that they, and broader society, face. The UP.Summit is an invitation-only experience co-hosted with Tom and Steuart Walton and Ross Perot Jr., in Bentonville, AR and Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX respectively, bringing together the world’s most innovative minds to rethink the future of transportation. For more information, visit www.UP.partners or follow on Twitter @UpPartnersVC or LinkedIn.

About UP.Labs

UP.Labs is a first of its kind Venture Lab using a new venture model to solve core problems for the world’s most important corporations in the mobility world. By bringing together world-class business leaders, investors and corporate partners, UP.Labs solves industry problems for corporations who have the scale and resources but cannot do it on their own. Recognizing that transportation is the underlying fabric of society, UP.Labs utilizes these strategic partnerships to rapidly ideate, build and scale disruptive startups transforming the way we move people and goods to be cleaner, faster, and safer. To learn more visit https://up.partners/labs/.

About UP.Summit

UP.Summit is an annual, invitation-only gathering of the world’s most innovative minds rethinking the future of transportation. Some of the most impactful investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders in policy, defense, transportation and mobility companies gather at the summit each year with the goal of moving people and goods in cleaner, faster, safer, and at lower-cost ways – on the ground, in the air, on the sea, and in space. UP.Summit was founded in 2017 and is jointly organized by UP.Partners, Tom and Steuart Walton, and Ross Perot Jr.

Media Contact:

Media Relations
(206) 304-0008
newsroom@alaskaair.com

SOURCE: Alaska Airlines

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