// Reference Architecture · Sanitized · Not Proprietary

Flight Ops Platform

cloud-native · azure · microservices · ml-enabled · real-time
⚠ Sanitized reference architecture — no proprietary or confidential data
Data & Integration
Core Services
ML / AI Layer
Observability
Security / Governance
💡 Hover cards for details
Ingestion
🛰️
Weather & NOTAM Feeds
ARINC · ACARS · FAA APIs
Real-time weather ingestion, NOTAMs, TFRs, and airspace restrictions pushed via event streams.
✈️
Aircraft Telemetry
ACARS · ADS-B · EFB sync
Position, fuel state, mechanical status, and sensor data from aircraft systems via ACARS/ADS-B.
🏢
Airport & Gate Systems
AODB · DCS · CUTE/CUPPS
Gate assignments, departure sequencing, and ground handling status from airport operational databases.
👥
Crew & HR Systems
REST APIs · SFTP · OAuth 2.0
Crew qualifications, duty status, bidding results, and FAR 117 compliance data from HR platforms.
🔗
Third-Party Vendors
REST · SOAP · SFTP · EDI
MRO, fuel suppliers, catering, and ground handling vendor integrations via secure B2B APIs.
event streaming · kafka topics · schema registry
Streaming
⚡
Event Streaming Bus
Apache Kafka · Azure Event Hubs · Schema Registry (Avro/Protobuf)
Central nervous system — all domain events flow through topic-partitioned streams. Dead-letter queues, replay capability, consumer group isolation per service.
🔄
API Gateway & Integration Layer
Azure API Management · Azure Service Bus · REST / GraphQL
Rate limiting, auth enforcement, request transformation, and legacy adapter patterns for SOAP/EDI systems. Circuit breaker pattern for resilience.
📥
Data Ingestion Pipeline
Azure Data Factory · Kafka Connect
CDC connectors, batch extracts from legacy systems, and real-time stream ingestion into the data lake.
microservices · domain-driven design · async messaging
Core Services
🗺️
Flight Planning Service
Python · FastAPI · AKS Pod
Route optimization, alternates computation, fuel calculation. Integrates ML routing models. Exposes gRPC + REST.
⛽
Fuel Optimization Service
Python · Azure ML · AKS
Predictive fuel uplift recommendations per flight, factoring weather, payload, route — reduces unnecessary fuel burn.
👨‍✈️
Crew Management Service
Java · Spring Boot · AKS
Duty time tracking, FAR 117 compliance checks, pairing optimization, and disruption re-crewing workflows.
🔧
Maintenance & MRO Service
.NET Core · SQL · AKS
MEL tracking, deferred maintenance items, scheduled maintenance integration with aircraft rotations.
🚨
Disruption Management
Node.js · Redis · AKS
Real-time irregular operations detection, automated recovery scenario generation, stakeholder alert orchestration.
📡
Passenger Comms Service
Node.js · Azure Notification Hubs
Flight status push notifications, delay/cancellation communications, proactive rebooking offers via mobile/email/SMS.
feature store · model registry · inference endpoints
ML / AI
🧠
Route & Fuel ML Models
Azure ML · Python · XGBoost / LSTM
Trained on historical flight data, weather patterns, and fuel burn records. Served via Azure ML Online Endpoints.
🔮
Delay Prediction Models
Azure ML · Scikit-learn · Feature Store
Predicts delay probability 4h before departure. Feeds proactive disruption management and crew pre-positioning.
📋
Compliance Automation
Rules Engine · NLP · Azure OpenAI
Automated FAR 117 duty time validation, regulatory doc parsing, and audit trail generation for compliance teams.
⚙️
MLOps Pipeline
Azure ML Pipelines · MLflow · CI/CD
Automated model retraining, drift detection, A/B deployment, and promotion gates from dev → staging → prod.
data lake · warehouse · bi layer
Data
🏔️
Data Lake (Raw + Curated)
Azure Data Lake Gen2 · Delta Lake · Parquet
Bronze/Silver/Gold medallion architecture. Raw events in bronze, cleansed in silver, business-ready in gold layer.
❄️
Cloud Data Warehouse
Snowflake · Azure Synapse · dbt
Flight ops dimensional model — fact tables for flights, events, fuel burns. dbt for transformation lineage.
📊
Analytics & Dashboards
Tableau · Power BI · Azure Analysis Services
Executive OKR dashboards, route profitability, on-time performance, and disruption KPIs for 25+ senior leaders.
🔍
Data Governance
Collibra · Azure Purview · Data Catalog
Data lineage tracking, PII classification, business glossary, and quality score reporting across all domains.
observability · alerting · sre
Observability
📈
Metrics & Alerting
Prometheus · Grafana · Azure Monitor
SLA/SLO dashboards, latency histograms, error rate alerts with PagerDuty escalation policies.
🪵
Centralized Logging
Splunk · Azure Log Analytics · ELK
Structured log aggregation across all AKS pods and services. Correlation IDs for distributed trace linking.
🔭
Distributed Tracing
OpenTelemetry · Azure App Insights · Jaeger
End-to-end request tracing across microservices. Identifies latency hotspots and cascading failure root causes.
🚦
Synthetic Monitoring
Azure App Insights · Runscope · Canary Tests
Automated canary transactions on critical paths (flight plan creation, crew check, fuel upload) every 5 minutes.
zero-trust · rbac · audit logging
Security
🔐
Identity & Access
Azure AD · OAuth 2.0 · RBAC · SCIM
Zero-trust model, just-in-time access, MFA enforcement, and automated de-provisioning via SCIM sync.
🔑
Secrets & Certificates
Azure Key Vault · cert-manager · mTLS
Centralized secret rotation, certificate lifecycle management, and mutual TLS enforcement between services.
🛡️
Network Security
Azure Firewall · WAF · Private Endpoints
Network segmentation per domain, WAF on all ingress, private endpoints for data services — no public exposure.
🚀
CI/CD & Release Pipeline
GitHub Actions · ArgoCD · Helm · AKS
GitOps-driven deployments, automated test gates (unit/integration/contract), blue-green and canary release strategies.
📋
Compliance & Audit
Azure Policy · Defender · SIEM
Automated policy enforcement, continuous compliance scanning, audit trail export for FAA and DOT regulatory review.
~15%
Flight planning time reduction via ML-assisted route optimization
Industry benchmark · IATA 2023
20–30%
Fuel savings achievable through predictive uplift models
Industry benchmark · FAA/ICAO studies
60%+
Faster deployment cycles with CI/CD pipeline automation
Industry benchmark · DORA 2023
40–50%
Reduction in IROPS response time with event-driven automation
Industry benchmark · Airlines for America
99.9%
Platform availability target with multi-region failover design
Architecture SLO target · Azure Well-Architected
3x
Faster audit cycle with centralized data platform vs. siloed systems
Industry benchmark · Gartner Data & Analytics
⚠ Disclaimer: This is a sanitized reference architecture for portfolio and educational purposes only. No proprietary systems, internal configurations, vendor contracts, IP, or confidential data from any employer are represented here. Technology choices reflect common industry patterns for airline operations platforms. Built by Balaji Sivarajan · Senior Technical Program Manager · linkedin.com/in/balaji-sivarajan-08-08