Will we be seeing the “Gulf of America” on inflight maps instead of “Gulf of Mexico?” What about the changed name for North America’s tallest peak (McKinley v Denali)?
While the FAA is updating those names in its navigation systems, the answer for passengers is a bit more complicated.
PaxEx.Aero contacted four major map suppliers. None of them reported that any airlines are moving to rename the mountain nor the gulf. At least not yet. But those queries all came prior to the FAA formally initiating its efforts. And before Google and Apple adjusted their maps. The situation is very fluid, which increases potential risk for the carriers.
FlightPath3D‘s Duncan Jackson explains the situation thusly: “Maps may seem simple, but they carry weight. A misplaced border, the wrong name for a water body, or a disputed territory displayed incorrectly can ignite passenger outrage, invite government scrutiny, or even result in regulatory fines.” Will a US carrier want to upset Trump by not changing the displays? Or attract attention for being the first to swap the names? Ditto for foreign-owned carriers, who often act as an extension of their own governments’ foreign policy.
Jackson also shares that his company constantly monitors the changes on a global scale, able to proactively help its customers adjust to changes that may not be on their radar as they’re happening well outside their operating sphere.
Those changes can be implemented relatively easily, with at least from a technical perspective. Names are stored separately from image tiles, allowing the updates to be processed and managed quickly. The bad news is that managing the process still requires manual intervention.
And, unfortunately, in many cases no one at the airlines is dedicated to monitoring such situations. This often leads to reactive changes, after a map anomaly is noticed and becomes a problem, not proactive protection of the brand.
Panasonic Avionics says its map products – Airshow and Arc – can have updates made “usually in a day or less.” But VP Digital Solutions Andrew Mohr also recognizes the deployment timing challenges, “Access to aircraft varies depending on airline schedules.” Being able to deploy package updates over the air – via the aircraft’s inflight internet link – can help in this scenario, though not all aircraft or map systems support that approach.
Mohr adds that PAC will soon allow airlines to “view, add, delete, and edit names themselves,” functionality that previously existed and which is returning to the product suite.
The options to alter the maps exist, and are available to airlines. Now the question is which will take advantage of that first, and what the reaction will be when they do.
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