Aircharge: frequently asked questions
Aircharge is the aircraft fuelling management platform developed by Synaxe. This page answers the questions most often asked by into-plane operators (ITP), fuel consortia, airport fuel farms, airlines and fuel suppliers: how it works, modules, artificial intelligence, customs, integrations, security and deployment.
Understanding Aircharge
What is Aircharge?
Aircharge is a software platform for managing aircraft fuelling (Jet A-1). It covers the whole chain, from the flight schedule to the signed delivery note: day preparation, mission assignment, execution on the apron, automatic meter reading, customs documents, fuel supplier reports and customer access to delivery notes. It is developed by Synaxe, a French software publisher founded in 2000 in Paris.
Who is Aircharge for?
Aircharge serves four types of organisation: into-plane operators (ITP) that fuel aircraft on the apron, fuel consortia that run shared stations, airport fuel farms that receive and store fuel, and the airlines and fuel suppliers that buy, sell and control the fuel delivered. Day to day, it is used by station managers, supervisors, dispatchers, fuelling operators, maintenance teams, administrative staff and quality teams.
Where is Aircharge used today?
Synaxe solutions are in production at Paris-CDG, Paris-Orly and Basel-Mulhouse, with GPA and Airfuel at Paris-CDG, SAP at Paris-Orly and Klinzing at Basel-Mulhouse. They handle more than 60% of fuelling at Paris-CDG. Aircharge is connected to the aFuel network at these airports.
How long has Synaxe worked in aircraft fuelling?
Synaxe has built fuelling tools at Paris-CDG since 2000. The Paris-CDG aviation fuel consortium (GPA) has relied on a Synaxe solution since then and has started migrating to Aircharge, the new-generation platform that builds on more than twenty-five years of field experience.
What are the Aircharge modules?
The platform has nine modules: Supervision (flight schedule, contracts and qualifications), Dispatch (real-time mission assignment), Planning & Simulation (workload by quarter hour), Refueler (operator app), Controller (automatic meter reading), Customer portal (delivery notes for airlines, fuel suppliers and customs), Maintenance & JIG compliance, Reporting & customs, and Stock (airport fuel farm management, new module). Each module is activated according to your needs.
Do I need to deploy every module?
No. Aircharge is modular: an ITP station can start with Supervision, Dispatch and Refueler, a fuel farm with Stock, a consortium with the contract engine and simulation. All modules share the same data, so more can be added later without re-keying or new integration work.
What makes Aircharge an “AI-native” platform?
AI is built into every step, not added on top: estimating the volume and duration of each fuelling from the station's history, workload planning by quarter hour, automatic assignment of each mission to the most suitable qualified operator-truck pair, and checking delivery notes before invoicing. Dispatchers and supervisors stay in control: the AI proposes, people decide.
What is the Aircharge MCP server?
Aircharge exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, the open standard that lets AI agents query data sources. Your own AI agents can access the platform's activity data (missions, volumes, delivery notes) within existing access rights, without building a dedicated API.
Planning, dispatch and simulation
How does Aircharge prepare the fuelling day?
The Supervision module centralises the flight schedule, fed in real time or in advance by API, daily file or FIDS. It builds the hourly fuelling schedule according to contract type (on arrival or departure). For each flight, AI estimates the volume, the fuelling duration and the time the truck must leave the depot. The schedule can be edited and frozen.
How are flights split between several ITPs?
The contract engine automatically allocates flights between ITPs according to the agreed rules: by airline, aircraft family and flight type, using each station's contractual percentages. A weekly allocation calendar realigns the split with the flights actually scheduled, with no manual spreadsheet recalculation.
How does automatic mission assignment work?
Aircharge Dispatch brings together on one screen the Gantt chart of missions, the GPS position of trucks and the availability of every crew. The AI-based assignment engine, in production, proposes the most suitable qualified operator-truck pair for each mission; the dispatcher approves or adjusts. When a flight is delayed, missions are recalculated and none is forgotten.
What does AI-assisted dispatch deliver?
Result measured at our customers: one minute saved per mission, or more than eight hours of work saved every 500 missions. Waiting time at the aircraft is measured and every assignment is recorded, so it can be justified to airlines and to consortium members.
How are operator qualifications checked?
Operator and truck records keep status, shifts and qualifications up to date by airline and aircraft type. For each assignment, Aircharge only proposes operator-truck pairs qualified for the flight. A truck declared out of service by maintenance can no longer be assigned.
What is the Planning & Simulation module for?
It calculates the workload curve by quarter hour, that is the number of operators and trucks needed for the scheduled flights, aircraft types and fuelling times, then compares it with the staff planned for each shift. Gaps appear immediately: understaffing at peak times, overstaffing in quiet periods. Shifts are sized on actual workload rather than on experience.
Can a new contract split be tested before it is applied?
Yes. Simulation mode replays a day, tests a flight delay or evaluates a new split of contracts between ITPs with no impact on production. Consortium members decide on objective data, with monthly, weekly and daily comparisons.
Operations on the apron
How does the fuelling operator use Aircharge?
The operator uses the Aircharge Refueler app, on an ATEX zone 2 certified Android tablet installed in the truck or on a smartphone. The mission arrives from dispatch and follows a seven-step workflow. While driving, the screen shows only the essentials: stand, aircraft registration and fuel supplier code. The delivery note is signed on the tablet and can be printed over Bluetooth.
Are mission steps entered by hand?
No. Steps are validated automatically by signals from the truck: parking brake, power take-off and meter. The operator does not have to tap at each step, which avoids omissions and timestamps every phase of the fuelling precisely.
How does Aircharge handle mass-to-volume conversion?
The quantity ordered by the airline is displayed with the mass-to-volume conversion calculated at the day's density and temperature. Ambient and 15 °C volumes, as well as mass, are then carried into the delivery note and the customs exports.
What is Aircharge Controller?
It is a box designed by Synaxe on WAGO industrial components, proven in high-vibration and high-temperature environments. It reads the meter register (RS-232, Modbus) as well as the parking brake and power take-off signals, and sends them to the tablet through an industrial Wi-Fi access point. The operator no longer copies the meter reading by hand, which removes the main source of end-of-day discrepancies.
Do I need new trucks to use Aircharge?
No. The Controller box is installed on the existing fleet of hydrant dispensers and refuellers. It already equips vehicles at Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly. Being modular, it accepts a CANbus card for speed or interlocks and is ready for charge monitoring on electric trucks.
What happens without network coverage?
An offline mode keeps the mission running on the tablet when network coverage drops. Data is synchronised as soon as the connection returns, with no loss of information and no re-keying.
How are anomalies reported?
The operator reports an anomaly directly from the app, with a photo. The report reaches the supervisor immediately and is attached to the mission. If a truck has a problem, the operator can also create a work request with a criticality level.
Does operator training take long?
No. The workflow is guided step by step, the screen is simplified while driving and most validations are automatic. Teams are trained on site during deployment, and operators are comfortable within a few missions.
Customs, reporting and invoicing
Is the electronic delivery note accepted by customs?
Yes. Aircharge produces the electronic delivery note in the format required by French customs, including in the binational setting of Basel-Mulhouse airport. Each note contains product, quantity, flight, registration, parties, meter readings, density, temperature and signature, and generates a signed PDF.
Which customs exports does Aircharge generate?
Customs exports are generated automatically: ambient and 15 °C volumes, mass, customs regimes by airline and by destination. They are built from mission data, with no manual spreadsheet work.
Does Aircharge produce reports for fuel suppliers?
Yes. Fuel supplier reports, including in IATA format, are generated and sent automatically. The summary per supplier flags delivery notes with anomalies before invoicing. At our customers, daily reporting to fuel suppliers went from two hours to twenty minutes, 83% less time.
How does Aircharge secure invoicing?
Delivery notes are checked before invoicing, including by AI, and validated data feeds service invoicing directly, with no re-keying. Meter discrepancies are detected the same day. The result: 100% of missions backed by traceable data and delivery notes that are hard to dispute.
How do airlines and fuel suppliers access delivery notes?
The customer portal gives airlines and their subsidiaries, fuel suppliers and customs a secure space. Each finds its delivery notes by keyword, date or party, and exports them in bulk. Access rights are set by customer and by entity: everyone sees only their own data.
How long are delivery notes kept?
Delivery note history is kept for ten years in the customer portal. An airline, fuel supplier or customs officer can find a document from a previous year in seconds, without asking the station team.
Fuel farm, stock and maintenance
Does Aircharge manage airport fuel farms?
Yes, with the Stock module, the platform's new module. It checks every pipeline receipt by reconciling metering and tank gauging, with alert thresholds. Tank-to-tank transfers are recorded with their batches and quality certificates, and the daily stock balance interfaces with the ERP, for example JD Edwards. A demonstration is available on request.
How does Aircharge meet JIG requirements?
At the fuel farm, batch traceability goes back to levels n and n-1, and the read-only deviations register keeps a complete audit trail. For the fleet, the Maintenance module schedules JIG routines (daily, weekly and monthly checks, washing, Millipore tests) and keeps the full history of each truck. JIG audits are prepared in minutes.
How does refueller maintenance work?
The Maintenance module is Aircharge's built-in CMMS, available as an option. Work is carried out on the tablet, with comments, documents and signature. Operators create their own work requests with a photo. A truck declared out of service appears immediately in dispatch and can no longer be assigned: no non-compliant truck goes out on a mission.
Do the fuel farm and deliveries share the same traceability?
Yes. Linked to Supervision and Refueler, the Stock module puts the fuel farm in the same traceability chain as deliveries: from pipeline to wing, every litre is tied to its batch, its certificates and the final delivery note.
Integration, security and deployment
Which systems does Aircharge connect to?
Aircharge connects to aFuel, to flight data feeds (API, daily files, FIDS), to the meter register through the Controller box (RS-232, Modbus) and to your ERP for invoicing and stock balance. The MCP server also makes the data available to your AI agents.
What hardware is used on the apron?
Operators use ATEX zone 2 certified Android tablets, suitable for use near the aircraft during fuelling, or smartphones. The Controller box is installed in the truck and talks to the tablet over industrial Wi-Fi. Delivery notes can be printed on an on-board Bluetooth printer.
How is IT security handled?
The Controller box architecture follows the ANSSI (French national cybersecurity agency) recommendations for industrial systems. On the platform, access is managed by role, customer and entity, and sensitive registers such as deviations are read-only with an audit trail.
Does Aircharge suit a station shared by several operators?
Yes. In a shared station, trucks, teams and data from several operators coexist with clearly defined access rights. The contract engine allocates flights according to the consortium's percentages, and each ITP and each fuel supplier receives its own volumes and number of delivery notes.
How does an Aircharge project run?
The Synaxe method has four steps: audit of your practices, proposal of the best-fit solution, set-up and configuration, then support from a dedicated contact. The module scope, interfaces and timeline are defined with you during the audit, based on your flight schedule, fleet and contracts.
How can I get an Aircharge demo?
Our team presents the platform using a case close to yours: flight schedule, fleet and contracts. Call us on +33 1 55 49 07 80 or use the contact form on synaxe.com.
Talk to the Aircharge team
Our team presents the platform using a case close to yours: flight schedule, fleet and contracts. Call us on +33 1 55 49 07 80 or use the contact form.