Self-Service Device Refresh for a Multi-Carrier Pilot Fleet

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Commercial airline pilots are always on the move, making them tricky to coordinate with. So when a multi-carrier airline group needed to update the iPads for all its pilots, Operations thought it best to develop a self-service function that would allow pilots to arrange their own device exchanges while preserving Op’s visibility on the back end.

Reliant, an Astreya company, partnered with the airline group's IT team to design and build DeviceHub: a Power Apps canvas application that handles the full device refresh lifecycle from start to finish. Pilots launch the app, see their assigned device, choose how they want their replacement delivered, and track the shipment from a single dashboard. Behind the scenes, scheduled flows handle the shipments, emails, and monitor station capacity, so Ops analysts don’t need to run reports manually.

Putting the refresh into pilots' hands

Rather than route every refresh through a service desk ticket, DeviceHub gives pilots a self-service portal gated by their Microsoft 365 identity and a roster lookup. The moment they sign in, the app knows who they are, what device they're carrying, what project they belong to, and what delivery options their carrier supports.

From the dashboard, a pilot either sees an existing request with live status (“Submitted,” “Confirmed,” “Visited,” “Completed”) or a single tile to start a new one. Repeat trips through the app pick up exactly where the last one left off. 

Flexibility and a single workflow

Pilots can exchange their devices either by mail or in person at a SpotOn desk or home base on a day they're already flying through. DeviceHub supports both, plus a COMAT shipment path for state routes, with the options each carrier offers controlled centrally per project.

If a pilot picks mail-in, the app confirms the address on file, runs an automated PO Box check to prevent undeliverable 2-Day shipments, and lets them correct the address before submitting. 

If they pick in-person, the app loads a real-time appointment calendar updated with each station's operating hours, capacity, and any daily overrides Ops has set.

Before anything is committed, pilots see a clean review screen and a confirmation screen with their reference number, the same number Ops sees when they pull the daily shipment file the next morning.

Automation behind the scenes

Every morning, a scheduled flow exports the day's shipments into an Excel workbook that Ops works directly from. Through the day, Ops ships devices and drops tracking numbers into the same workbook.

At 4:30 PM, an end-of-day flow scans the workbook for rows marked “Shipped,” emails each pilot their tracking link, and updates the status of the matching request record to Shipped. By the time the pilot opens the app the next day, the dashboard already shows the new status and tracking number.

Built for a multi-carrier rollout

Because the client operates three carriers with different fleet profiles and station footprints, DeviceHub was designed project-first. A single Project Control list determines, per carrier, which delivery methods are allowed, what the active date window looks like, and what the daily request caps are. Adding a new carrier or new refresh wave is a configuration change, not a redeployment.

The application sits on six SharePoint lists and one Excel tracking workbook — deliberately lightweight and within the Microsoft 365 boundary the airline group already trusts. Power Fx handles the in-app logic and Power Automate handles the scheduled operations. No new vendor licenses or identity store.

The results

• 4,000 pilots in scope across carriers
• 200% increase in speed of delivery across the entire project
• 22 hours saved per week on shipment tracking and pilot follow-up
• 95% of refreshes completed self-service, with no ops intervention
• Zero undeliverable shipments through automated PO Box detection
• 98% successful deliver on the first attempt

The impact

Instead of relying on Ops to drive every request forward, DeviceHub handles the routine cases and elevates only the exceptions. Pilots get a self-service experience built for how they really work (quickly, on mobile between flights), and the IT organization gets cleaner data, fewer tickets, and a record of every refresh from request to delivery.

Astreya is currently evaluating how Lynx can add real-time analytics on top of the data DeviceHub already captures (request volumes, station capacity, delivery patterns), and how AI OpsHub could reduce the manual coordination work that Ops still handles today.

“Smoothest pilot rollout we have ever had.” - MER project lead

“Very happy with the new scheduling system. It worked flawlessly.”  - Head Pilot

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