What Is SmartScore for Insurance?

SmartScore is PlaneConnection’s composite safety and operational quality metric. For insurance purposes, it translates an operator’s real-time operational data into a continuous 250—1000 score that insurers can use to supplement traditional audit-based assessments during underwriting.

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The Problem SmartScore Solves

Insurance underwriting for Part 135 operators relies heavily on periodic audits (ARGUS, Wyvern, IS-BAO) and self-reported application data. These snapshots are valuable but static — an ARGUS Platinum rating tells you where an operator stood at their last audit, not where they stand today. Between audits, operators may improve their training programs, tighten maintenance compliance, or invest in dispatch quality — but insurers have no visibility into these changes until the next renewal cycle. Conversely, an operator’s safety posture could deteriorate without any signal reaching the underwriter. SmartScore bridges this gap with continuous monitoring of operational metrics, producing a score that reflects an operator’s current safety posture rather than a point-in-time assessment.

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Two Scores, Two Purposes

SmartScore separates safety improvement from insurance underwriting with distinct internal and external scores:

• Internal SmartScore — a coaching tool for your safety team. It tells you exactly what to improve and how. Never shared externally.
• Insurer SmartScore — a derivative score that reflects operational outcomes without revealing internal safety culture details. Shared only at your discretion.

This separation exists for a critical reason: operators need a safe space to identify and address weaknesses without fearing premium consequences. The internal score can surface sensitive insights that would be counterproductive to share externally.

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”Your Score, Your Choice”

SmartScore is built on a foundational principle: operators control their data. Specifically:

• You generate your own score — PlaneConnection does not push scores to insurers without your explicit action
• You see your score first, before anyone else
• You decide whether to share it, with which insurer, and for how long
• You can revoke sharing authorization at any time with one click
• Every sharing action requires informed consent through a triple-consent flow

This is data stewardship, not data brokerage. PlaneConnection acts as a data processor on your behalf — you remain the controller of your operational data.

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How SmartScore Complements Existing Ratings

SmartScore is positioned as continuous monitoring between audits — it complements ARGUS, Wyvern, and IS-BAO rather than replacing them. An operator with an ARGUS Platinum rating and a high SmartScore demonstrates both point-in-time standards compliance and sustained operational excellence.

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What Data Feeds the Score

SmartScore draws exclusively from Zone A operational metrics — the same objective, operational facts an operator would already disclose on an insurance application:

• Fleet composition — aircraft count, types, age, hull values
• Flight activity — total hours, legs per month, route complexity
• Maintenance compliance — overdue items, AD compliance rate, MEL usage
• Crew qualifications — ATP percentage, average hours, currency rates
• Training completion — recurrent training rates, simulator hours, pass rates
• Dispatch quality — weather briefing rate, flight following coverage
• Duty/rest compliance — duty time adherence, rest compliance rate
• Certifications — IS-BAO stage, ARGUS rating, certificate status

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The Data Firewall

PlaneConnection maintains a strict separation between two categories of data:

• Zone A (operational metrics): Objective facts about fleet, crew, maintenance, and operations. These feed the SmartScore.
• Zone B (voluntary safety data): Safety reports, investigations, corrective actions, near-miss details, and confidential submissions. These are never scored and never shared with insurers.

This separation is enforced at the code level — the scoring engine physically cannot access Zone B data. The two zones use separate databases with separate encryption keys. For a detailed breakdown, see SmartScore Data Privacy and Trust.

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Just Culture Preservation

The data firewall exists to protect just culture — the principle that safety reporters must never fear negative consequences for reporting hazards and incidents in good faith. If safety reports influenced insurance scores, operators would face a perverse incentive: report fewer hazards to keep premiums low. This would undermine the entire purpose of an SMS. SmartScore’s architecture ensures that:

• Reporting more hazards never raises your Insurer SmartScore
• Reporting fewer hazards never lowers it
• The only signal derived from safety reporting is a binary threshold: “meets healthy reporting minimum” or “below minimum” — with no additional benefit for higher rates

This design preserves the safety reporting culture that FAA 14 CFR Part 5 requires while still giving insurers meaningful operational data.

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PBC Commitment to Data Stewardship

PlaneConnection is structured as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) under Delaware law. The company’s public benefit statement is:

PlaneConnection PBC exists to improve aviation safety through technology that makes safety management accessible, measurable, and rewarded — enabling operators to demonstrate their safety commitment, insurers to price risk accurately, and the flying public to benefit from a safer aviation ecosystem.

This PBC structure means that data stewardship is a legal obligation, not just a marketing promise. The company publishes annual benefit reports tracking safety outcomes, equity metrics, market integrity, and governance transparency. Key commitments embedded in the PBC charter include cost-based pricing with an annual cap, a permanent free tier, full data portability, and published scoring methodology.

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