Written by Marc Kavinsky, Lead Editor at IoT Business News.
Digital Matter has launched the Griffin Air, a durable GPS tracking device built specifically for air freight and international supply chains. It features automatic in-flight cellular controls, runs on AA batteries for multiple years, and has received approvals from over 40 airlines.
Tracking IoT assets in air freight remains one of the toughest challenges. The connectivity issue shifts as cargo moves through different stages. A device that performs well on a delivery truck or inside a warehouse can’t simply continue sending data once it’s placed in an aircraft’s cargo compartment. This puts logistics operators in a difficult spot — they want to maintain tracking wherever possible, but can’t afford to add extra steps that delay shipments or raise concerns with carriers.
The Griffin Air from Digital Matter directly addresses this limitation. Rather than marketing it as a standard tracker with some aviation features, the company has focused its entire product story around the real demands of multi-stage air cargo logistics: staying silent on cellular networks during flights, gathering data while in the air, and reconnecting automatically once on the ground.
A device shaped by the flight itself, not just what it’s tracking
The most notable feature of Griffin Air is how it manages cellular signals during flights. Digital Matter explains that the tracker uses a built-in barometer and accelerometer to sense when a plane takes off and lands, turning cellular transmission off and back on by itself — no manual input needed. This is critical because aviation regulations ban cellular signals in both aircraft cabins and cargo areas, and devices that don’t comply can cause shipment-level issues with carriers.
This approach sets it apart from most asset tracking products, which typically highlight location precision, battery longevity, or cloud interfaces while treating the mode of transport as secondary. With the Griffin Air, the flight period is baked into the device’s core logic. Digital Matter also emphasizes that the tracker doesn’t depend on geofencing or per-trip commands to recognize flights, meaning there’s no need for pre-planned routes or manual setup before each shipment.
This design has a practical benefit: compliance is handled at the device level rather than requiring logistics teams to manage it step by step or build it into a transportation management system. It doesn’t eliminate the need to verify a specific airline’s approval before shipping, but it reduces the chances of mistakes during everyday operations.
Digital Matter reports that Griffin Air has undergone DO-160 testing and has earned individual authorization from more than 40 airlines, with further approvals in progress. The company also cautions that airline certifications apply to specific carriers and should be confirmed before making customer commitments. For system integrators and logistics providers, this is a key detail: having a broad portfolio of certifications doesn’t automatically guarantee universal acceptance across all air cargo carriers.
Battery design reshapes how operations work
Griffin Air runs on three AA batteries that users can swap out themselves. Digital Matter estimates the device can last over a year on a single set of batteries with daily check-ins, and up to more than 2.5 years with four check-ins per day. When batteries eventually run low, the unit can be serviced right in the field.
The impact goes beyond simply lasting longer. In air cargo, the true cost of a tracker isn’t just the purchase price — it includes retrieving, recharging, redeploying, and the risk of going dark when devices aren’t where they’re supposed to be. A replaceable battery model allows for a more continuous, hands-off deployment on returnable assets like cargo equipment, containers, tools, or high-value items, as long as the update frequency suits the application.
There’s a clear trade-off, though: extended battery life is tied to how often the device reports. Organizations that want near-instant updates on location will need to check whether the one-update-per-day or four-updates-per-day examples match their needs. For many supply chain use cases, however, getting alerts on exceptions and knowing custody status on handoffs may deliver more value than constant real-time tracking.
One device for air, ground, and indoor settings
On the ground, Griffin Air delivers GPS and cellular updates along with customizable location and condition data. Inside buildings — where GPS signals don’t reach — it switches to Wi-Fi access point scanning to determine position in locations like warehouses, hangars, and maintenance bays. The tracker also includes a Bluetooth 5.2 gateway, enabling it to pull data from BLE tags and sensors covering temperature, humidity, environmental conditions, and asset identification.
This combination matters in aerospace and logistics because visibility for air cargo doesn’t start or stop at the aircraft. Goods move across airport ground operations, transfer to road vehicles, sit in storage, and pass through maintenance zones. A single device that can record events during flight, report via cellular after landing, determine indoor position through Wi-Fi, and collect BLE sensor readings eliminates the need to carry separate trackers and gateways for every stage of the journey.
Connectivity is delivered through 4G Cat 1bis with 2G fallback. Digital Matter notes the device also includes flash memory to store data when out of network range. This is especially important on international routes, where cellular coverage and roaming behavior can differ significantly between regions. Saved records won’t provide live tracking during connectivity gaps, but they help reconstruct a shipment’s full history once the device comes back online.
Broader implications for the IoT landscape
For OEMs and asset owners, Griffin Air illustrates how industry-specific compliance demands are increasingly influencing how IoT hardware is built. The core selling point isn’t about adding yet another wireless radio — it’s about embedding real-world operational rules directly into the device itself.
Connectivity providers may view devices like this as a signal that global asset tracking involves more than just roaming agreements. Air cargo introduces extended windows where cellular transmission must be deliberately turned off, so platforms need to gracefully handle delayed uploads and event logs. For system integrators, the challenge will mainly involve connecting flight data, impact events, tip alerts, rotation logs, Wi-Fi-based locations, and BLE sensor readings into existing logistics or maintenance processes.
For businesses, this announcement is most relevant when assets frequently travel across air, road, and indoor settings, and where manually handling trackers between shipments isn’t practical. The Griffin Air isn’t simply another battery-operated GPS tracker — its standout value comes from combining flight-aware cellular management, airline-specific approvals, multi-year AA battery life, and versatile location methods across multiple environments into one ready-to-deploy device.
