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Airline operational management

The document discusses the complex operational management within the airline industry, highlighting the need for coordination among various departments to ensure timely flights and address disruptions. Key factors affecting airline punctuality are identified, including crew management, load control, and effective communication methods to handle issues. The research underscores the financial implications of delays, emphasizing the role of operational control centers in problem resolution and the importance of maintaining brand equity through effective service delivery.

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1 Airline Operational Management Student Name: University: Course: Date:
2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 INTRODUCTION 3 AIRLINE OVERVIEW PLAN 5 6 OPERATION CONTROL: 6 FLIGHT DISPATCH: 7 LOAD CONTROL & FREIGHT OPERATIONS: 7 WEATHER SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT: 7 SCHEDULING OF THE FLIGHT CREW AND CABIN CREW. 8 MAINTENANCE REGULATOR. 8 WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE OTHER DEPARTMENTS 8 INCOME PROTECTION 9 NEED TO FOCUS ON AIRLINE PUNCTUALITY 10 RECOVERY AND ISSUE RESOLUTION BY THE AIRLINES 11 DISCUSSION 13 CONCLUSION 14 REFERENCE: 15 Abstract Passengers prefer airlines because the people want to reach destination faster and safer. Aviation industry is dependent on a number of industries. It is
3 dependent on smooth and effective functioning’s of the different departments. The airlines are dependent on fuel, cabin crew, weather, flight crew, freight, load of the airplanes, flight dispatch scheduling. The Operational Control Centre (OCC) of the airplanes controls the different aspects and oversees the smooth functioning of the different organizations. Time delay happens if there is fuel shortage, maintenance issue in the airplane, cabin crew or flight crew shortage. The occurrence of these events is expected, the airplanes should have proper procedure to implement issue resolution. The key formula is to identify the issue, find ways to tackle the issue and successfully implement the plan. The airplane provides the consumers with a number of incentives like providing food, beverage and place to stay in the case of flight delay. It actually causes a lot of financial loss to the airplane company both in the short term and the long term. The brand image of the company suffers if the flights are delayed. Communication and utilization of the latest digital IT technology is needed to maintain smooth operations and to resolve disputes. The actual operations undertaken by the airplane industry is discussed in detail in this research. The different parameters are also explored in this analysis. The limitation of this research is that it has focused on the broader issues facing airplane punctuality. It does not speak of specifics. This can be used to create a base for specific plan. Introduction Aviation industry has revolutionized the concept of easy and faster travel. The reason that people choose airline services it to reach destination faster. Airplane travel is considered to be the safest form of travel It is crucial for the airlines to
4 maintain timely operations and maintain high quality standards. A lot of economics depends on this process. The domestic aviation market in Australia is 15 billion AUD (News Corp. Australia, 2014). In order for smooth operation of airplane the companies need to shell out money for food, beverage, cabin crew services, taxes, navigation services, fuel and maintenance cost of the airplane (News Corp. Australia, 2014). It is estimated that the modern day airplanes pay up to 95% of the net revenue earned (News Corp. Australia, 2014). Owing to stiff global competition it is imperative for the airplane industry to have own niche of customers. Branding is very important for this maintenance of customers and to entice new customers. Maintenance of proper airline operations results in improvement of the brand equity of the airlines. There is tangible and intangible gain by maintaining proper operations. The factors influencing timely operations are explored in this analysis. The compensation provided to the passengers in case of inevitable delay of the process is also discussed. The airplane operations management process is deliberated in this report. Reflective analysis of the current process is also mentioned in this report.
5 Airline overview plan Figure 1 ( Micheal Frederick, 2015) Actual process before, during and after aircraft lands. Figure 2 ( Ross & Swain, 2007)
6 Typically an established airline has domestic flight and international flights (Ross & Swain, 2007). There is space for the passengers to arrive and depart. There is space for the passengers to deposit their check in bags and to retrieve their check in bags. Departing terminal and the arriving terminal is also provided for the passengers. Concourse side is provided to casual visitors of the airplane (Ross & Swain, 2007). They are allowed to visit the various shops in the airline. Business class passengers are allowed to wait in separate waiting areas (Ross & Swain, 2007). Restroom amenities are also provided (Ross & Swain, 2007). The airways provide passengers all the above-mentioned utilities (Ross & Swain, 2007). It is imperative to have proper scheduling in order to maintain smooth operation. For the actual flying and maintaining operations of the different aircraft the following aspects are essential. The actual flying process undertaken by each airline is unique however it is imperative that the airlines have these systems in place. The different departments or factors controlling the smooth flow of the airlines are discussed below. Operation control: There is a main control center of each airline. They monitor all the airplane activates. They control the scheduling of the airplanes and identify the inherent issues in the processes (Johnson et al., 2012). It monitors the overall processes of the airplanes. It has separated IT tools to monitor the activities taking place in airplane function (Johnson et al., 2012). Any organizational issues are addressed
7 in this system. This monitors the redundant process and optimizes the resources (Johnson et al., 2012). Flight dispatch: The actual flight plans are scheduled and developed in this aspect of the organizations. They monitor and develop scheduling process of each airplane based on the availability of resources (Subbu et al., 2012). They are plan based on the needs of the consumers. The flight dispatch plans is very important or rather the most important planning strategy of the airlines company (Subbu et al., 2012). Load control & Freight operations: This can be defined as the expected load weight by the aircraft. The aircraft tries to estimate the amount of load (Feng, Li & Shen, 2015). They then check if the aircraft can technically withstands the load. The load amount is the weight of the passengers, cabin crew and freight load. The loads are then adjusted based on the requirements (Feng, Li & Shen, 2015). The load control oversees the load carried by the individual aircraft. It notifies the aircraft of any issues. The freight load is adjusted based on the optimum levels of load that the individual aircraft can carry. Weather services provided by the meteorological department: Weather plays an important role in scheduling flight departures. The weather forecast by the meteorological department is very important (Williams, 2015).
8 Any disruptions in weather or any possible weather issues are regularly communicated by the meteorological department (Williams, 2015). Scheduling of the flight crew and Cabin crew. Airplanes have separate department to control the personal in the flight. The flight crew management does analyzing the number of reported flying hours of pilots (Suraweera et al., 2013) This manages the number of flight hours of the pilot. It develops a flying schedule of the individual flying crewmembers based on this data. Similarly the same scheduling operations are done for the cabin crew as well. Maintenance regulator. The maintenance regulator does any operational issues, redundancy and vulnerability of the processes. They ensure that all the process is being done smoothly (Suraweera et al., 2013). They also devise back up plan in case of emergency. Working in conjunction with the other departments The operation of airlines depends on a number of processes working efficiently. Each process is dependent on one another. The different internal departments and the external departments must work together to produce results (Suraweera et al., 2013). Any issues can be resolved by discussing the process with the people from different departments. This is effective to device conflict resolution and issue resolution.
9 Income Protection It is the duty of the revenue protection to come up with strategies to ensure that the passenger’s needs are fulfilled. They try to schedule seats based on passenger preference (Suraweera et al., 2013). They try to find ways to fulfill the demands of passengers and resolve any issues of passengers. They ensure brand equity. They act as representative of the brand. Journey manager This is a special post that caters to priority passengers. It ensures that the people are given appropriate recovery plans. They ensure that that the priority passengers or patrons of the airline industry get served. Customer service Customer service is the heart of the airline industry. This department basically ensures that the people are well taken care (Suraweera et al., 2013). The passenger needs are reported. They are the first line of contact by the passengers to the airline companies. The customer service department operates in many dimensions. Funding of operation: The funding of operations for the airlines are mainly through ticket sales and sponsors. The airlines need to maintain proper funding to ensure that the customers are served with food and beverages. The cabin crew and the flight crew must be paid (Adetiloye, 2012). The fuel cost, tax cost and navigation controls are the other expenses. The funding of operations must be smooth in order to ensure timely delivery of the deliverables to the consumers (Adetiloye,
10 2012). It has been estimated that 95% of the revenue generated goes as costs (News Corp. Australia, 2014). Qantas, Virgin airways, Singapore Airlines, Qatar airways, Singapore airlines, Air New Zealand (News Corp. Australia, 2014) all have embarked on cost cutting measures in order to ensure smooth funding process. Need to Focus on Airline punctuality It is imperative that the airlines follow the timing protocols. It enables the people to reach destination on time. The multiple stakeholders are involved in the process of efficient flow of airlines. All the technical elements of the airplane need to function properly. If any one stakeholder in the operation delays the whole process gets delayed (Mota et al., 2009). A lot of financial transactions are involved in airline process. This aids in the brand equity of the airlines. Timely operations are imperative for branding process of the airline (Mota et al., 2009). Hence the management gives a lot of importance to the airline punctuality (News corp. Australia, 2014). The airlines need to pay back to the consumer in case of delay of operations. In the case of delay of the airlines, the airlines must provide food and beverages to the customers based on the time of the day (Mota et al., 2009). In case of overnight delay the airlines must provide hotel accommodation for the passengers. The passengers are also entitled to cash depending on the time delay. The cash provided to the consumers depends on the duration of the delay (Mota et al., 2009). In case of inevitable extraordinary circumstances the airlines need not provide the people with cash incentives (News corp. Australia,
11 2014). In some cases the airlines give the people vouchers. The people can choose to accept it or not. Recovery and issue resolution by the airlines The issues that arise to cause time delay in the airplane services are as follows. Lack of fuel at the airports, sick members in the cabin crew or flight crew, airplane maintenance issues, weather disruptions, civil disturbances, safety issues or security issues and accidents are the issues faced by the airplanes (Lohmann & Koo 2013). The issues can be completely new issues based on the region or the resources of the airplane. Each airline has a resolution process based on the each unique individual solution. Typical solutions proposed by the airline company is to cancel or delay the flight, reroute a flight, transfer the passengers to a new flight or redirect the passengers to a different route for them to reach the destinations, find alternative fuel sources in case of shortage of fuel (Lohmann & Koo 2013). The crew management needs to be done. There should be back up plans in place in case of any expected issues. There should be reasonable efforts put in by the management to find viable alternatives. The OCC center is primarily responsible to oversee the issue resolution (Lohmann & Koo 2013). The arrangement made should be quick and preplanned. The logistics of operations can vary in the aircraft but it should provide adequate solutions for the issue at hand (Lohmann & Koo 2013). It is imperative for the aircraft to have a plan that basically has the latest innovative technology for the solution, have sufficient IT tools to detect and find solutions to the problems.
12 Smooth functioning of the processes of the airline industry depends on many processes (Lohmann & Koo 2013). There are a number of stakeholders and natural events that should support the smooth process operations. They are monitoring of the events of operation. From this the problem is identified. They are then rectified. The process of disruption management is very important for the airline industry (Lohmann & Koo 2013). The operational control center of the airlines management tries to create a system that supports smooth functioning of the airlines. There are a number of software tools that enable the process of identification of the issues it tries to find amelioration for the issues at hand. However for effective dispute or issue resolution it has been observed that it is best for the companies to have a multi agent system that supports the operation. The overview of the multi agent system is shown below.
13 Figure 3 (Mota et al.,2009) To simply explain this process it can be said that that MAS is comprises of three major steps. It is issue detection, developing solutions or optimization of the resources to find ways of recovery and the actual implementation of the issue. An important and integral aspect of the resolution scheme is to have communication tools that can quickly communicate to the relevant departments and the relevant stakeholders (Mota et al., 2009). The ACERS phone; SAT phone calls are imperative to have effective communication (Mota et al.,2009). The members of the airplane industry should have viable alternatives to contact with the different members of the different departments in case of any emergencies or issues. Discussion Airplane industry sector is under tremendous stress to perform. For the smooth functioning of the airplane it is imperative that the companies have smooth flow of operations. The current issues facing the airplane industry are transport delays, fuel delays, crew issues, personnel issues and inability to deliver to the passengers. New age software tools and multi agent system can resolve these issues. Different companies adopt different policies to find ways to resolve the issues. Some common features are having good communication, latest technology and fining back up of the solution. Communication has been identified as the number one issue resolution system. This is important irrespective of the technology used. The airplane industry should ensure that the communication between the parties is always state of the art. The fundamental notion of all this
14 process is that passengers and freight need to reach on time. The companies develop brand image and equity by smooth operation and timely actions. The limitations of this discussion are that it is focused on issue resolution. It only provides a broad overview. It does not discuss the specific operations. This can be done only by case study analysis of primary research. This report can be used as a base to developing the specifics. The ethical consideration done in this research is to ensure that the data presented did not have any consent issues. Any personal bias is not intentional. Conclusion There are a number of stakeholders that are dependent to create smooth flow of operations in airline industry. The airline industry needs to have proper operational procedures in order to deliver freight and to help the passengers reach destination on time. The reason that the people prefer flights is that it reaches destination faster than other modes of transport. The airplane industry has different segregated departments for specialized functions to improve processes. The different departments are developed to ensure that the smooth operations happen in the airlines. The primary formula used for issue resolution of time delay is identification of the issues, development of plan and the implementation of the plan. Using multiple agents of the system does issue resolution. Communication is another integral factor that enables in the process of smooth operations. The different reason for delay and the efforts taken by the aircraft to rectify is also discussed in this research.
15 Reference: 1. Adetiloye, K. A. (2012). Capital flight versus domestic investment in developing countries: An empirical analysis from Nigeria. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 4(2), p175. 2. Feng, B., Li, Y., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2015). Air cargo operations: Literature review and comparison with practices. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 56, 263-280. 3. Johnson, W., Lachter, J., Feary, M., Comerford, D., Battiste, V., & Mogford, R. (2012). Task allocation for single pilot operations: A role for the ground. 4. Lohmann, G., & Koo, T. T. (2013). The airline business model spectrum.Journal of Air Transport Management, 31, 7-9. 5. Micheal Frederick (2015) Regional Airport, Available at:http://mfrederick.net/index.php?/projectscommercial/regional- airport/ (Accessed: 6th September 2015). 6. Mota, A., Castro, A & Reis, L (2009) Recovering from Airline Operational Problems with a Multi-Agent System: a Case Study, Porto: University of Porto. 7. News corp Australia (2014) What is costs to put a airplane on air, Available at:http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/what-it-costs-
16 to-put-a-plane-in-the-air/story-fnda1bsz-1226849245958 (Accessed: 6th September 2015). 8. Ross & Swain (2007) Fighting Flight Delays, Available at: http://www.orms-today.org/orms-4-07/flight.html (Accessed: 6th September 2015). 9. Subbu, R. V., Chan, D. S. K., Brooksby, G. W., Klooster, J. K., & Torres, S. (2013). U.S. Patent Application 13/ 786, pp. 858. 10.Suraweera, P., Webb, G. I., Evans, I., & Wallace, M. (2013). Learning crew scheduling constraints from historical schedules. Transportation research part C: emerging technologies, 26, 214-232. 11.Williams, J. (2015). How Meteorologists Help Airlines Beat the Weather Odds.Weatherwise, 68(4), 12-19.