Airline Functions and its IT Applications

 1.   Flight Operations:-

The Flight Operations department manages various facets of the operational side within the Airline. However, its primary responsibility is to ensure safe, legal and efficient operation of aircraft. This includes

• Arrivals/Departures/Cancellations
• Weather
• Landing slots, runaways
• Flight path, routings, over flight rights
• Maintenance

-          Equipment problems

-          Maintenance routing

-          Ferrying

• Crew problems

IT Applications for Flight Operations:-

• Flight Planning System

-          Routing

-          Weight & Balance

-          Manufacturing Details

-          Slot Manager

• Flight Dispatch

-          Weather

-          Routing

-          Crew

• Flight History Data

2. Airports:-

Integrated Airport operations management system that balances the resource efficiency with real-world business results. Operating an airport in today’s environment is like running a small city. For example, moving assets in a timely manner and knowing the impact of decisions on service levels and the bottom line are critical.

The Airport operations include,

Passenger and baggage handling

Manpower Planning

-      Check-In Agents

-      Gate Agents

-      Ramp Workers, Baggage handlers

-      Machines

Gate Assignment

IT Applications for Airport Operations:-

Airport Manpower Planning

Gate Assignment and Planning System

Baggage System

Information Display System

3. Pricing & Yield Management:-

•         Pricing

§  Published Fares

§  Unpublished Fares

§  Commissions and Corporate discounts

§  Competition Monitoring

§  Internet pricing

•         Yield Management

§  Inventory Allocations/Controls to manage

-          Fare Mix

-          O&D Mix

-          POS Mix

-          Overbooking

§  Blocks and Groups Acceptance

IT Applications for Pricing & Yield Management:-

• Yield Management system

-          Demand Forecast

-          Yield/Fare Estimates

-          No-show forecasting

-          Inventory/Booking/Capacity Information

-          Optimization – Flight or Network

• Pricing/Fares Management System

-          ATPCO send/receive up to 3 times a day

-          Fares database

-          Composite fare matching across competitors

-          Rules-based fare actions

4. Planning / Scheduling:-

•         Network Planning

§  Fleet Planning

§  Route Planning

§  Fleet Assignment

•         Aircraft Scheduling

§  Aircraft Routing

§  Schedule Publishing to OAG, GDSs

§  Seasonal Schedule Changes

§  Minor schedule changes and weekend cancellations

IT Applications for Planning / Scheduling:-

• Fleet Planning system
• Route Planning system

-          Profitability Forecasting module with market demand forecast

• Fleet assignment system

-          Through assignments

-          Scheduled Dep/Arr/Ground times

-          “Gross day” schedule

• Flight Scheduling system

-          “Dated” schedule with nose number routing

        -Rotation optimizer, slot management

-          Weekend cancellation model

-          Schedule reliability mode

5. Cargo:-

•         Types of Cargo

§  Passenger Bags

§  Mail

§  Commercial Freight

•         Cargo/Freight Configurations

§  Passenger

§  Freight

§  Combi aircrafts

•         Cargo carriage

§  Narrow body – Bulk Freight e.g. B737, A320

§  Wide body – Containerized/ULD Freight with some bulk capacity e.g. B747, A330

-          Different container types such as LD2, LD3, LD4, LD7, LD11

IT Applications for Planning for Cargo:-

§  Cargo Reservation System

-          Space Planning and booking

-          Freight pricing

§  Cargo Ground Handling System

-          Import/Export

-          ULD Management

-          Terminal Management

-          Shippers document/track & trace

§  Cargo Yield Management system

-          Demand Forecast

-          Capacity Forecast

-          Allocation Module

-          Utilization Module

-          Optimization – Flight or Network

§  Cargo Revenue Accounting System

6. Maintenance and Engineering:-

•         Aircraft Maintenance

§  Line Maintenance

-          Minor Checks, last less  than 24 hours

§  Heavy Maintenance

-          Major Checks

–        C-check, D-check etc.

–        Last a few days

§  Maintenance sites

-          Dedicated Maintenance bases

-          Outsourced service

-          Airport Hangars

IT Applications for Maintenance and Engineering:-

• Shop Production Planning and Execution

-          Resource Planning and Scheduling(Labor, Parts, Tools)

• Materials Management

-          Parts Inventory Management

-          Engines Inventory

• Document Management
• Maintenance Routing system

7. Crew Management:-

•         Crew Planning

§  Flight Crew i.e. pilots – Fleet/Seat/Domicile e.g. 747/First Officer/Denver

§  In-flight Crew i.e. flight attendants – Role/Domicile

§  Reserve Planning

•         Crew Assignments

§  Rotations

-          Labor rules

-          Contractual restrictions

-          Seniority rules

§  Dead-heading

IT Applications for Crew Management

• Crew Planning
• Crew Bidding system
• Crew Pairings and Assignment
• Reserves Planning
• Vacation Bidding system

8. Revenue Accounting

•         Ticket Sales Data

§  SIR data or TCN data

§  Available in timely manner for electronically generated tickets

§  Up to 3-4 months lag in case of manual tickets and in some parts of the world

•         Lift Data (Coupons collected at airport)

§  Manually entered or scanned

§  Available within 2-3 days after departure

•         Sale-match-Lift

§  Reconciliation

•         Agency accounting

§  Done through Airline Reporting Commission(ARC) or Banks Settlement Process (BSP)

•         Country-specific manual or electronic BSPs

•         Agency commissions calculation

•         Front-end and Backend hurdles

•         Net fares associated with Tour codes or Ticket designators which are stored in paper contracts with agencies

•         Interline accounting

§  Different Proration schemes

•         Straight-rate

•         Mileage-based

•         Special Proration schemes (SPAs)

§  Majority done on a sampling basis

IT Applications for Revenue Accounting

• Passenger Revenue Accounting
• Interline Proration
• Revenue Integrity

9. Reservations

-          Reservations Offices

-          City Ticket Offices (CTOs)

-          Airport Ticket Offices (ATOs)

-          Reservations Planning

IT Applications for Reservations

§  Passenger Reservation system

-          Sell

-          Inventory

-          Departure Control (DCS)

• Frequent Flyer/Customer Loyalty System

-          Customer database

-          Mileage accrual and redemption

• Internet Booking Portals/Travel website

-          Booking & Ticketing

-          Check-in

-          FF account mgt.

-          Flight schedules and status

• Contract Management System
• Promotions Management

10. Airline Sales and Marketing.

•         Sales

§  Geographic Sales/Country Focus

-          Travel Agency Relationships

–        Wholesalers and Consolidators

–        Commissions structure, net fares, seat blocks

-          Sales Offices

-          GSAs

§  Corporate Accounts

-          Corporate Volume Agreements (CVA)

Global Sales Planning

•         Marketing

§  Product

-          Brand, Advertising, Promotions

-          Frequent Flyer Program

-          Amenities

§  Distribution Planning

-          GDS Relationships

-          Online Distribution

-          Agency Distribution

§  Alliances and Codeshares

IT Applications for Airline Sales and Marketing

• Passenger Reservation system

-          Sell

-          Inventory

-          Departure Control (DCS)

• Frequent Flyer/Customer Loyalty System

-          Customer database

-          Mileage accrual and redemption

• Internet Booking Portals/Travel website

-          Booking & Ticketing

-          Check-in

-          Frequent Flyer account management.

-          Flight schedules and status

• Contract Management System
• Promotions Management
• Sales Planning System