Ground Support Worldwide - 13

INDUSTRY EXPERT
COLUMN:

IT DATA

Fuel Cost Mitigation
Arriving early can be beneficial for many. But
when the arriving airport has no spare gate
capacity, such arrivals can result in frustration as aircraft hold and wait for a gate to
become available.
Early insight into expected arrival times
can both allow airlines to slow down their
arrival to an on-time rather than early status,
saving fuel burn en route. That early insight
can also alert airports to the need to pushback aircraft earlier, releasing that valuable
air bridge for the next arriving service.
Clear visibility of expected arrival times
can make or break a whole day of flying for
some airlines. Early awareness of late arriving aircraft can prevent sudden gate changes
at major hub airports, which in turn avoids
late reporting passengers and subsequent
onward flight delays. A 20-minute flight
delay can frequently be recovered when all
stakeholders and ground handling parties
are forewarned and able to plan and adjust
resources accordingly.
Maintenance and Equipment Efficiencies
Ground handling equipment is expensive, and
it requires moments of high usage followed
by occasionally lengthy periods of inactivity.
Maximizing the use of such equipment and
ensuring it is in the right place at the right time
requires planning and effective communication every day. Reacting to flight delays can
challenge such plans.
Advance notice of flight delays and gate
changes can allow for ramp equipment and
supporting services to both move in time and
be used effectively throughout the day.
Implications for the Service Value Chain
A severe thunderstorm at a major airport with
many passengers connecting to several cruise
ships departing in the next few hours potentially creates a significant disruption event.
If passengers miss their departing cruises,
additional hotel accommodation may be
required, onward transportation arranged or,

Image courtesy of OAG

over a day and the cost can be very expensive.
Access to reliable real-time flight status information allows suppliers to allocate
resources "just in time," which can lead to
significant cost savings for suppliers and
customers alike.

indeed, depending on the length of delay the
cruise company may merely delay departing.
Flight status information in such context is
hugely valuable to all parts of the product
and service chain when such events occur.
The insights provided allow for cost effective
commercial decisions to be made that can
literally save thousands of dollars a day for
some companies.
Early Decision Making and
Better Operational Planning
In an industry with low operating margins for
many, analyzing data and improving operational efficiency is crucial, and analyzing flight
status on an ongoing basis is proving to be a
margin game-changer.
By monitoring flight status performance,
airports can identify those flights and connections that regularly challenge minimum
connecting times and seek to either adjust gate
allocations to improve connectivity, work with
control authorities to improve passenger flows
or in some cases seek support from airlines to
adjust their schedules to meet the connection.
Larger airlines, airports and indeed ground

handling suppliers are increasingly using
on-time performance dashboards that show
the relative performance of a cluster of airports
or airlines on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
This enables effective disruption management but also provides accurate operational information to identify efficiency
opportunities.
Such insights have proven to be essential
for supply companies looking at potential RFP
responses when seeking to understand the
detail of the operation and the real (rather than
scheduled) activity of a potential new client.
And of course, from a competitive perspective, the insights that such awareness can provide to an airport around its competitors, its
own suppliers and airlines provides a remarkable basis for valuable constructive discussion
around all aspects of the airport operation.
Understanding and using flight status data
not only allows you to review performance and
learn from it. Monitoring real-time data now
means outcomes can be affected on the day,
better decisions made, disruptions managed
and, ultimately, better service delivery and cost
efficiency.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John Grant's analysis has been featured in major publications including CNN, USA
Today, BBC, the Financial Times, TIME and more. Grant captures and analyzes complex
aviation data and industry trends to provide commentary on what's driving changes in
the travel market. He's served as a featured speaker at major industry events including
the CAPA Americas Aviation Summit, the CAPA World Aviation Summit, the Routes
Online Strategy Summit and more. Grant previously managed and worked to enhance OAG's product
portfolio and new product development.

MAY 2019

AviationPros.com

http://www.AviationPros.com

Ground Support Worldwide

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