ICL Africa, the eBusiness solutions company and TAP Air Portugal are soaring after the recent purchase of a customised Airline Scheduling system, which is currently being taken into production.
SAA also successfully operates a similar system which ICL developed in 1992 - the world-first Genesis.
The application consists of an Airline Scheduling system code-named COMPASS, which is the only system that provides an end-to-end scheduling solution for airlines.
In short, the system analyses passenger demand, builds a schedule of flights to meet that demand and assists the airline in planning the resources for the schedule, including aircraft, maintenance and crew. The system also manages the schedule in operation, alleviates any disruptions that may occur and re-arranges resources as necessary for the smooth running of flights.
Many airlines are forced to comply with a schedule for at least six months, but Compass` flexibility allows it to respond to market trends. The system not only warns when connecting flights will be late, but it also repositions flights and passengers affected by, for example, bad weather.
The crew can choose their route and be re-assigned to locations of their choice, making for happier crew members and ultimately, better service.
Stephen Coetser, Unit Manager: ICL Airline Systems, says: "ICL is the only company that offers all four individual modules in one suite - allowing the customer to implement the logical sequence best suited to its needs. For a customer such as TAP Air Portugal, which controls approximately 200 flights per day, technology needs to be an enabler for top class efficiency and client satisfaction."
Schedule Planning produces a flight schedule that satisfies forecast passenger demand as provided by the Passenger Forecasting module. Flights are manually created to satisfy demand and are then automatically assigned to generic aircraft, taking into account, available airport slots, sector/aircraft, airport/aircraft, minimum ground time, maintenance and rotations, among others. The assignment follows a user-defined policy.
"Intelligent rescheduling is incorporated and will automatically reschedule flights in the event of a disruption, to ensure both airline costs and passenger inconvenience are minimised," Coetser says, "alternatives, with associated costs, are presented to the customer for ultimate decision. The application receives MVT and DIV telexes that are sent to the airline. The telexes are processed automatically, changing status of the flights are displayed on the monitor to indicate on-time departures, delays and/or possible problem areas."
Captain Pedro Maya of TAP Air Portugal, agrees that a satisfied crew is essential for any airline`s success. He says: "The Crew Planning module provides strategic and operational forecasting and planning of all crew requirements and activities. This includes crew pairing which couples crew to the flight schedule, using multiple rules and pairing methods; training planning for both crew and facilities, renewal scheduling; category bidding; and vacation planning. The crew can make category, vacation and flight requests via a self-service facility. Compass plans all these activities collectively with a view to maximising efficiency and profitability whilst improving quality of life for our crew members."
The Rostering module allocates crew to activities. It is designed to integrate all types of activities and produces a feasible roster for each crew member. The objective of crew tracking is to monitor and record crew movements, detect potential problems, and communicate changes to the crew. Tracking is a real-time process, which starts from current day of operation and extends to a user-specified number of days in the future. The System provides multiple options to repair disruptions and integrates with the Schedule Operations modules.
There is consensus in the travel industry and among travellers that winning airlines today, due to enormous competition, must be fast, flexible and able to react to market changes.
The ICL Airline Scheduling system provides the necessary decision-support to quickly adapt in a dynamic environment, ensuring flexibility, adaptability and future competitiveness.
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ICL is one of Europe`s leading e-Business services companies and employs more than 20,000 people in 40 countries. It designs, builds and operates innovative solutions for customers in the financial services, telecoms, retail, government, utilities and travel markets. ICL helps its customers to transform their businesses and make them more efficient and productive, by providing the IT services needed today together with the end-to-end e-Business services to be successful in the new economy. These services include new media design, consultancy and systems integration through to managed infrastructure services that underpin the `mission-critical` requirements of businesses. For the year ended 31 March 2000, the company`s revenues were lb2,774.6 million. Headquartered in London, ICL is wholly owned by Fujitsu Limited, a lb31 billion leader in Internet-based IT solutions for the global marketplace. ICL is the European-centred arm of Fujitsu`s global IT services strategy.
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