“Time is Money” – Benjamin
Franklin
Its 10am and the first 4 flights had taken off on-time. The day was looking good with the skies clear and no fear of weather causing any flight delay. All the 12 aircraft were serviceable and the full Summer schedule was being operated. Great Revenue!! I said to myself. Then an hour after, I checked the flight movement and boarding status only to see that the next ABV flight which should had completed boarding hadn't started. I called the Operations center to find out if there is anything I missed and while the person who could explain to me was called, the dreaded mail dropped in my box; BIRD STRIKE....?! oh my God! Where? Which aircraft?
The aircraft in ABV which was to continue to PHC just had a bird strike on number one engine and the Captain couldn't continue the flight with that aircraft! Then another mail dropped; Aircraft AOG due impact on Fuselage by Ground Handler.
What is happening? I thought. All the questions started gushing for answers: What's going to happen to the PHC passengers, Refund?! How about the ABV passengers already boarded? Do we have enough aircraft to operate the remaining flights? Will we have to cancel any flight? which ones are the low performing flights?
Then the Operations Centre calls to ask the Schedule Planner's input in re-assigning aircraft and make a collective decision on which flights should be merged.
This is a typical type of occurence in the day of a Schedule Planner where he or she even after putting the Seasonal Schedule together and displaying it for sale, still has to monitor and control all factors to see that the Schedule is maximised. He or she is constantly in the business of balancing Aircraft availability and Time with Market demand.
The Airline's Schedule is its Core Product offering! It is the Safe and dependable operation of the Schedule that satisfies the Customers' need to be someplace at a particular TIME for which he pays for, thus bringing in the needed MoNEY.
So without a doubt, the Schedule is the means
through which investment made into an airline is transformed into Revenue and
ultimately Profit (Return On Investment – ROI).
The Schedule Planner understands the VALUE a passenger places on his or her TIME, and creates a product that meets it (FLIGHTS), thus making MoNEY for the organisation.
The process of arriving at the Schedule is what is called Schedule Planning, and the Schedule is supposed to be an assignment of the Aircraft in the Fleet so as to maximise their usage.
Just like other planning processes, Schedule planning will involve the consideration
of several factors e.g. Events, Standards, Regulations, Priorities,
Strategy, Policies, Agreements, Economics of supply and demand, Aircraft Fleet plan and availability, historic data, passenger travelling behaviour, destination airport constraints, etc to eventually produce a Schedule showing the way each aircraft will be most-efficiently used. Some of the factors influencing the Airline's Schedule is shown in the chart I drew below.
