(Newswire.net — November 16, 2018) — Frequent flyers understand the frustration of a delayed departure. It’s even more frustrating when you have to deplane because of an unexpected problem. Many of these on-ground delays are completely unavoidable, and it’s good for red flags to be addressed before you take off.
However, many on-ground delays could be circumvented if airlines used the tools and resources available to them. Thankfully, many airlines are responding to the call to reduce wait times. Here are a few strides being made in this area.
Relying on Commercial Aviation Support
On-ground delays are often the result of unmet maintenance or communication demands. These needs are often met with a reliable commercial aviation support system. It helps to close the gap that airlines struggle to fill in-house.
Such a system would provide systems relating to engine and flight control, flight-deck, detection and alerting, control and monitoring, and airplane cabins. It would also offer head-up displays and data and electronic distribution equipment.
With these tools at their disposal, airlines can better service their vehicles so they can take off without extensive delays. It also increases communication with airline customers, increasing customer service ratings and encouraging calm and patience during lengthy delays.
Creating “Go-Teams” for Bad Weather Conditions
Delta is one company that’s made great strides in minimizing on-ground delays for their jets. They recently made an announcement saying that they were going to create “go teams” that would use all the best resources and tools to repair their planes, communicate with air traffic control (ATC), and alert customers.
They gave the example of de-icing their planes using 124 trained teams throughout the country that would specialize in getting their planes back in the air. They would also employ forecasting tools to alert teams of severe weather within 48 hours so that they can get the maximum number of employees to respond. They believe this will help them to cut the time it takes to de-ice a plane by 10 percent.
“When facing winter weather and freezing temperatures, every flight counts,” Erik Snell, Senior Vice President – Operations & Customer Center, said in a press release. “We’ve put in the work and sourced key takeaways directly from data analysis and employee experience to improve processes for our customers, our teams and the operation as a whole, connecting the world more reliably than anyone else.”
Employing Surface Management Centers
Delta isn’t the only airline that employs a team to make landing and taking off easier than ever. US Airways also uses flight operations teams to more efficiently get an aircraft ready for its next trip through a commercial surface management center.
These centers specialize in evaluating the conditions on the ground so that they can fix problems and help planes take off as soon as possible.
“The bird’s-eye view of the airport surface helps our team reduce tarmac delays, ensure more on-time arrivals and departures and more effectively manage operations during inclement weather,” said US Airways in a press release announcing this update.
Scheduling Better with ATC
It’s very common within the realm of airlines to blame air traffic control (ATC) for on-ground delays. However, the problem more often than not relies with airlines.
“There is a common but inaccurate belief airports are too often at capacity, overloaded, and out of the airline’s control, driving poor on-time performance,” writes R. Michael Baiada, a former USAF and airline pilot. “Of course, airports are crowded at certain times of the day…but this doesn’t preclude reducing delays and congestion.”
Baiada calls airlines to act using the tools already in place rather than waiting for ATC to work their magic and read the minds of each pilot.
“Having spent 35 years dealing with ATC and airline operational issues, as well as being a commercial pilot (now retired), my conclusion is that most delay and congestion problems reside with the airlines, and can only be mitigated by real-time management of their assets, not as discrete parts, but rather from a whole-system perspective,” he argues.
This is not a new topic, and many airlines have already taken steps to better schedule their arrivals and departures with air traffic control, American Airlines, Delta, and US Airways included. However, there are more airlines that fail to schedule their arrivals and departures than don’t, and that puts everyone behind.
As more and more airlines adopt the tools and resources necessary to reduce on-ground delays, the system may begin to heal itself. It’s only a matter of time and resources well-used.