Airline Flight Operations Management Reviewer PDF

PRELIMINARY EXAM REVIEWER o Small Regionals – These airlines are usually referred to as “commuter airlines” LESSON 1 and use small aircra...

PRELIMINARY EXAM REVIEWER o Small Regionals – These airlines are usually referred to as “commuter airlines” LESSON 1 and use small aircraft with less than 40 Air transportation has been essential in economic seats. growth and is a vital element for the world’s Scheduled Airlines – These airlines operate based transportation infrastructure. on a schedule and regular routes. Airlines are defined as air transport services Non-scheduled Airlines – These are also called providers for passengers or freight that may exist in charter airlines. different shapes and sizes worldwide. Commercial, general, and military are the three (3) structured components of the airline Types of Flights industry. The types of flights vary according to the number of Flights used for personal, business, stops between travel from one airport to another. The executive, and flight instruction are under following are the types of flights: general aviation. Nonstop Flight – This is where a traveler goes from Point A to Point B on the same aircraft, having no stop in between. Classifications of Airlines Direct Flight – This is where a traveler goes from Airlines can be divided into two (2) major Point A to Point B on the same aircraft but will have classifications: to stop at another airport in between. The reasons for Local/Domestic Carriers – These are airlines that the stop may include unloading and picking up only offer services within a country or travel within passengers and performing technical matters such as the national boundaries. Examples are PAL Express maintenance or refueling. and Cebgo. Connecting Flight – This is where a traveler must International/Foreign Carriers – These airlines change planes with different flight numbers once or offer services among multiple countries or travel to more to get to his/her destination. local and international territories. Examples are American Airlines, Delta Airlines Airline Routes and Flight Length Major Airlines – These are large carriers that fly direct routes between major cities and long-haul and Flight length refers to the distance of a flight from international routes. the point of origin to the destination. Flight length can be divided into four (4) categories: Regional Airlines – These airlines maintain schedules within the country only, operating long Short-haul – It is a form of travel by air for less and short-haul routes. They are divided into three than three (3) to four (4) hours. (3) subgroups: Medium-haul – It is a form of travel by air for o Large Regionals – These airlines have about four (4) to eight (8) hours. annual revenue of 20 to 100 million dollars Long-haul – It is a form of travel by air that takes with more than 60 seats. up to 13 hours. o Medium Regionals – These airlines have Ultra-long-haul – It is a form of travel by air that operating revenue of under 20 million is beyond 13 hours. dollars and use small aircraft with an average of 40-60 seats. Essential Characteristics in the Airline Industry recruiting, and training flight attendants because of the job's complexity. The airline product is fully perishable – Once the airline product is produced, it is also consumed at a Directing is essential in managing an airline. A certain time. This is different from manufactured senior flight attendant can be seen directing and products that can be stored until purchased. monitoring new and junior flight attendants to ensure The operation costs are fixed once the flight passengers' safety and security onboard. schedule is finalized – Regardless of whether the Controlling is manifested in how the management flight is full or not, the operation cost will still be the ensures that established plans and objectives are same. Unsold seats will still render the exact cost to carried out and address uncontrollable operate a certain flight. circumstances—for instance, addressing canceled and delayed flights caused by various factors like harsh weather conditions. LESSON 2 Management refers to the people working together to achieve the desired organization's goals and Challenges of Airline Management objectives. 1. Impact of Other Players in the Industry It helps in achieving group goals. Airline management does not work independently of It utilizes all the physical and human other players in the air transportation industry. The resources productively. following are the important players that can affect the airline management: It plans to get maximum results through minimum input that leads to reducing costs. Governments - airline management must comply with the regulations of its home country. It must also consider and abide by the rules. Governments Airline Management typically watch the competition between airlines and control their strategic decisions, such as merging, like other businesses, management is also vital in acquisition between carriers, market entry or exit, airline operations. The functions or airline pricing, environmental regulations, security management can be identified in the following regulations, maintenance, and safety requirements. examples: Airports - airline management should carefully Planning - This is primarily manifested in flight consider the terms of their agreements with the preparations, flight schedules, and the flight different airports they serve. Several factors reservation process. These tasks must be well- influence these agreements, including available planned to avoid inconvenience and the waste of infrastructure (gates, runways, baggage handling, resources in the future. and so on), anticipated traffic, airport charges and Organizing is evident in dividing tasks among incentives, competition from neighboring airports, flight attendants on board, determining how many available landing slots, congestion, and operational passengers will be catered to in each flight and how curfews. their flight needs will be met. Staffing is necessary for airline operations since the 2. Decision Levels of Airline Management management hires pilots, training captains, cabin crew, cargo operators, and other employees. For Strategic decisions generally require a long time to instance, airlines need to be particular in selecting, be implemented and require a considerable monetary investment. Examples of strategic decisions include growth and expansion, fleet sizing (aircraft controls), a sequence of flights and maintenance activities that hub locations, mergers with other airlines, alliance extend over a few days (5-7 days). participation, and location of service/maintenance facilities. An aircraft turn is the time difference between the arrival time of a flight and the Planning decisions are made within a few months departure time of the next flight. and can be defined as the process of making effective Crew Planning - The crew (pilots and flight use of an airline's resources to maximize revenues. attendants) must know their traveling schedule ahead The resources available to an airline include the of time. The crew's work plan is usually extended facilities and the personnel that operate the business, over one (1) month. During the month, the crew including aircraft in different fleets, pilots with other members will be classified as either line crew or qualifications, flight attendants, maintenance reserve crew. facilities, mechanics, gates, customer service agents, and ramp agents. A line crew will be assigned a sequence of predefined trippairs over the month. Planning decisions include planning the line of flight for pilots and cabin crew, crew A trippair represents a sequence of flights accommodations, flight-gate assignment, and (segment), which originates from the crew's catering. home city (domicile) to the last flight, which ends at the domicile. Other planning decisions include the number of employees needed to operate flights at Reserve crew members are not given a line various airports, including customer service, of flight but will serve as a backup in case of ramp attendants, and baggage handlers. system irregularity. Operations decisions for airlines are those Flight Schedule Development and Control decisions needed to be verified or updated on an Revenue – The flight schedule must match flights hourly or daily basis. They include the responses to and capacity with passenger demand to maximize the unexpected incidents such as adverse weather network revenues. conditions, flight delays and cancellations, aircraft breakdown, and absence of crew or staff due to Reliability – Airlines must have backup resources in illness. the event of disruptions, such as weather and aircraft mechanical problems, that may cause delays in the flight schedule. Airline Planning and Operations Optimization - The schedule draft will be circulated Demand Forecasting - Demand forecasting is the to the operating departments to gather suggestions process of estimating the expected number of and approval. travelers on each flight in the schedule, given the The Passenger Service System (PSS) - The PSS is flight schedules of all competitors in the different a central information technology containing flight travel markets. schedules, passenger reservations, frequent flier Fleet Assignment - The fleet assignment process is awards, flight information system, and check-in necessary for airlines that have more than one type of system customized for each airline. aircraft. It is done by assigning the different flights in the schedule to the different fleet types. Aircraft Routing - It means determining the route for each aircraft. The route of an aircraft consists of