INFORM GmbH Turnaround Management

Every year flight delays result in millions of dollars of costs. In order to achieve profitability, airlines must achieve higher aircraft utilization. This is accomplished by shorter ground times which may result in more delays, cost and passenger dissatisfaction. In order to improve turnaround times, a highly efficient turnaround management system is needed.

Solution

GroundStar brings a high degree of transparency in the whole hub & turnaround processes. All major clearance activities, milestones, passenger connections, baggage and crew transfers as well as their interdependencies can be monitored in real time. Possible bottlenecks are identified at an early stage and those responsible can be notified immediately via mobile devices. Based on the flight and handling details monitored, an impending flight delay is calculated, resulting in a highly reliable assessment of which processes may cause a delay. This way, appropriate countermeasures can be taken to avoid operational disruptions.

To solve the problem, the software also includes a cost-based decision support and various factors such as delay costs, rebooking costs and crew costs which are taken into account.

Benefits

GroundStar provides a complete overview of all hub & turnaround processes. The combination of a user-friendly interface, a powerful set of rules and a scalable IT system makes the solution a perfect tool to reach the ambitious targets for higher productivity and reliability.

• Enable pro-active and revenue-based decision making
• Early identification of bottlenecks and irregularities
• Increased stability of all handling processes
• Fewer delays and reduction of delay costs
• Increased reliability
• Better control over legislation

Features

By achieving operational synergies that meet a decentralized or manual system, there is a high added value on the corporate side. The solution provides a variety of functions that can be adapted to the specific business processes of the INFORM customers.

• Monitoring of all turnarounds: GroundStar monitors and manages all turnarounds and appropriate handling conditions.
• Flexible for warnings: The system proactively warns of upcoming delays or disruptions.
• Reliable target off-block time (TOBT) calculation: A load-based and thus dynamic process model enables precise calculation of TOBT.
• Visualization of the critical path: The critical path for each turnaround may be visualized and all processes that cause a departure flight delay are highlighted.
• Delay code recommendation: Considering the delays responsible processes, the solution recommends delay codes with associated times.
• Integrated cost model: The monetary effects of delays can be analyzed using the optional cost model. Here, various cost factors such as delay costs and transfer costs can be compared as part of the decision-making process.