THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

The Definitive
Airline Operations
& KPI Guide
71 PAGES OF HIGH-QUALITY KPI,
DASHBOARD & INNOVATION CONTENT

BENJAMIN WALTHER
CEO, INFORMATION DESIGN

FEBRUARY 2020
GOOD TO HAVE
YOU HERE

Welcome to our first ever

published Airlines Operations
& KPI Guide.

It is my pleasure to welcome
you and I want to personally
thank you for downloading
this eBook.

With the following pages I

guide you through the world of
airline operations, key perfor-
mance indicators, dashboards
and real-time information.

For this edition we've put

together 17 articles and I hope
it provides some valuable
thoughts for you and helps "WE SHOULD STOP
you to drive your airline's OVERVALUING THE THINGS WE
performance. DON'T UNDERSTAND AND
START EXECUTING WHAT IS
POSSIBLE NOW"
Benjamin Walther
CEO, Information Design
TABLE OF CONTENTS

04 About the company

05 About the author

06 Videos and Podcasts

07 A:Wall - Where Operations Happens

8-68 Airline Operations, KPI and Dashboard

Articles

69 Credits
ABOUT US
Information Design

Information Design was founded

in 1996 with the clear vision to
turn aviation data into valuable
and insightful information - with
the goal not only to create
information but also to design it.

Dedicated to this idea, Information

Design grew steadily to more than
60 employees at its head-quarters
in Frankfurt and attracted
internationally renowned and
leading airlines, airports and
aviation-companies.

Today our products are used by

some of the most successful
airlines in the world, for example
Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines,
Icelandair, Swiss International "WE ARE A PASSIONATE
Airlines, Volotea and many more. COMPANY FILLED WITH
PASSIONATE INDIVIDUALS
FROM ALL OVER THE
WORLD."
 ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

Benjamin is an aviation-
enthusiast, a music-maniac, and
CEO of Information Design (in this
order).

His daily business revolves around

pioneering solutions with the aim to
change the aviation industry. His
visions are based on expertise
gained in more than 15 years in the
industry, and working with
renowned airlines such as
Lufthansa, Emirates, Air India,
Aegean Airlines, Saudia Airlines,
S7, Icelandair and many others.

He shares his thoughts, ideas and

concepts on weekly blogs, podcasts
and videos.

Make sure to follow him on his "IT'S ALL ABOUT

essential social media channels or EXECUTION. THAT'S THE
get in touch with him directly: ONLY THING THAT
COUNTS."
Ben on LinkedIn
Ben on Twitter
Send Ben an email
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - VIDEOS / PODCAST

WATCH AND LISTEN TO

OUR LATEST THOUGHTS AND
IDEAS

Follow us on YouTube and tune in to

our Podcasts on Podomatic, Spotify
or Apple Podcasts

Don't miss the opportunity to get best-tips, new

approaches and valuable knowledge about airline
operations and key performance indicator.

6
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - A:WALL

A:Wall
Where Operations Happen.

THE PERFECT DASHBOARD FOR

YOUR AIRLINE

Source: lufthansa.com

With the A:Wall we've designed a solution access your KPIs with the tablet or mobile.
to provide managers and decision-makers The A:Wall was developed to provide you
a new level of situational awareness. The real-time information. Every piece of
A:Wall lets you be aware of your operations information, every performance indicator is
and your most important performance processed calculated and visualized in real-
indicators — at any time from wherever time. That's why you no longer have to rely
you are. on daily, weekly, monthly reports. And we
It's the ideal solution to create awareness paid the highest attention when designing
for your most relevant performance facts. the A:Wall. Every color, every font, and
Either on large screens to equip your every icon has been selected to enable
Operations Control Center, executive viewers getting the essence in a split-
offices or hotspots or on-the-go to second.

7
OVERVIEW OF ARTICLES

01 10
4 essential content types an airline Using tableau as your airline operations
dashboard must have (plus examples) real-time dashboard - 3 reasons why this
PAGE 09 isn't a good idea.
PAGE 45

02 65 Airline operations KPIs to track for

improved operations.
PAGE 12
11 8 departments/areas that should use an
airline operations KPI dashboard
PAGE 48

03 12
3 use cases linked to airline real-time How long is the typical project duration
dashboard you've never though about to set up an airline operations KPI
PAGE 20 dashboard?
PAGE 50

04 13
6 Most Important KPI For Airline The 3 most essential source systems you
Operations should connect to set up a blasting
PAGE 24 airline operations KPI dashboard
PAGE 54

05 14
How small airlines generate savings of How to improve your airline’s on-time
365.000 € annually with real-time performance in 30 days without spending
operations dashboards several hundred thousands of dollars
PAGE 28 PAGE 57

06 15
What you should know about the pricing What's under the surface of an airline
of airline operations real-time real-time dashboard?
dashboards? PAGE 31 5 components you might not expect
PAGE 60

07 16
Two fundamental technological mistakes
3 technological KPI Trends you shouldn't
airlines are doing and why they are
miss in 2020
missing a big opportunity
PAGE 34
PAGE 64

08 4 Essential Operations Information you

need on your airline dashboard — and
how to make the most out of it
17 Understand the Power of KPI Push
Notifications
PAGE 66
PAGE 38

09 Airline operations KPI Trends that will

gain increasing importance in 2020
PAGE 42
XX stay tuned for the next one
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 1

4 ESSENTIAL CONTENT TYPES

AN AIRLINE DASHBOARD MUST
HAVE (PLUS EXAMPLES)
KPI & DASHBOARD/ 8 MIN READ

I’ve set up so many airline dashboards

during the last years. Dashboards for all
types of airlines: Huge network carriers,
regional operators, and low-cost airlines.
And when it comes to an operations
dashboard, all of them have some specific
requirements. This is quite logical since
they are operating different business
models and probably aiming for different
goals.
World Map + Top KPI Workspace

DASHBOARD CONTAINS WORKSPACES

A dashboard usually contains a set of so-
called workspaces. A workspace visu-
I always like to call those four workspaces
alizes different information and KPIs and is
the dashboard fundament. Of course, the
shown for a defined time before the next
workspaces most often look slightly
workspace is displayed. The number of
different for each airline and each user
workspaces differ widely. I’ve worked with
group at an airline — but all of them are
user groups at airlines that had particular
based on the workspaces I’m going to
use cases. Therefore, they only required
introduce to you below.
one or two workspaces. On the other end,
some users set up dashboards with more
WORLD MAP + TOP KPI WORKSPACE —
than 20 workspaces. Nonetheless, what
THE MOST IMPORTANT AIRLINE
I’ve observed when setting up dozens of
DASHBOARD CONTENT
dashboards is that most of them have four
The world map provides an overview of
workspaces in common.
currently operated flights.

9
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 1

4 ESSENTIAL CONTENT TYPES AN AIRLINE DASHBOARD MUST

HAVE (PLUS EXAMPLES)

Of course, in case you are only operating in Add useful flight information
specific parts of the world, you don’t have Solely showing a flight number doesn’t
to show the entire world map but only provide a huge benefit. One crucial advice to
required regions. The world map is aiming enrich the flight list with helpful
to provide awareness and status of your information.
current flights. Besides a perfect overview,
we also observed that the world map
reflects a considerable asset in terms of
emotional motivation. The essential KPIs
usually accompany the world map:
Departure Punctuality, Arrival Punctuality,
Regularity, or Delay Minutes, for example.

FLIGHT LISTS + KPIS WORKSPACE

Flight List + KPIs Workspace

One of the most critical information an

operational dashboard has to include is
In our example, we are showing attributes,
about upcoming arrivals and departures.
for example, ETA, delay reasons, number of
We like to visualize that kind of information
passengers, delay minutes, etc. This helps
quite traditional in two separate lists. Very
to assess the status of a flight.
often, the lists are tailored to specific
airports or even focusing on one single hub
Use color highlighting to enrich your airline
only. However, from our point of view,
dashboard content
simply showing a list of flights won’t do the
Develop a color highlighting concepts that
trick. Conversely, there are two critical
highlight flights according to different rules
aspects to consider when visualizing
(specific delay minutes, ground time
arrival and departure flight lists.
insufficiency, etc.). This will bring two
massive advantages: On the one hand, you
can quickly identify single flights with a
specific problem, and on the other hand,

10
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 1

4 ESSENTIAL CONTENT TYPES AN AIRLINE DASHBOARD MUST

HAVE (PLUS EXAMPLES)

you can quickly assess the overall situation Last but not least, we strongly advise to
of your operations according to the overall include airport information within your
coloring of the flight list. With our product, operational dashboard.
we defined several rules, but all are aiming
for the same benefit: In case the flight list AIRPORT WORKSPACE
is mostly black/white, operations run
smooth. In case the dashboard, more and
more turns yellow problems start to rise.
And if you can spot a lot of red on your
dashboard, you are facing massive
problems.

WEATHER WORKSPACE — COMPLETING

YOUR AIRLINE DASHBOARD CONTENT
Airport Workspace

Especially when it comes to medium and

long-haul operations, the importance of
From our point of view, this should include
accurate weather information is
information about current aircraft at an
enormous. Since there are many providers
airport and their position. Similar to world
for weather data (METAR, TAF), it is
maps and flight lists, it makes sense to
relatively easy to integrate this kind of
include additional information on flights.
information. The challenge we observed is
And again, use color highlighting to
in translating the information (METAR and
highlight problem-related aircraft.
TAF are quite cryptic for many people).
Additionally, you can add airport-specific
That’s why we put a lot of effort into
information, for example, runways usage
visualizing the text-based information.
and closure.
Additionally, to avoid an information
overflow, it makes sense to pay attention
to highlighting specific aspects
(exceptional winds, clouds, thunderstorms,
etc.).

11
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS

TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED
OPERATIONS
KPI & OPERATIONS / 6 MIN READ

The most successful airlines are

successful because they keep tracking and
monitoring their airline operations KPIs.
They’re literally swimming in data and
performance indicators. These airlines
understood that every decision has to be
based on data and KPIs.
If you don’t know your performance at
every point in time, you have no idea and
no possibility to improve. That’s why you
have to keep a close eye on your KPIs,
especially in operations.

AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS — OUR MOST

PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE 65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS

With this article, we share a part of our

most precious knowledge. Knowledge that For this article, we put together 65 of these

has been gathered from KPI projects with KPIs. We have clustered these KPIs

airlines around the globe. From large flag according to different operational

carriers to charter and low-cost operator. aspects. What’s the idea behind? We

From network airlines to point-to-point wanted to create a source for thoughts for

and regional carriers. you.

Throughout these projects, we defined and

set up nearly 100 different airline
operations KPIs. Some of the KPIs are
common, but some are also very
particular.

12
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

GENERAL OPERATIONS KPIS

PASSENGER KPIS

OPERATIONS CONTROL KPIS

CONNEX MANAGEMENT KPIS

WEIGHT & BALANCE KPIS

BAGGAGE MANAGEMENT KPIS

PUNCTUALITY MANAGEMENT KPIS

FUEL & ENVIRONMENT KPIS

MAINTENANCE KPIS

CREW KPIS

PERFORMANCE KPIS

13
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

GENERAL OPERATIONS KPIS

Arrival Delay: Amount of delay minutes Departures: Basic KPI counting the
for all arrived flights. number of departed flights.
Arrival Punctuality: Share of flights with Departure Punctuality: Share of flights
an arrival delay in relation to the total with a departure delay in relation to the
number of operated flights. total number of operated flights.
Arrivals: Basic KPI counting the number Diversions: Basic KPI counting the
of arrived flights. number of diversions.
Cancellations: Number of canceled Regularity: Number of departures in
flight for a specific period. relation to all scheduled flights for a
Cancellation Rate: Share of canceled period.
flights in relation to the total number of Utilization: Share of check-in or
operated flights. boarded passengers in relation to
Delay Minutes: Amount of delay minutes available seats of all departed flights.
of all departed flights. Seat Load Factor (SLF): SLF is the
Delay Reasons: Delay minutes clustered dimensionless ratio of passenger-
according to delay reasons. kilometers traveled to seat-kilometers
Departure Delay: Amount of delay available
minutes of all departed flights.
Departure Delay per Passenger: Total
amount of delay minutes in relation to
the total amount of passengers
transported.
Departure Delay per Flight: Total
amount of delay minutes in relation to
the total amount of flights operated.

14
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

PASSENGER KPIS OPERATIONS CONTROL KPIS

Passengers en Route: Sum of all Aircraft Changes: Number of performed

boarded passengers for flights en- aircraft changes for a specified period.
route. Equipment Changes: Number of
Transported Passengers: Sum of all performed equipment changes for a
transported passengers for a specified specified period.
period (often clustered according to Gate Changes: Number of performed
compartments). gate changes for a specified period.
Satisfied Passenger Quota: Share of Crew Changes: Number of performed
passengers having arrived on-time in crew changes for a specified period.
relation to all transported/checked-in Number of irregularities: Amount of
passengers. irregularities (for example delays,
Unsatisfied Passengers: Share of aircraft changes, diversions, etc.) for a
passengers having arrived late or not at specified period.
destination in relation to all Irregularity ratio: Number of flights
transported/checked-in passengers. affected by an irregularity in relation to
Disruption Affected Passengers: Sum of all flights operated.
passengers affected by major
(cancellation, diversion, etc.) or minor
(delay) disruptions.

15
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

CONNEX MANAGEMENT KPIS WEIGHT & BALANCE KPIs

Misconnex Passengers: Number of Baggage Weight: Amount of transported

checked-in passengers failed to baggage in tons.
connect to onward flight. Bags on Board: Amount of bags for all
Misconnex Quota: Share of checked-in flights with ATD and without ATA.
passengers failed to connect to onward Cargo Weight: Amount of transported
flight in relation to all passengers with cargo in tons.
an onward flight.
Minimum Connecting Time Sufficiency:
Share of passengers failing to connect
BAGGAGE MANAGEMENT KPIS
to onward flight and a connecting time >
minimum connecting in relation to
Left Behind Index: Share of all bags left
all misconnex passengers
at origin airport in relation to total bags.
Left behind bags: Amount of bags left at
origin airport.
Mishandled Baggage Index: Share of all
bags not arriving at the destination
airport in relation to total bags.
Mishandled bags: Amount of bags not
arriving at the destination airport.

16
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

PUNCTUALITY MANAGEMENT FUEL & ENVIRONMENT KPIS

KPIS
Fuel Consumption: Total amount of fuel
Ground Time Recovery: Share of flight burned for a specific period.
with a delayed arrival (ATA > STA) and Fuel Consumption per Passenger: Total
on-time departure of consecutive flight, amount of fuel burned in relation to
in relation to all delayed arrivals. transported passengers.
Ground Time Sufficiency: Share of Fuel Consumption per Passenger
flights with an on-time arrival and on- Kilometer: Total amount of fuel burned
time departure in relation to all arrived in relation to operated passenger-
flights. kilometer.
Block Time Recovery: Share of flight CO2 Consumption: Total amount of CO2
with a delayed departure (ATD > STD) generated for a specific period.
and on-time arrival, in relation to all CO2 Consumption per Passenger: Total
delayed departures. amount of CO2 generated in relation to
Block Time Sufficiency: Share of flights transported passengers.
with an on-time departure and on-time CO2 Consumption per Passenger
arrival relation to all arrived flights. Kilometer: Total amount of CO2
Aircraft Readiness: Amount of flights generated in relation to operated
where aircraft have been ready at passenger-kilometer.
boarding begin in relation to all flights
operated.
Standby Aircraft Availability: Amount of
standby aircraft available.
Average Taxi-In / Taxi-Out Time:
Average time between touchdown and
on-blocks / off-blocks and airborne of
aircraft. The KPI is usually only tracked
for important hubs / home bases.

17
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 2

65 AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPIS TO TRACK FOR IMPROVED

OPERATIONS

MAINTENANCE KPIS Crew Changes: Amount of flights where

crew is required to change the aircraft

Planned Events: Number of planned in relation to all flights operated

maintenance events, clustered (clustered according to cockpit and

according to event type. cabin crew).

Unplanned Events: Number of Crew Readiness: Amount of flight where

unscheduled maintenance events for a the crew has been ready at boarding

specific period. begin in relation to all flights operated.

Standby Aircraft Utilization: Amount of Crew en Route: Number of cockpit and

time standby aircraft have been used in cabin crew currently en route.

relation to the available aircraft standby

time. PERFORMANCE KPIS
Release to Service: Percentage of
aircraft being released to service on- Aircraft Utilization / Productivity:
time. Amount of total block hours in relation
AOG: Number of AOGs for a specified to available hours (depending on
period.Standby Aircraft Availability: definition).
Number of standby aircraft available. Profitability: Overall profitability or
clustered to aircraft types, routes or
traffic regions.
CREW KPIS Profitability Ratio: Number of flights
operated profitable in relation to all

Standby Crew Availability: Amount of operated flights.

standby crews available, clustered Compensation: Amount of

according to positions. compensation to be paid, according to

Crew Bus Punctuality: Amount of flights delayed/cancelled flights and related

where crew bus arrived on-time at the aspects (passengers, delay reasons,

aircraft. traffic region, etc.).

18
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

REFERENCES

12 AIRLINES WITH MORE THAN

850 AIRCRAFT AND 5,000 DAILY
FLIGHTS ARE SITUATION-AWARE
WITH A:WALL.
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 3

3 USE CASES LINKED TO

AIRLINE REAL-TIME
DASHBOARDS YOU’VE NEVER
THOUGHT ABOUT
KPI & DASHBOARD / 8 MIN READ

The primary use case of an airline

operations real-time dashboard is about
visualizing information and KPIs. No doubt
about it. However, a dashboard
infrastructure —at least when talking
about our product setup— collects a vast
amount of data from different sources
(flight data, passenger data, airport data,
etc.). Based on that three use cases can be
realized. All of them providing a huge
potential without substantial additional
investment.

LET’S STARTS WITH THE BASICS FIRST

Displaying the information within the
To present real-time KPIs and information,
dashboard or on your mobile is finally only
an infrastructure is required that collects,
the icing on the cake. Most of the effort is
processes, and stores data. For example,
linked to collecting and processing data
with our product, the A:Wall, we operate a
but not to visualizing it. When discussing
data warehouse that is tailored to these
the setup with clients some years ago, we
tasks. That data warehouse is tailored to
identified the possibility of using this data
collecting data from different sources /
also for other use cases — instead of
systems, to process it and to archive it in a
showing it on dashboards only.
structured way.

20
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 3

3 USE CASES LINKED TO AIRLINE REAL-TIME DASHBOARDS

YOU’VE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT

Accordingly, that means we are not talking The only step to take is to provide access to
about alternative use cases of a this data. Typically, this is achieved by using
dashboard, but use cases the standard tools, for example, Tableau or
infrastructure — mainly a required data PowerBI.
warehouse — brings with It.
The benefits are obvious:
DATA ANALYTICS Besides standard analytics tools, no
The importance of data analytics is steadily need for additional infrastructure.
increasing. And I’m not even talking about You can access a holistic data platform
big data, machine learning and stuff like Integrated data can are useful for both
this. But I’m talking about a reliable, analytics and in the context of your real-
comprehensive and broad data source to time dashboard.
fuel analytics measures. Many airlines —
especially small and mid-sized airlines— REPORTING PLATFORM
we have been talking to through recent Although we actively promote real-time
years have not been operating a dedicated KPIs and dashboards, weekly and monthly
data warehouse. reports still have a right to exist and provide
Conversely, data often is stored in additional value. From our experience with
databases of different systems. However, airlines, many of them still rely on manual
such a setup massively hinders the or semi-automated creation of weekly and
process of data analytics. As mentioned monthly performance reports. Also, from
above, one crucial step to provide real- discussions with airlines, we know that the
time information and KPIs is in connecting creation process can be painful due to
data sources, collecting data, and storing collecting data from different sources. But
it. Accordingly, while gathering all required that’s not all. Afterward, raw data is often
data, a combined and reliable source can calculated and prepared in Excel. As a final
be provided for data analytics. step, Powerpoint is commonly used to
Without any additional hardware, interface, create a report.
or anything else. Summarized, a time-consuming,

21
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 3

3 USE CASES LINKED TO AIRLINE REAL-TIME DASHBOARDS

YOU’VE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT

inefficient, and error-prone process. This is mainly driven by the fact that data is
Since one vital function of real-time scattered across various systems in
dashboards is in calculating KPIs, it seems different formats and quality. Of course,
reasonable to extend the usage from real- middleware solutions are one way to tackle
time to historical reports. this challenge. Nonetheless, an alternative
Especially bearing in mind that all required we consider as even efficient is in providing
data is already available. With our product, structured access to the entire data
the A:Wall, we provide a smart add-on that contained in the warehouse. We achieved
calculates historical KPIs (weekly, this by setting up a standardized API that
monthly, etc.). allows access to data in real-time.
Subsequently, KPIs are offered in an easy- Thereby, systems that require specific data
to-read report format on a defined regular can efficiently utilize the existing API and
base. request required data in standardized,
documented, and structured way.
SINGLE-SOURCE-OF-TRUTH OR API TO
DRIVE BUSINESS
The final use case we want to introduce is
a more complex one. But also one that
holds an enormous potential. Again, the
core idea behind is that the data
warehouse contains data from a variety of
operational systems. Moreover, this use
case addresses a particular challenge
many airlines face. Setting up new systems
or extending existing ones often leads to
the process of building required interfaces.
Usually, building those interfaces is one of
the main effort and cost drivers.

22
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

SATISFIED
CLIENTS

"WE SHARE THE

PASSION FOR
AVIATION WITH OUR
CLIENTS."
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 4

6 MOST IMPORTANT KPI FOR

AIRLINE OPERATIONS
KPI & DASHBOARD / 5 MIN READ

In today’s world almost every company

sets up key performance indicators (KPI) to
track and ultimately reach corporate goals
— so do airlines. Besides generic KPIs, as
for example finance or marketing-related
KPIs, airlines usually implement KPIs to
monitor their operations performance.
However, since airline operations are
based on various, complex processes, that
amount of operations KPIs is sheer
endless. To give you an example: When we
start a project with an airline, we usually
have a set of +50 operations KPIs to launch
an initial discussion. And That means we’ve analyzed more than 15
our product catalog contains even more airlines using the A:Wall. The analyzed
than 100 airline operations KPIs. Indeed, airlines included:
not all of them have the same priority, and 4 flag carriers (e.g. Lufthansa, Saudi
many KPIs address specific business Arabian Airlines or Swiss Airlines)
models or sub-processes. 2 medium-sized airlines (e.g. Icelandair)
2 Charter Operator (e.g. Condor)
Most Important Airline Operations KPI – 5 Regional carrier (e.g. Air Dolomiti)
What We Analyzed 2 Low-cost airlines (e.g. Volotea)
3 Cargo Airlines (e.g. Lufthansa Cargo)
To answer the question of most important
airline operations KPIs we took a look at For each of the airlines, we checked which
our clients. KPIs they are using on
their A:Wall channels.

24
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 4

6 MOST IMPORTANT KPI FOR AIRLINE OPERATIONS

6th — Misconnex Quota Of course, that doesn’t mean these airlines

Misconnex Quota, which is calculated as are not focused on punctual operations.
the percentage of connecting passengers However, the strategic and operational
that miss their onward flight in relation to goals in terms of on-time performance are
the complete number of connecting often linked to a different KPI.
passengers, is used by 45% of all
airlines analyzed. It has been quite 4th — Utilization (or seat load factor)
surprising to see this KPI in this list, since The Utilization KPI is calculated as the
it is not of interest / not relevant for point- percentage of checked-in passengers in
to-point airlines. Additionally, the KPI relation to available seats of an aircraft. As
reflects a rather complex indicator, that an additional factor, some airlines include
requires a thorough calculation model and the route length as an additional factor in
extensive data. However, for hub-and- the calculation.
spoke airlines the KPI can be seen as main 71% of all airlines analyzed are using this
differentiator and quality feature, which figure.Interesting fact: Utilization is the only
certainly is the reason why many of those key performance indicator of the TOP 6 KPIs
airlines use the KPI. that is not related to customer satisfaction,
but on profit-oriented operations. That
5th — Arrival Punctuality shows us that customer satisfaction or
Arrival Punctuality is calculated as the product quality are considered as the main
percentage of flights that arrive on-time at driver and goals of airline operational
the planned destination airport in relation performance.
to all operated flights. Normally, a flight is
counted as on-time if the arrival delay is 3rd — Delay Minutes
not greater than 15 minutes. Our analysis Delay minutes as a KPI is used by 82% of
showed that 67% of all airlines are airlines analyzed. Although this
using this performance indicator. Although performance indicator is used in different
we assumed this KPI to be ranked much forms. Some airlines show the total
higher, it turned out that especially amounts of delay minutes as a bold
network carriers aren’t focused on this number.
indicator.

25
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 4

6 MOST IMPORTANT KPI FOR AIRLINE OPERATIONS

A larger portion of airlines tend to show Since charter airlines typically don’t cancel
the delay minutes clustered according to flights (but delay them sometimes for more
underlying delay reasons, as for example than a day), these airlines aren’t using the
technical, handling, rotational, airport, KPI on a day-to-day basis.
weather. And a few airlines show only
delay minutes of specific delay reasons as 1 — Departure Punctuality
they consider as most important or And here we go with the winner: Based on
influential for their operations. our analysis, Departure Punctuality reflects
the most important KPI for airlines. 100% of
Interesting alternatives: Some of the airlines analyzed are using this
airlines move away from showing the plain performance indicator. Departure
delay minutes and put them in relation Punctuality is calculated as the percentage
with the number of flights or passengers. of flights that depart on-time at the planned
Results can be the average delay minutes origin airport in relation to all operated
per flight or average delay minutes a flights. Normally, a flight is counted as on-
passenger experienced today. time if the departure delay is not greater
than 15 minutes. Actually, it wasn’t a big
2nd — Regularity surprise to have this KPI ranked first since
The indicator reflects the percentage of departure punctuality is one of the most
operated flights in relation to planned significant quality KPIs for airlines —
flights. Or in other words: How many specially when it comes to competitive
flights have been canceled. 90% of all advantages.
airlines analyzed are using this
fundamental performance indicator. Airline Operations KPI — where are the
Although this is one of the most basic environmental indicators?
KPIs, it is surely one of the most important Interesting fact: Although environmental
— especially to passengers. This reason KPIs (for example, fuel consumption, CO2)
why not every airline is taking care of this do not rank along with TOP 6 KPIs, we’ve
KPI can be found in the specific charter seen a considerable increase in their usage.
operations model. Will be interesting to see how this develops
in the future.

26
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

HUGE STEP FORWARD

THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 5

HOW SMALL AIRLINES

GENERATE SAVINGS OF
€365,000 ANNUALLY WITH
REAL-TIME OPERATIONS
DASHBOARDS
KPI & DASHBOARD / 5 MIN READ

One of the most asked questions we When looking at our clients, it can be said
receive is built around the topic of savings that a real-time dashboard helps to
that can be achieved by using airline real- improve the most critical operational KPIs
time operations dashboards.In our latest of an airline.
blog post, we already discussed the
financial effort of setting up and operating We already talked a lot about that topic in
an airline operations real-time dashboard. previous blog posts:
However, we did not cover the aspect of Why real-time KPIs will boost your
saving potential, which is related to a operational performance?
dashboard. Therefore, we thought it makes How to improve your airline’s on-time
sense to put a spotlight on potential performance in 30 days without
financial benefits, linked to real-time spending several hundred thousands of
dashboards. Thus, to enable airlines to dollars.
compare both sides of the medal — cost,
and savings — and to set up a proper Let’s focus on on-time performance to
business case. Similar, as mentioned when create a straight-forward business case
discussing the costs, the first answer when On-Time Performance is the KPI, which
looking at financial savings is “it depends.” has to be mentioned first and foremost
Nonetheless, we will try to assess this when talking about improvements by a
aspect step-by-step. real-time operational dashboard. Delay
What are the benefits and related savings costs are one of the most painful cost
of an airline operations real-time drivers of an airline. Lufthansa, for
dashboards? example, spent €500 mil in 2018 on
compensating passengers.

28
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 5

HOW SMALL AIRLINES GENERATE SAVINGS OF €365,000

ANNUALLY WITH REAL-TIME OPERATIONS DASHBOARDS

And this figure does not include additional Freedom Airlines calculates delay minutes
costs for maintenance, crew, fuel, etc. with €79, according to University of
And since a business case that includes Westminster for EUROCONTROL.
several KPIs would quickly get very Since Freedom Airlines does not take into
complicated, we will focus on OTP only account the first three delay minutes, they
with the following calculation. have an average delay of 8 minutes (11min –
3 min), summing up to 960 delay minutes —
Although many factors —internal and daily.
external— influence OTP, we observed an
improvement of this KPI by 1% – 4% over 12 On an annual base, this sums up to roughly
months. 350,000 delay minutes or approximately
€27,7 mil.
AIRLINE OPERATIONS DASHBOARD
SAVINGS — LET’S DO THE MATH. Let us chose a conservative approach and
assume a real-time dashboard (for example

Of course, we have to work with several the A:Wall) helps to improve the OTP by
1.5%. That will lead to a reduction of more
assumptions. And of course, the case
than 5,000 delay minutes annually.
might look slightly different depending
on your fleet size, average delay
Subsequently, savings of €415,000 can be
minutes, and delay costs you are
achieved.
calculating. In this case, we’re going to
work with the following assumption of WHAT ABOUT THE COSTS?
our airline; we like to call Freedom According to our last post, the
Airlines. Freedom Airlines operates 30 basic A:Wall package requires an annual
aircraft, with a total of 120 flights per investment of approximately €50,000. The
day. The average delay minutes of basic package already contains everything
Freedom Airlines sums up to 11 that’s required for monitoring and

minutes, which is pretty much standard improving the OTP.

according to Eurocontrol.

29
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 5

HOW SMALL AIRLINES GENERATE SAVINGS OF €365,000

ANNUALLY WITH REAL-TIME OPERATIONS DASHBOARDS

Accordingly, the usage of a real-time

dashboard (in our scenario) achieves
savings of approximately €365,000 within
the first 12 months.

Although this business case is based on

several assumptions we do hope it
provides a first overview of possible
savings related to a real-time dashboard.

30
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 6

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

ABOUT THE PRICING OF
AIRLINE OPERATIONS REAL-
TIME DASHBOARDS?
KPI & DASHBOARD / 7 MIN READ

In one of our last airline dashboard blog pricing structure of our real-time
posts, I mentioned that a question which is dashboard solution, A:Wall.
usually raised within 30-60 minutes of an Bad news first: As you can imagine, there’s
initial meeting with potential clients is no one answer. Although I hate to say it,
“how long does it take to implement the the first answer I can give you is, “it
A:Wall?” depends.”
The A:Wall is our real-time dashboard But let’s do a step by step approach to get
solution. And besides discussing the closer to a more satisfactory answer.
functionality and visuals, potential clients
are usually very eager to know how soon 1 – WHAT KIND OF COSTS OCCUR?
they can get their A:Wall. Let’s start at the top of the mountain and
However, besides functionality and let us first define what kind of costs we are
duration, there’s, of course, a third aspect talking about. The A:Wall is based on two
potential customers want to know: types of expenses. Initial setup costs and
“What’s the price of the A:Wall?” monthly subscription fees.
The initial setup costs occur only once and
Additionally, many of our blog readers contain all efforts related to connecting
recently asked me to provide some systems, defining desired KPIs, setting up
information about the pricing of airline tailored A:Walls, and joined Q&A.
dashboards. With this blog post, I want to
shed some light on this topic of airline Depending on selected business packages
dashboard pricing and provide details (see #2), the initial setup costs of an
about the pricing structure of our real- airline dashboard usually sums up to €10-
time dashboard solution, A:Wall. 20K.
With this blog post, I want to shed some
light on this topic of airline dashboard
pricing and provide details about the

31
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE PRICING OF AIRLINE

OPERATIONS REAL-TIME DASHBOARDS?

Since the A:Wall is a cloud-based solution, Monthly fees for business packages vary
clients can subscribe to different business and are mainly driven by complexity. Low
packages (see #2) and add-ons (see #3). complexity packages start with €500 per
Subsequently, a monthly subscription fee month; complex ones are around €5,000.
has to be paid, which is calculated based Worth to mention at this point that most of
on chosen packages and add-ons. our clients go for 2-3 packages.
But we will do an exemplary calculation
2 – AIRLINE DASHBOARD BUSINESS later on.
PACKAGES
The most important aspects when it comes 3 – AIRLINE DASHBOARD ADD-ONS
to monthly fees is related to the business Besides business packages which are
package clients chooses for their airline required to operate the A:Wall, customers
dashboard. A business package contains can select additional – optional – add-ons.
specific KPIs as well as visualization forms Besides business packages which are
and concentrates on a specific airline required to operate the A:Wall, customers
business aspect. can select additional – optional – add-ons.
Besides a core package which is Add-ons cover different aspects.
mandatory and includes standard Here are a few examples:
visualizations and KPIs (OTP, regularity, Historical values extension (the A:Wall is
and many more), clients can additionally extended to showing historical values –
select the following packages: weekly, monthly, etc.)
API Access (accessing the data with 3rd
Connex Management Party tool, for example, Tableau.
Cargo Management Additional user licenses
Weather Information Extended mobile usage (smartwatch and
Airport Information push notifications)
Safety Management Extended alerting (KPI alerts)
Maintenance Management And more…

Monthly fees for add-on vary and start with

€500.

32
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE PRICING OF AIRLINE

OPERATIONS REAL-TIME DASHBOARDS?

IS THERE A TYPICAL PRICING? But I do I could give you a better feeling for
What I’ve observed is, that besides all a required invest when operating an
potential packages and add-ons, an operational airline dashboard.
airline’s size probably plays the most
crucial role. Usually, the larger an airline
is the more business packages and add-
ons it selects. Mid-sized airlines carefully
select exactly those packages and add-
ons, which help to improve their
operations. Small-sized airlines very often
only go for the standard set — which
usually is sufficient for its operations and
requirements.

LONG STORY SHORT – HERE ARE SOME

NUMBERS

When selecting the necessary basics only,

an airline can operate the A:Wall with a
monthly fee as low as approx. €3,000 per
month. But this already includes all the
cool stuff, as for example iPad usage,
common KPIs, cutting-edge visualization
and everything in real-time — just to name
a few features. And on the other end, when
choosing most of the business packages
and add-ons, the monthly fee can sum up
to €20,000K. When looking at these
numbers, my initial statement (“it
depends”) really wasn’t wrong.

33
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 7

3 TECHNOLOGICAL KPI
TRENDS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS
IN 2020
KPI & DASHBOARD / 8 MIN READ

With one of our recent blog posts, we Since this global trend will continue,
presented the KPI Trends that will gain airline KPI solutions have to meet these
importance in 2020. The article addresses requirements and conquer smartphones
aspects like dynamic dashboards or and tablets even more aggressively than in
benchmarking KPIs. Today we want to the years before. The fundament in this
focus on upcoming technological trends context are dedicated apps for
that —from our point of view— will play an smartphones and tablets that provides the
important role in 2020. Probably not possibility to monitor KPIs and information
surprising, each of the three trends is in real-time. We wrote a lot about
related to mobile usage. And besides the seamless integration and the necessity of
specific trends, we discuss in the a mobile-first strategywhen it comes to
following, mobile usage can be seen as the airline KPIs. Therefore, this is something
continuing significant trend when it comes we consider as a basis. If you want to get a
to KPI usage. Of course, airlines will —for better feeling for this, check out
a good reason— continue to use large our A:Wall product pages. Based on that
video walls and TV screens to display KPIs. fundament, we see three major trends that
This absolutely makes sense to create will dominate the next year and
awareness across a department (OCC, simultaneously hold an enormous
HCC, etc.) or user group. However, when it potential.
comes to personal usage, the mobile
phone (or tablet) will continue to become TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS: ULTRA-
the preferred tool — instead of laptops or SEAMLESS INTEGRATION
computers. Actually, this is not a KPI- Seamless integration describes the
specific trend but a trend you can observe provision of dedicated apps that are
in all areas. Here are two charts that tailored to the specific device — in our
describe how the usage of mobile already case, smartphones and tablets.
dominates our day.

34
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3 TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS IN

2020

To achieve optimal integration, we think it

is essential to take the next steps. With
ultra-seamless integration, we define
measures to even tighter integrate the
airline KPI app into the smartphone/
tablet. Here’s an example.

iPhone Widget usage

You may know the widget functionality of
iPhones. If not, swipe to the right on the
iPhone (even when it’s locked). You get a
very comprehensive overview of selected
widgets. Depending on your configuration,
you can see the next meeting or weather
information. The cool thing is: Widgets
And if a KPI alerts you, you click on the
provide a quick summary in a super-easy
widget, and the app opens. That’s what we
to access way. You don’t have to unlock the
call ultra-seamless integration. This is just
phone, open an app, and probably login. In
one example of many. As mentioned earlier:
case the content of a widget alerts you, you
The core idea is to utilize smartphone and
can simply click on the widget and the
tablet functionalities to integrate KPI apps
several apps open. Widgets are a straight-
into the devices further — and thereby
forward and powerful functionality that
massively improve usability.
even further integrates an app and
content. Below you can see our very, very
Just dream for a second
initial (actually it was the first) mockup we
Instead of starting your laptop, connecting
used to discuss this idea. That means you
to your corporate network, starting a web
have your most crucial airline KPIs directly
browser, selecting a bookmark, doing the
shown in a widget, accessible with just one
login, selecting the correct dashboard to
gesture (swipe to the right).
have a look at your KPIs — you swipe to the
right on your iPhone.

35
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 7

3 TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS IN

2020

TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS: SMART Smartwatches are continuously becoming

ALERTING an essential part of many people’s life. As
What’s even better than swiping to the mobiles did 15 years ago, we are currently
right? It is getting actively alerted when witnessing the advent of smartwatches. And
something happens. This is what the this will have an impact on airline
second trend we forecast for 2020 is about. operations KPIs too. With a market size of
The trend is tightly linked to a growing $9 billion back in 2017, current forecast
mobile usage of KPI solutions — however, estimate a volume of more than $30 billion
it requires a lot of work in the backend. in 2025 (Allied Market Research).
The basic idea: You send out alerts In other words, the market size is expected
whenever a KPI changes significantly. For to grow by 15% — annually.
example, the OTP drops by 3% compared
to the last hour; smart and automated Although many airlines are still trying to
alerts are sent out directly to the mobile incorporate smartphones into their
device of relevant stakeholders. Another operations KPI framework, the frequency of
example in this context is about sending discussions I’m having with airliners about
out important and smart updates. Here are smartwatches is steadily increasing. Since
two examples: The number of passengers the usage of smartwatches is different, you
until noon is 5% above the daily average. should think about not bringing the entire
Or this misconnex quota is 2% less information onto the smartwatch. Instead,
compared to the last three days. I think we see the idea of Smart Alerting as a
you’re getting the point. And actually, the primary driver for smartwatch usage. The
number of use cases are limitless. charming aspect: You don’t need to develop
a native smartwatch app.
TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS: How could that look? I give you an example:
SMARTWATCH Instead of trying to visualize the real-time
Smartwatches, for example, the Apple on-time performance KPI on smartwatches,
Watch but also devices from other you send out the alerts mentioned above
providers, will —from our point of view— whenever this KPI changes significantly.
gain an increasing importance in 2020.

36
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 7

3 TECHNOLOGICAL KPI TRENDS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS IN

2020

Here’s an example we’ve developed with

regards to the A:Wall

CONCLUSION
Summarized we strongly believe that
tailored, personal usage of KPIs will play a
more dominant role in 2020 and
consecutive years. Therefore, it is more
than ever important to seamlessly provide
the required information and to make it
accessible as easy as possible.

37
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 8

4 ESSENTIAL OPERATIONS
INFORMATION YOU NEED ON
YOUR AIRLINE DASHBOARD —
AND HOW TO MAKE THE MOST
OUT OF IT
KPI & DASHBOARD / 6 MIN READ

Visualizing airline operations information

on your dashboard is essential for a
perfect situational awareness. KPIs are
certainly one of the essential parts of an
airline’s operations real-time dashboard.
But the truth is, a dashboard solely
focused on KPIs won’t bring the benefits
you are expecting. Even worse, a
dashboard that only visualizes KPIs can
provide an overview of your current
performance but shows enormous Airport Arrivals & Departures

limitations when it comes to providing a

comprehensive situational awareness. One of the most critical information an
With this post, we introduce four essential operational dashboard has to include is
information you should include on your about upcoming arrivals and departures.
operational dashboard. Additionally, we We like to visualize that kind of information
will also provide examples of how to quite traditional in two separate lists. Very
visualize that information. Moreover, the often, the lists are tailored to specific
examples include some best-practices we airports or even focusing on one single hub
gathered from our projects and product only. However, from our point of view,
development. simply showing a list of flights won’t do the
trick. Conversely, there are two critical
AIRLINE OPERATIONS INFORMATION: aspects to consider when visualizing
DEPARTURE & ARRIVAL LISTS arrival and departure flight lists.

38
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 8

4 ESSENTIAL OPERATIONS INFORMATION YOU NEED ON YOUR

AIRLINE DASHBOARD — AND HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT
OF IT

Add useful flight information AIRLINE OPERATIONS INFORMATION:

Solely showing a flight number doesn’t WORLD MAP
provide a huge benefit. One crucial advice The world map provides an overview of
to enrich the flight list with helpful currently operated flights. Of course, in
information. In our example, we are case you are only operating in specific parts
showing attribute, for example, ETA, delay of the world, you don’t have to show the
reasons, number of passengers, delay entire world map but only required regions.
minutes, etc. This helps to assess the The world map is aiming to provide
status of a flight. awareness and status of your current
flights. Besides a perfect overview, we also
Use color highlighting observed that the world map reflects a
Develop a color highlighting concepts that considerable asset in terms of emotional
highlight flights according to different motivation. Again, we strongly advise to add
rules (specific delay minutes, ground additional context to the world map or the
insufficiency, etc.). shown flights. With our product, we again
This will bring two massive advantages: On use colors to provide further information.
the one hand, you can quickly identify Usually, our clients go for a color
single flights with a specific problem, and highlighting visualizing if flights are on-time
on the other hand, you can quickly assess or delayed (initially according to departure
the overall situation of your operations and as soon as an ETA is available
according to the overall coloring of the according to arrival). Green flights are on-
flight list.With our product, we defined time; red ones are delayed.
several rules, but all are aiming for the But we also have different use cases: For
same benefit: In case the flight is mostly example, coloring according to number of
black/white, operations run smooth. In connex passengers.
case the dashboard, more and more turns
yellow problems start to rise. And if you
can spot a lot of red on your dashboard,
you are facing massive problems.

39
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4 ESSENTIAL OPERATIONS INFORMATION YOU NEED ON YOUR

AIRLINE DASHBOARD — AND HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT
OF IT

AIRLINE OPERATIONS INFORMATION: AIRLINE OPERATIONS INFORMATION:

WEATHER OVERVIEW AIRPORT INFORMATION
We already discussed the importance of
weather information for airlines with one
of our last posts. Especially when it comes
to medium and long-haul operations, the
importance of accurate weather
information is enormous. Since there are
many providers for weather data (METAR,
TAF), it is relatively easy to integrate this
kind of information. The challenge we
observed is in translating the information
(METAR and TAF are quite cryptic for many
Airport Workspace
people). That’s why we put a lot of effort
into visualizing the text-based information. Last but not least, we strongly advise to
Additionally, to avoid an information include airport information within your
overflow, it makes sense to pay attention operational dashboard. From our point of
to highlighting specific aspects view, this should include information about
(exceptional winds, clouds, thunderstorms, current aircraft at an airport and their
etc.). position. Similar to world maps and flight
Below you can see an example of how lists, it makes sense to include additional
translated and visualised weather information on flights. And again, use color
information in the context of highlighting to highlight problem-related
the A:Wall look. aircraft. Additionally, you can add airport-
specific information, for example, runways
usage and closure.

40
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

WORDS FROM
CLIENTS

"I AM MORE AWARE AND

BETTER INFORMED
TO TAKE ACTION.
EVERY DAY."
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 9

AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TRENDS

THAT WILL GAIN INCREASING
IMPORTANCE IN 2020
KPI & DASHBOARD / 7 MIN READ

The idea of airline operations KPIs more AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TREND 1:
and more attracts airlines. Many of them TEMPORARY KPIS / DYNAMIC KPI
have started to track KPIs regularly or DASHBOARDS
even in real-time. However, a considerable Temporary KPIs are a trend we have been
proportion of airlines concentrate on observing over the last months and which
“traditional” KPIs, for example, has the potential to become a major airline
punctuality, stability, etc. Don’t get me operations trend in 2020. What’s the idea
wrong: There’s nothing wrong with that. behind? Temporary KPIs focus on
Conversely, we encourage and empower particular aspects. Most often, in the
airlines to start tracking those KPIs. context of an improvement or optimization
Moreover, we help them to monitor in real- project. That means the KPIs are set up to
time and make KPIs available to relevant prove the success of specific project goals.
stakeholders. Nonetheless, the world of
KPIs is turning fast. And the improvement Examples we observed: A project that was
potential an airline can explore by applying aiming to reduce the average taxi time at
new KPIs or approaches is growing hub or one that aimed to improve the crew
steadily. We are fortunate to be in a readiness. To monitor the success of those
position to identify and discuss upcoming projects, corresponding KPIs were created
trends with clients but also with once the projects started and added to
cooperation partners and technology available dashboards. Thus, enabling real-
leaders. With this blog post, we want to time monitoring of the most critical project
share the knowledge with you and goals. Once the projects were completed,
introduce three airline operations KPI and the issue was solved sustainably, the
trends that will gain increasing importance KPIs were removed from dashboards.
in 2020.

42
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AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TRENDS THAT WILL GAIN

INCREASING IMPORTANCE IN 2020
Another example are KPIs, where tracking information and KPIs. Thus, this trend will
only makes sense during specific periods. enable airlines to enrich operations KPI
One of our clients had huge issues with dashboards with additional value and
security control – but only during the subsequently help to improve performance
summer season. So, they brought a further.
particular KPI to their dashboard to keep
track of this process step. Once operations AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TREND 2:
were running smoothly again, the KPI was SUSTAINABILITY KPIS
removed from dashboards. We already discussed this topic in one of
our earlier blog posts. Although,
Dashboards have to transfer from static sustainability cannot be considered as a
views to dynamic support tools new trend, it definitely is when it comes to
From our point of view, the topic of airline operations dashboards. And during
dynamic dashboards will gain more and the last months, we’ve observed an
more importance. Airline operations KPI increasing demand — at least when it
dashboards will no longer be considered comes to discussing the possibilities of
as a static system but have to cope with real-time, sustainability KPIs. We are fully
changing requirements. aware that these KPIs won’t improve airline
The focus during summer peak and winter operations. They won’t help an airline to
operations is different. Optimization become more punctual or to cancel fewer
projects are gaining increasing relevance. flights.
And a KPI dashboard should be up to these Nonetheless, given ecological
requirements. That means the content of a developments and a changing society, we
KPI dashboard has to change dynamically. firmly believe that real-time operations
We think there’s a huge potential in dashboard will be enriched with
turning static dashboards that show the sustainability KPIs sooner or later.
same content day-in and day-out into a We are pretty sure that 2020 will be the year
combination of most important static KPIs the first airlines will go down that road. As
and curated, temporary mentioned in our blog post, we are
convinced that visualizing sustainability
KPIs in real-time will help

43
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AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TRENDS THAT WILL GAIN

INCREASING IMPORTANCE IN 2020
airlines to focus on the topic of Undoubtedly, this approach bears a much
sustainability and can also be utilized as a higher complexity. Additional data and data
sharp marketing instrument. sources are needed. Other calculation
functionalities are required. Nevertheless, it
AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI TREND 3: will be worth the effort from our point of
BENCHMARKING KPIS view.
The benchmarking approach certainly is Real-time competitor benchmarking
not new. However, when it comes to real- Just imagine monitoring your OTP in real-
time monitoring of operations KPIs, this time with your most important competitors,
approach hasn’t been exploited to its full comparing your delay minutes ratio at a
extent yet (or hasn’t been exploited at particular airport with other carriers at that
all).In 2019 we set up many A:Walls that airport. And so on. This bears a massive
focus on internal benchmarking — for potential.
example, benchmarking the essential KPIs Potential to identify weaknesses in
according to different fleet types, different comparison with your competitors, but also
traffic regions, or airline AOCs against potential for further improvement
each other. When looking into the “2020 measures — and therefore we definitely see
glass bowl,” we believe that this approach this as a huge airline operations trend in
will – and should – be extended to external 2020.
data.

Benchmark

44
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 10

USING TABLEAU AS YOUR AIRLINE

OPERATIONS REAL-TIME
DASHBOARD — 3 REASONS WHY
THIS ISN’T A GOOD IDEA.
KPI & DASHBOARD / 7 MIN READ

Let’s talk about the idea of using Tableau dashboard?”. When I was confronted with
as an airline operations (real-time) this question for the first time, I was really
dashboard. To make it clear right from the surprised. I had never made up my mind —
beginning: I love Tableau. Actually, I simply because I think that real-time
think Tableau has changed the way dashboards and Tableau are different
companies are approaching the world of solutions, addressing different problems
data analytics — tremendously and and different use cases.
sustainably. Tableau literally enabled Besides a wide variety of features Tableau
business departments to get in control of brings to the table, there are three aspects
their data. And Tableau paved the way for why — from my point of view — it doesn’t
data-driven improvements and make sense to use Tableau as an airline
enhancements. It filled the void between operations real-time dashboard. And to
Excel-limitations and database developers make this clear again: I don’t think that
and created the world of self-service this is because Tableau is missing specific
business intelligence. Moreover, I think features. It is because Tableau wasn’t built
because of the before mentioned, and the for this particular use case. Let’s take a
new possibilities Tableau is providing look at the details.
people start to think about how and where
they can utilize the tool. REASON 1 — ANALYTICS VS.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
TABLEAU AS AIRLINE OPERATIONS When taking a look at the Tableau website,
DASHBOARD — AN OFTEN ASKED one can quickly realize how Tableau
QUESTION positions itself: As end-to-end analytics
I guess that’s why – from time to time – platform. And Tableau offers a wide range
potential clients or people I talk to ask me, of functionalities, features, and strengths
“What about Tableau? Can’t we just use for this use case.
Tableau as a real-time operations

45
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 10

USING TABLEAU AS YOUR AIRLINE OPERATIONS REAL-TIME

DASHBOARD — 3 REASONS WHY THIS ISN’T A GOOD IDEA.

It’s all about combining data and drilling REASON 2 — REAL-TIME CALCULATION
down into the very details. It is about As mentioned in many other blog posts, an
identifying root causes and patterns. Or, to airline operations dashboard has to provide
get it straight: A tool to analyze a real-time data, information, and KPIs. It
company’s or airline’s vast amount of data. doesn’t make sense to show KPIs and
The main focus of an operations dashboard information of the last day or week only.
is quite contrary to the use cases Tableau Most of the benefits and advantages an
is aiming for. It is not about analysis and operations dashboard brings to the table
digging into the details. It aims to create are tightly linked to its real-time nature.Of
an unmatchable situational awareness. It course, Tableau is capable of dealing with
is about aggregating data, curating real-time data. Nonetheless, and similar to
information, and providing a reason 1, this is not the primary goal of
comprehensive view of what is happening Tableau. Therefore, the hurdles and
in your airline’s operations. challenges to use Tableau as a real-time
dashboard are immense.

Lufthansa’s operations real-time dashboard — Find out more!

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 10

USING TABLEAU AS YOUR AIRLINE OPERATIONS REAL-TIME

DASHBOARD — 3 REASONS WHY THIS ISN’T A GOOD IDEA.

We had discussions with airlines which As a negative effect, this can lead to
were trying to achieve that goal with situations where operations dashboards
Tableau and received very disillusioning show different values for the same KPIs.
feedback. Although it can be possible, it That means we agree on KPIs, its
won’t work out-of-the-box and requires calculation, its dimensions, its source data,
considerable effort. and ensure that these KPIs are shown
across all dashboards. This leads to the
REASON 3 — CERTIFIED CORPORATE situation that it doesn’t matter how
KPIS (mobile, screen, browser) and where
The last reason addresses the aspect of (operations control dashboard,
quality. In this context, one of the most management dashboard, etc.) you are
significant advantages of Tableau can turn using the dashboard — you’re always
out as a disadvantage. Especially when accessing the same certified KPIs.
using Tableau as an airline operations
dashboard. Tableau — and this is an SUMMARIZED — TABLEAU AS AIRLINE
unbelievable achievement — re-defined or OPERATION DASHBOARD
should I say, created the world of self- Tableau is a brilliant solution in terms of
service business intelligence. With Tableau business intelligence and analytics. It
every user, every business department can really changed the way businesses are
create reports, analyze data, and dealing with data and created entirely new
subsequently define KPIs. However, this approaches for self-service business
possibility inevitably leads to a intelligence. But, from our point of view,
decentralized creation of information. And the use case of a real-time operations
we’ve seen many airlines looking at an on- dashboard is different from the one
time performance KPI on five different Tableau is aiming for. Mainly due to the
Tableau dashboards, and every KPI showed aspects use case, real-time, and certified
a different value. Indeed, it is possible to KPIs.
establish data governance processes to
avoid such situations — but from
experience, I can tell you, this is really
tough work.

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 11

8 DEPARTMENTS/AREAS THAT
SHOULD USE AN AIRLINE
OPERATIONS KPI DASHBOARD.
KPI & DASHBOARD / 5 MIN READ

Airline Operations KPI Dashboards are a and cabin crew. This is a perfect place for
perfect tool to improve operations. They a large screen showing the current
provide an unmatched situational operational performance together with
awareness and the possibility to know KPIs and curated information. It helps the
what is going on in operations. With this crew already when starting their shift to
post, we want to share eight airline get a comprehensive overview of today’s
departments/areas which highly benefit operations and help them to the right
from an airline KPI dashboard. focus. I’ve personally worked with many
airlines which have equipped their crew
OPERATIONS CONTROL entry point with one or more screens to
Let’s start with the obvious one. show their current performance. And the
Operations Control or Network Control feedback they’ve received from flight and
certainly is the number one department cabin crew is always more than positive.
when it comes to operations KPI
dashboard. Although there are still OCC’s BRIEFING ROOMS
without any live dashboards and KPIs, an Besides the Crew Terminal, it is of great
increasing number of airlines start to benefit to equip crew briefing rooms with
equip their OCC’s with KPI dashboard. OCC KPI dashboards. Thus, the crew has the
directly benefits since they are the ones additional possibility to check current
who have to be aware of what is going on in operations, limitations, and performance
operations. And there’s no better tool to right before they start their shift or flight.
achieve that than an operations KPI In this context, it is often helpful to slightly
dashboard. narrow the information towards the
respective flight event — but still, a
CREW TERMINAL comprehensive overview is super useful at
Many airlines have a dedicated crew this stage.
terminal or specific entrance for flight

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 11

8 DEPARTMENTS/AREAS THAT SHOULD USE AN AIRLINE

OPERATIONS KPI DASHBOARD.

MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS & of course for this department.

MAINTENANCE STAFF
From my experience, I often observed that CUSTOMER CARE CENTER
maintenance is slightly separated from an The department, which is dealing with your
airline’s operations information flow. passengers, whenever problems or
Undoubtedly, it depends on the complaints occur. And I’ve personally seen
maintenance station and if maintenance is a lot of customer care centers which have
performed by your airline or by a 3rd party access to a lot of external information. They
provider. Nonetheless, especially at your have a news channel and weather channel.
most important bases or your hub, it Different newspapers and all of these
makes sense to equip your maintenance external stuff but what they are lacking is
provider with a reduced view on your access to real-time information about their
operations KPI dashboard. Of course, you operations. It definitely helps them to
don’t have to provide all detailed improve their way of communicating with
information — but a basic set helps them the customer because they know what is
to assess situations better and act going on within the airline within the
beneficially. operations. So you should definitely equip
your customer care center with a large TV
GROUND HANDLER STAFF ROOM screen or a Videowall. Or give them access
Similar to maintenance, especially at your in any other way to your real-time
most important bases or your hub, it dashboard and to real-time KPIs in order to
makes sense to equip your ground enable them to know what is going on and
handling provider with a reduced view on to be aware of the current situation.
your operations KPI dashboard.
MANAGEMENT & EXECUTIVE OFFICE
FLIGHT OPERATIONS Finally, you should definitely equip your
Flight Operations, which holds the executive offices with an operations KPI
accountability for all flights, should dashboard. Let them be aware of what is
undoubtedly be aware of what is happening happening.
right now. Detailed flight information and
KPIs should be a matter

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 12

HOW LONG IS THE TYPICAL

PROJECT DURATION TO SET UP AN
AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI
DASHBOARD?
KPI & DASHBOARD / 6 MIN READ

When discussing an A:Wall project with a Unsurprisingly, using an off-the-shelf

potential airline, it usually takes only 30 to product massively accelerates the
60 minutes until the question is asked: introduction of a KPI dashboard. On the
“How long does it take? What’s the other side, an in-house development most
estimated project duration to set up our often has to start from scratch. Therefore,
dashboard?”. It is, of course, an essential in many cases, it requires 6 to 12 months
question for airlines and a key aspect of until the first results are visible. This is at
whether to start a project or not. With this least what we have observed when
blog post, we want to answer the mystical discussing with airlines.
question of how long it takes to set up an
Airline Operations KPI dashboard. This timeframe depends on factors as:
Nonetheless, as you may imagine, the already existing IT infrastructure
general answer is “it depends.” But of required content and KPIs
course, we will narrow this down to give desired devices (mobile versions)
you a better feeling in terms of duration.
From discussions with airlines that went
IN-HOUSE VS. OFF-THE-SHELF — THE down this road, we know that it takes 12-
KEY DRIVER OF YOUR AIRLINE 24 months on average to have a final
DASHBOARD PROJECT DURATION product up-and-running.

First and foremost — and similar to other OFF-THE-SHELF PRODUCT

IT solutions — the most critical driver in Besides many other advantages, an off-
terms of project duration lies in the the-shelf product enables airlines to speed
decision whether to go for an in-house up the implementation process massively.
development or and off-the-shelf product, Nonetheless, there are still factors that
for example, the A: Wall. influence a project duration.

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HOW LONG IS THE TYPICAL PROJECT DURATION TO SET UP

AN AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI DASHBOARD?
Desired content the duration at all.
KPI dashboards solutions normally provide
a set of ready-to-use information and KPIs Devices
they are capable of displaying. With Off-the-shelf products should offer support
the A:Wall, for example, we offer more to all required devices, for example, large
than 100 KPIs an airline can select. screens, mobile, pads. Accordingly, this
However, if an airline requires additional doesn’t — or at least only slightly —
KPIs or content, this may have to be increases the project duration.
developed.
Design
Used systems Ready-to-use products usually come with a
KPI dashboard solutions usually offer defined visualization concept. Additionally,
standardized interfaces to standard IT many of them can customize the design
systems. The A:Wall, for example, has according to your airline’s design
standard interfaces too many operations requirements easily.
control systems (Sabre, AIMS, Netline,
etc.), passenger service systems KPI
(Amadeus), and many other conventional This is probably a massive advantage of off-
airline systems (SITA, ACARS, etc.). the-shelf products. You don’t have to take
Accordingly, these systems can be care of the definition and calculation of
connected in a blink-of-an-eye, whereas KPIs. Since this is a very time-consuming,
“non-standard” systems may take a few painful, and lengthy process, a ready-to-use
weeks longer. product can accelerate this enormously.

FACTORS THAT DOESN’T DRIVE THE WHAT DOES THAT ALL MEAN IN THE
PROJECT DURATION OF YOUR AIRLINE CONTEXT OF A SETUP DURATION?
DASHBOARD
The good news is that there are many From our experience, setting up an off-the-
aspects which are directly available when shelf KPI Solution shouldn’t take longer
going for an off-the-shelf product. than 3 months.
Therefore, these aspects don’t influence

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HOW LONG IS THE TYPICAL PROJECT DURATION TO SET UP

AN AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI DASHBOARD?

In case the project concentrates on only

one or two source systems, and you are
using standardized systems, the duration
should be shortened to 1-month
maximum.

Setting up an off-the-shelf solution

shouldn’t take longer than 1-3 months
until a first productive version is up-
and-running. When concentrating on
one source system the excercise
should be completed even quicker.

With the A: Wall, we usually can provide at

least a first version 2-4 weeks after
contract sign-off. And bear mind, in this
case, we are talking about a fully-fledged
version on different devices.

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 THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 13

THE 3 MOST ESSENTIAL SOURCE

SYSTEMS YOU SHOULD CONNECT TO
SET UP A BLASTING AIRLINE
OPERATIONS KPI DASHBOARD
KPI & DASHBOARDS / 6 MIN READ

An Airline Operations KPI Dashboard is With this post, we want to shed some light
just as good as the data it is receiving. on this topic and explain why you only need
Since everyone is aware of this fact, one three systems to set up blasting airline
question comes up very early in every operations dashboard. Yes, that’s right:
dashboard project: “Which systems are Three systems are all you need to operate
required?” or “Which system do we need to a sophisticated operations KPI dashboard.
connect?”. When discussing this question a And I’d even go one step further and tell
little bit further, it always turns out that you that it is sufficient to start with one
connecting source systems or building system only. In fact, that’s how we
interfaces is a topic that worries project approach our A:Wall projects with airlines.
managers. Why’s that? Because the Usually, we start with one single system.
airline’s project manager is facing But with this single system, we’re already
uncertainty in this context. Assumptions able to present a dashboard packed with
we then often hear are: exciting information and KPIs.
Setting up interfaces is time-consuming
and complex AIRLINE DASHBOARD SYSTEM NUMBER
I’m sure we need to connect ten or 1: OPERATIONS CONTROL SYSTEM
more systems The most crucial system you need to
I’m not sure if our systems are capable operate your Airline Operations Dashboard
of delivering the data is your Operations Control System.
We have to find out where to get this Whether you are using Sabre Movement
data from Manager, AIMS, or Netline Ops++ — the
Isn’t it complicated to set up such operations control system contains a broad
interfaces range of data you’ll need for your
etc. operations dashboard.

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THE 3 MOST ESSENTIAL SOURCE SYSTEMS YOU SHOULD

CONNECT TO SET UP A BLASTING AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI
DASHBOARD

Basic flight information, scheduled and On the one hand, you can provide lots off
actual times, passengers, delays, additional information:
operational issues — it’s all contained in
your operations control system. Gate information
Position information
That’s why definitely you should start by Connecting passengers
connecting this system. Connecting information
Check-in information
With the data usually contained in the Additional timestamps
operations control system, you can already Weight & Balance information (partially)
present a wide variety of information and And so on…
calculate many KPIs:
And again, on the other hand, you are also
Punctuality able to calculate several other KPIs, for
Stability example, the misconnex ratio, lost baggage
Flights index, connecting time issues, etc.
Number of Passengers Connecting the passenger service system
Cancellation rate shows a slightly higher benefit for hub
And so on... airlines.

PASSENGER SERVICE SYSTEM / MAINTENANCE PLANNING & CONTROL

RESERVATION SYSTEM SYSTEM
If you want to take your airline operations To gain a comprehensive overview of your
dashboard to the next level, you should operations on your airline KPI dashboard,
connect your Passenger Service System in you should connect your Maintenance
a second step. Most common systems in Control System in a third step. Many
this context are Sabre, Travelport, or Alteá airlines have started using AMOS, which I
from Amadeus. With the data contained in can consider as pretty much standard in the
those systems, you can massively enrich world of Maintenance Planning and Control.
your dashboard content.

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THE 3 MOST ESSENTIAL SOURCE SYSTEMS YOU SHOULD

CONNECT TO SET UP A BLASTING AIRLINE OPERATIONS KPI
DASHBOARD

With connecting AMOS (or any other

Maintenance Control System), you can
display information about checks and
calculate insightful additional KPIs:

How many checks have been planned

for today?
How many checks occur unplanned?
Number of AOGs?
How’s the event punctuality?
Reserve utilization
And so on…

SUMMARIZED — THE MOST IMPORTANT

AIRLINE OPERATIONS DASHBOARD
SYSTEMS
From our experience with setting up
Airline Operations KPI dashboards, we’ve
seen that connecting these three types of
systems enables airlines to get a whole
new awareness of their operations. When
looking at our KPI catalog, which
comprises roughly 100 KPIs at the
moment, around 80% can be realized by
connecting the above mentioned three
systems.

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 14

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AIRLINE’S

ON-TIME PERFORMANCE IN 30 DAYS
WITHOUT SPENDING SEVERAL
HUNDRED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
KPI & DASHBOARD / 7 MIN READ

On-time performance (punctuality) is looking at before mentioned numbers, it

probably the number quality indicator for seems like a massive portion of
an airline (except safety aspects). And a the money spent was money wasted.
quality indicator that affects your
passengers massively. However, many With this blog post, I will show you a way to
airlines still struggle to improve their OTP improve your on-time performance —
or maintain it on a high level. sustainability, without investing several
hundred thousand dollars, and have first
According to recent numbers from OAG, results within 30 days.
only 4 airlines are operating with an OTP
>= 90%. WELCOME REAL-TIME
The key to this improvement lies in setting
But almost 70% of all airlines analyzed up and utilizing real-time key performance
performing with an OTP below 80%. indicator. Real-time data that shows you
your OTP, stability, seat-load-factor,
No doubt, there are many factors standby crew, etc. — at this very moment.
influencing the OTP, and not all of them This information has to be available for
are under your airline’s control. Moreover, everybody involved in your operations.
airlines have been investing a considerable Your operations controller, your
amount of money in improving their OTP. dispatcher, operations management,
Investments to enhance operational ground staff, flight crew, any some more.
processes, acquire new IT systems, or Available on large screens in control or
increasing workforce. Indeed, some of the meeting rooms available on tablets or
investments paid off with a slightly smartphones. You may ask: Really? That’s
increased OTP. Nevertheless, when it? That is going to improve my OTP?

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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AIRLINE’S ON-TIME PERFORMANCE

IN 30 DAYS WITHOUT SPENDING SEVERAL HUNDRED
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
Actually, yes. But of course, I’m going to How should they be able to control and
tell you why. improve the influencing factors without
knowing the current performance? Again,
BETTER DECISIONS AND IMPROVED ON- this is simply not possible. To improve the
TIME PERFORMANCE BASED ON REAL- OTP in daily operations and manage in real-
TIME FACTS time, your staff needs to be aware of your
In operations, every minute counts. Taking key performance indicators.
a decision too late or making a decision
based on wrong/outdated information REAL-TIME KEY DISRUPTION INDICATORS
directly lead to reduced performance and FOR AN IMPROVED ON-TIME
reduced OTP. PERFORMANCE
Aberdeen research shows the use of real- Key Disruption Indicators are those factors
time dashboards facilitates better which directly impact the on-time
decision-making. performance of your airline. Think about
As analyzed over the last two years, real- standby crew availability, ground time
time dashboard users have improved their sufficiency, gate or runway utilization — to
time-to-decision at a rate 2.5 times name a few. These factors are crucial for
greater than those who don’t use your OTP. And again, you need to be aware
dashboards. of those Key Disruption Indicators in real-
Imagine: A decision which previously took time to pro-actively initiate mitigation
you 10 minutes now made in 4 minutes — measures. A pro-active activation of
and additionally, will be based on real-time additional standby crews, for example, will
information. directly avoid delayed departures due to the
lack of standby crews.
MANAGE YOUR AIRLINE IN REAL-TIME
I’m sure you read that 100 times before: AWARENESS & GOAL-ORIENTED AIRLINE
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. We love to reach goals, don’t we? And trying
Accordingly, how should your staff be able to achieve or finally achieving the goals in
to improve OTP in day-to-day operations, terms of punctuality boosts the motivation
without knowing the current OTP? This is of your staff.
simply not possible.

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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AIRLINE’S ON-TIME PERFORMANCE

IN 30 DAYS WITHOUT SPENDING SEVERAL HUNDRED
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS

However, there’s pitfall — and this one SUMMING IT UP

again is psychological: Cause and impact. From working with airlines of all sizes,
To ultimately boost an employee’s we’ve seen that the above aspects
motivation, it is essential to directly show immediately and directly show results — or
the effect (of course, with real-time KPIs). in other words, direct help to improve the
Although the human brain is brilliant in on-time performance of your airline.
many ways, it lacks potential to bring Of course, a particular investment is
together cause and effect — at least if not necessary to provide real-time KPIs and
directly and timely linked (think about junk real-time information. But compared to
food: We all know that junk food is not many other measures, this is a
healthy, but since the result is far in the minimal investment.
future we underestimate that).
Additionally, it’s prevalent that people
underestimate their impact on the overall
success of a company / airline. “I’m just a
ramp agent; if I’m five minutes late, it
won’t have an impact.” That’s because
employees don’t know the big picture
(which is actually not their fault). By
providing both specific and overall real-
time KPIs for every area, every employee
can assess how they are impacting the
whole process — and I’m starting to repeat
myself — that will additionally motivate.

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 15

WHAT'S UNDER THE SURFACE OF AN

AIRLINE REAL-TIME DASHBOARD?
5 COMPONENTS YOU MIGHT NOT
EXPECT
KPI & DASHBOARD / 10 MIN READ

With many of my blog posts, I focus on the able to unleash the full potential and
aspect of content and visualization instead utilize all functionalities.
of talking about the backend components
that are required to drive an airline LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT IS UNDER
dashboard. THE SURFACE.
This certainly is important, since the two On a higher level, we divide the backend
elements ultimately reflect the business ecosystem for an airline dashboard into
benefits. Moreover, a huge proportion of five essential components. The com-
our clients —or a considerable proportion ponents are seamlessly and perfectly
of our client’s users to be more precise— integrated and use a standardized XML-
are predominantly interested in the driven data object model.
visualization of their real-time dashboard.
What kind of KPIs are displayed? Which Airline Dashboard Component 1: Data Hub
visualization forms are used? Etc. The data hub reflects a dedicated
integration component that mainly serves
However, the type of information, data, and two tasks. First of all, it connects the
KPIs that are finally visualized are only the client’s source systems. Therefore, the
icing on the cake. Especially in case an Data Hub provides ready-to-use standard
airline dashboard is more than just a interfaces for many of common airline
visualization of one data source and systems, for example:
provides functions beyond a simple KPI Sabre
dashboard, a sophisticated backend with Amadeus Altéa Suite (FM, CM, DCS)
several components is required. Netline
Additionally, when discussing the usage of ACARS
the A:Wall with clients, it is of immense AMOS
importance to understand the backend etc.
ecosystem and components to be

60
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 15

WHAT'S UNDER THE SURFACE OF AN AIRLINE REAL-TIME

DASHBOARD? 5 COMPONENTS YOU MIGHT NOT EXPECT.

Furthermore, a whole bunch of message Basic airport information

protocols are supported, for example, Standard delay costs
Apache ActiveMQ, Apache Qpid, S/FTP, etc.
HTTP/S, IBM Websphere MQ, SMTP, SOAP, On the other hand, the airline can maintain
STOMP, TIBCO EMS, and many more. airline-specific master data. As a valuable
The other core functionality of the Data side-effect, the airline can use the Master
Hub is in integrating data into standardized Data Services not only in the context of the
XML objects, that build the internal A:Wall but also for other solutions within
communication base. Objects cover the airline’s IT landscape.
different entities of airline operations, for
example flight leg, connex, weather, and Airline Dashboard Component 3: Data
so on. Warehouse
Summarized the Data Hub connects all The data warehouse reflects the component
relevant sources, processes, and enriches we consider as the heart of our
data. infrastructure. The Warehouse contains
different layers, each serving a different
Airline Dashboard Component 2: Master purpose. Some important are:
Data Services Archive Layer
Besides dynamic data that is pushed by an The layer that is responsible for archiving
airline’s operational systems, we provide all incoming data the Data Hub provides.
the possibility to use Master Data Services Together with a transformation layer,
as an additional component. Therefore, we received objects are stored in a —mainly—
operate a dedicated master data relational data model. Subsequently, clients
system. Master Data Services are usually use the results of this layer to access
used in two ways. On the one hand, the archive data with 3rd party BI tools, for
services already include a vast amount of example, Tableau or PowerBI. Moreover,
ready-to-use master data, for example: the archived data is used as a fundament
Time zones for further layers.
Country information Aggregation Layer
The aggregation layer is an essential layer
when it comes to enhanced analytics but

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WHAT'S UNDER THE SURFACE OF AN AIRLINE REAL-TIME

DASHBOARD? 5 COMPONENTS YOU MIGHT NOT EXPECT.

also KPI calculation. Within the The Notification Service is tightly linked to
aggregation layer, dimensions are applied the Data Warehouse since the Warehouse
to relevant data (duration, traffic areas, constantly pushes KPI values to the
operator, etc.). As a result, the layer Notification Service.
provides various OLAP cubes.
Index Layer Airline Dashboard Component 5: Event
The index layer —simplified— counts KPIs Service
within dimensional contexts. Thus, Similar to the Notification Service, the Event
providing the ultimate result to display Service isn’t primarily required to calculate
KPIs on the A:Wall. KPIs but brings additional benefits to the
table. The Event Service receives the
As mentioned, the above list of layers isn’t complete and integrated data set from the
complete, but gives a first overview of a Data Hub. Based on client-defined rules,
sophisticated warehouse system, ran the collected data is processed, and in case
behind the A:Wall. a state is matched, an event is pushed to a
queue or sent out.
Airline Dashboard Component 4:
Notification Service Sounds theoretical, so let’s give you a
The Notification Service is an additional practical example: Let’s say your airline
component. It isn’t required to calculate focusses on premium / first-class
and display KPIs but adds further value to passengers. Most likely, you are operating a
the complete ecosystem. The Notification department that takes care of these
Service is a rule-based component that passengers. But that requires the
constantly analysis KPIs. Based on defined department to be correctly informed about
rules —again XML-driven— the service what is happening in operations.
recognizes if KPIs change over a specified And here the Eventer comes in. For many
period. In case a state is fulfilled, the clients, we have connected several systems,
service actively sends out a push for example, their operations control
notification to mobiles or smart-watches system, passenger system, ACARS, and so
(for example, OTP drops by 2% within 30 on. Since the Event Service is receiving all
minutes). that data, one can define a

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WHAT'S UNDER THE SURFACE OF AN AIRLINE REAL-TIME

DASHBOARD? 5 COMPONENTS YOU MIGHT NOT EXPECT.

rule “If an ETA for a flight received that

indicates a delay (compared to the STA)
AND first-class passengers are on-board,
AND some of the first-class passengers
have a connecting flight AND (due to the
delay) the connecting time for these
passengers isn’t sufficient an event is
pushed/sent out”.
I think you get the point. In easier words,
the Event Service processes incoming data
from various sources checks according to
rules and pushes events.

Summarized
I hope that post can give you a brief
overview of what is happening underneath
the surface of an airline dashboard and
which components can be applied. Indeed,
you don’t need such a sophisticated
infrastructure in case you just want to
visualize some KPIs. Nevertheless, with
our product, we want to add additional
value and go beyond KPIs. Therefore, it is
essential to operate seamless and well-
oiled components that enrich the value of
an airline dashboard.

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THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE - ARTICLE 16

TWO FUNDAMENTAL
TECHNOLOGICAL MISTAKES
AIRLINES ARE DOING AND WHY THEY
ARE MISSING A BIG OPPORTUNITY
INNOVATION / 8 MIN READ

This article is a summary of the Back in those days, we tried to improve the
discussions I had during the last weeks on-time performance, increase the
and months with colleagues from airlines efficiency of processes, and ultimately
— talks about how they currently use aimed for improved customer satisfaction.
technology and how they want to use it in However, when comparing today’s
the future. And based on that, two technological possibilities to the ones in
fundamental technological mistakes many the ’00s, literally everything has changed.
of them are doing from my perspective — Most of the airlines possess more data
mistakes that will lead to vulnerability and than they can work with. New technical
competitive disad-vantages. Since I have solutions are available and the today’s
the feeling that this topic is both relevant possibilities of the internet have changed
and similar to many airlines, I want to everything.
share the thoughts I’ve articulated during
the discussions. The two fundamental technological
mistakes I observe airlines are doing right
Let’s go back 15 years in time now
But let’s take a step back first: When I So far, so good — here we go with the two
started to work in the airline industry more fundamental mistakes I observed when
than 15 years ago, the world was different. discussing today’s tech world and
Data still was a rare good (and by the way opportunities, especially with mid-sized
expensive to store too). The internet was airlines. And to mention that right at the
nothing compared to today. And we used to beginning, the two mistakes go hand-in-
work with mainframe systems or Excel 98 hand. They literally fuel each other.
to analyze data and create reports. Anyhow
—and that is quite interesting— the
challenges an airline is tackling haven’t
changed largely.

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TWO FUNDAMENTAL TECHNOLOGICAL MISTAKES AIRLINES

ARE DOING AND WHY THEY ARE MISSING A BIG
OPPORTUNITY.
Work as they did 20 years ago Don’t get me wrong; I’m absolutely
The first problem I see is that —despite the convinced about the power and impact AI,
fact that airlines are drowning in data— machine learning, and all the other stuff
they very often try to handle data like they has to our everyday life.
did 20 years ago. Nonetheless, I’ve only met a few people that
In so many cases, Excel still is the tool to really deeply understand these topics and
use. And in many cases, the results are are capable of creating real business
then transferred to Powerpoint to finally benefits out of it.
prepare PDFs that are sent out to relevant That’s why I’m always surprised when I
stakeholders. present our solutions to potential clients,
And I already can hear some of you saying, and the first question I get is, “are you
“wait, we no longer use Excel but moved to utilizing AI or predictive analytics with your
Tableau or PowerBI.” solution?”
That’s correct, but the thing is that you My answer to this might be a bit offensive,
might have changed the tool; however, only but I always use the following analogy:
a small portion of airlines have changed Look, if I used to be a car manufacturer,
the way they approach data. why should I start selling spaceships to
people that are only capable of riding a
Overvaluing things they don’t understand bike?
That brings me to the second funda-
mental mistake: Airlines (and actually The technological opportunity airlines are
people in general) overvalue things they missing
don’t understand. Working like in the ’00s and overvaluing the
benefits of future technologies will lead to
What does that mean? the results that you are missing a big
Although the approach to tackle data opportunity. The opportunities today’s
hasn’t massively changed, many of them technology is offering. And there are so
want to leapfrog the process and overvalue many low-hanging fruits that can directly
the benefits of tomorrow’s technologies: lead to business benefits and competitive
AI, predictive analytics, machine learning, advantages.
and so on.

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UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF KPI

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
INNOVATION / 7 MIN READ

There’s one thing I’m thrilled about most possibility to identify problems right when
at the moment. I’m literally pumped and they happen.
pushing our developers to bring that thing I am a huge fan of the real-time KPI
to life. dashboard, which is evident since we are
What’s that thing I’m talking about? It’s offering a solution precisely for this use
called Key Performance Indicator (KPI) case.
push notifications. And many of our clients achieved great
From my point of view, this approach has results and have massively improved their
the power to completely change the way level of situational awareness when it
you work with KPIs. With this article, I’m comes to airline operations. The only
going to introduce that approach to you, disadvantage of real-time KPIs and real-
and I really want you to understand the time dashboards I’ve always felt is the fact
enormous potential it holds. that you continuously have to monitor the
information and KPIs.
But let’s first take a look at how dealing And don’t get me wrong: That definitely
with operations KPIs is handled today. does not mean that real-time dashboards
Most of you have daily, weekly, or monthly aren’t of high value. But it means that real-
reports to check the operational time dashboards have to be considered as
performance of your airline. “pull-information.” You have to look at the
And —hopefully— some of you already took panel. You have to monitor it.
the next step and transformed into real-
time KPI tracking. Relying on real-time Based on that fact, we started to think
KPIs for many airlines reflects a about a solution that liberates you from
considerable step towards improved constant monitoring. A solution that
performance. Instead of ex-post analysis, informs you whenever KPIs change.
real-time monitoring of KPIs gives you the

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KPI Push Notifications are solving exactly KPI Push Notifications changes the way you
this problem approach information
So what’s behind that idea? As mentioned at the beginning of this
Push notifications are the notifications that article, this approach completely changes
pop up on your tablet, mobile, or how you approach KPIs.
smartwatches. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen Instead of constantly monitoring your real-
and you are already using them, for time KPIs, you can be sure to get informed
example, for your favorite newspaper or whenever something tremendous happens.
other apps on your mobile.
And even better: You get notified exactly on
So what we did here at Information Design the device you are currently using:
was to develop an entirely new component You’re in a meeting and using an iPad ->
within our cloud-based dashboard Push notifications pop up on your iPad.
infrastructure. You’re at the airport and checking your
A component that continually checks the emails on your mobile -> Push
KPIs we are calculating for our clients. notification pops up on your mobile.
Additionally, we set up a rule-driven You’re working out at the gym and only
engine to identify changes that matter to wearing your smartwatch -> Push
our clients. notification pops up on your smartwatch.
Now, whenever a rule matches, the
component sends out a push notification to It’s no longer about pulling information
relevant stakeholders of the airline, I firmly believe that this approach will
informing them about the situation. sustainably change the way we work with
To give you an example: By using rules, an real-time KPIs. It’s no longer about pulling
airline can define to send out push information from dashboards but about
notification in case the on-time perfor- getting actively alerted, actively pushed
mance (OTP) drops by 2% within 60 when something happens. Certainly, real-
minutes, or the number of cancellations is time dashboards still have the right to exist,
2% greater than yesterday’s cancellations. and there are many use cases where

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UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF KPI PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

the dashboard makes sense. So I don’t

consider push notifications as a
replacement of dashboards and reports.
Not at all.

Push Notifications are adding additional

values
Conversely, I think push notifications are
adding additional value to KPIs.
They provide the possibility to provide
every person, every stakeholder with
precisely the information they need.
Moreover, they receive the information
only when it’s relevant to them.

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PEOPLE BEHIND THE EBOOK

BENJAMIN
WALTHER
CEO
WRITER

LARISSA
SCHUESTERL
MARKETING
MANAGER
CREATOR
THE DEFINITIVE AIRLINE OPERATIONS & KPI GUIDE

INFORMATION DESIGN ONE AG

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Questions?
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