When discussing this question a little bit further, it always turns out that connecting source systems or building interfaces is a topic that worries project managers.
Why’s that? Because the airline’s project manager is facing uncertainty in this context. Assumptions we then often hear are:
- Setting up interfaces is time-consuming and complex
- I’m sure we need to connect ten or more systems
- I’m not sure if our systems are capable of delivering the data
- We have to find out where to get this data from
- Isn’t it complicated to set up such interfaces
- etc.
With this post, we want to shed some light on this topic and explain why you only need three systems to set up blasting airline operations dashboard.
Yes, that’s right: Three systems are all you need to operate a sophisticated operations KPI dashboard. And I’d even go one step further and tell you that it is sufficient to start with one system only.
In fact, that’s how we approach our aWall projects with airlines. Usually, we start with one single system. But with this single system, we’re already able to present a dashboard packed with exciting information and KPIs.
Airline Dashboard System Number 1: Operations Control System
The most crucial system you need to operate your Airline Operations Dashboard is your Operations Control System.
Whether you are using Sabre Movement Manager, AIMS, or Netline Ops++ — the operations control system contains a broad range of data you’ll need for your operations dashboard.
Basic flight information, scheduled and actual times, passengers, delays, operational issues — it’s all contained in your operations control system.
That’s why definitely you should start by connecting this system.
With the data usually contained in the operations control system, you can already present a wide variety of information and calculate many KPIs:
- Punctuality
- Stability
- Flights
- Number of Passengers
- Cancellation rate
- and so on.
Passenger Service System / Reservation System
If you want to take your airline operations dashboard to the next level, you should connect your Passenger Service System in a second step.
Most common systems in this context are Sabre, Travelport, or Alteá from Amadeus.
With the data contained in those systems, you can massively enrich your dashboard content. On the one hand, you can provide lots off additional information:
- Gate information
- Position information
- Connecting passengers
- Connecting information
- Check-in information
- Additional timestamps
- Weight & Balance information (partially)
- And so on…
And again, on the other hand, you are also able to calculate several other KPIs, for example, the misconnex ratio, lost baggage index, connecting time issues, etc.
Connecting the passenger service system shows a slightly higher benefit for hub airlines.
Maintenance Planning & Control System
To gain a comprehensive overview of your operations on your airline KPI dashboard, you should connect your Maintenance Control System in a third step.
Many airlines have started using AMOS, which I can consider as pretty much standard in the world of Maintenance Planning and Control.
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.
