Exceptional situations as the one we are facing right now with Corona have a very interesting characteristic: They expose problems and accelerate innovations. We currently see this a lot in airline operations. I’ve talked to many people from airlines all over the globe in the last weeks and months. I did that because I wanted…
After almost two months of lockdown, you’ve probably read that statement a dozen times “The world after COVID-19 won’t be the same,” and the world we knew is perhaps never going to return. Of course, no one knows how exactly the post-COVID world will be. However, when looking at the airline business, there are several…
As airlines take care of their passengers, airports must also focus on taking care of the travelers’ experience. Today, I want to share with you five passenger-oriented KPIs that airports should implement to guarantee the clients’ satisfaction. Now we can say there’s a thin line within airport KPIs and airline KPIs in terms of ground…
The golden age of airlines! Probably that’s how we’re going to call the period from 2014 – 2019 in a few years. Years, in which many airlines operated at relatively high-profit margins. Of course, we witnessed the bankruptcies of airlines during that time. However, from my point of view, most of them were related to…
Very unusual blog post today, but I really wanted to share that idea and concept with you. Every crisis holds the potential for new ideas, changes, and disruptions. You may have listened to my latest podcast where I, as an example, discuss the impact of COVID-19 on airline operations, KPIs, and so on. Bound to…
I was excited when I recently read about a briefing McKinsey did a few days ago. During that briefing, McKinsey’s senior executives provided an update on the current situation, but they also provided some valuable advice. So what did they say? They suggested that companies should focus their crisis management on three pillars — or…
This time I had to run the Q&A session on my own. Unfortunately, due to Corona and related measures, my colleague Larissa and I couldn’t team up this time. Good news: Larissa has been collecting your questions over the last weeks and selected seven of them. The questions cover various topics of airline, data and…
Let’s kick-off this blog post with a simple question: How aware are you of your airline’s turnaround process? I’m pretty sure that most of you answer that question with the confidence to know how a turnaround works. Moreover, it even sounds like a trivial question to you. However, when moving away from a generic level…
Discussions about aviation fuel software are most often focused on functional aspects. Indeed, the functional spectrum of an aviation fuel software is essential. However, there’s one aspect that is even more important than having the fanciest functionality: The network effect! The network effect is so unbelievably powerful. Unfortunately and surprisingly, at the same time the…
There’s probably no other industry that has been hit by COVID-19 as hard as the airline industry. Times are tough like they’ve never been for airlines. Aircraft are grounded, flight schedules are operated at a minimum and many airlines shut down their operations even completely. It might feel strange and optimistic, but I’m totally convinced…
Our blog post ‘Why your airline KPIs have to be adaptable to specific situations’, was an ‘appetizer’ on why airlines should migrate to dynamic and flexible dashboards and KPIs — not only in crisis time. Today, I want to go into detail with some specific ideas and visualization design examples of how airlines could adapt their…
Many people ask me why I mainly focus on airlines with my blog posts and don’t write about airports or other aviation-enterprises when it comes to KPIs and dashboards? Undoubtedly, airlines make out the most significant part of our clients. Additionally, I worked on many more airlines than airport projects and therefore feel more comfortable…
Dynamic dashboards are clearly nothing new. I remember when I was sitting together with my team end of 2019. Every December we take a look back but also discuss future dashboard trends. Already at the point, there was one thing that absolutely clear to me and the entire team. Dynamic dashboards and KPIs will gain…
Many airlines lately reported that Corona massively decreases the value of their KPI dashboard. Since this is isn’t surprising for me, I want to do two things today. First, I am going to share some reasons why Corona impacts your airline dashboard. And second, I’ll provide a concept of how to react. Corona Challenged Us…
Almost every airline I know is using some kind of fuel management software. This is quite logical. On the one hand, fuel still represents a huge cost factor for airlines. On the other hand, there’s a whole bunch of fuel management software available on the market. And every fuel management software aims for different goals…
Today, you’re going to learn about the best information visualizations for your airline KPI dashboard. In fact, these are proven chart types that our customers use within aWall. To overwatch departure and arrival punctuality. To handle passenger misconnection. Or even to rule maintenance. And I should point something out: We might start with some generic…
Fuel costs still represent the main cost driver for airlines. This hasn’t changed over the last decades. Nonetheless, during the last three to five years, cost-saving programs weren’t a top priority — at least for many airlines. Indeed, many airlines ran efficiency programs and aimed to deliver the product at competitive prices. However, the focus…
Today I had another great session, when I sat together with my colleague, Larissa, to answer, this time, 9 questions she has been receiving from you. We’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of questions we have been receiving and really humbled to be able to provide additional value to you. So please, keep sending us…
I’m genuinely convinced that airlines need new KPI dashboard solutions. And I’m pretty sure that the title of this blog post may confuse you. Am I not the one who runs a company that develops airline dashboards? Am I not the one who continuously pushes the importance of real-time dashboards and KPIs? Absolutely correct. It’s…
I genuinely believe that we have to change the way we discuss airline operation information and KPIs. We have to move from purely content-based to a “getting-the-attention” discussion. Let me explain that step-by-step. When talking to colleagues from airlines —regardless of their business department, role, and position— everyone agrees on the fact that the technological…
For the first time ever, we’ve produced a massive content piece — the “Definitive Airline Operations & KPI Guide.” The document contains more than 17 of our most-viewed blog posts, plus unpublished material that will help to improve your airline’s operations. So, if you prefer a well-curated document instead of browsing through a blog, or…
Today I had a great session, when I sat together with my colleague, Larissa, to answer 8 questions she has been receiving from you. Actually the first time we did such a Q&A session and it was a fantastic experience. We’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of questions we have been receiving and really humbled…
Having an app to access operations key performance indicators (KPI) is one of the most important things for airlines nowadays. I’m actually not getting tired to spread that word. And to tell airlines why it is so super-important. Unfortunately, many airlines still rely on old-school solutions when it comes to KPIs. Instead of a KPI…
We all can agree that mobile KPI apps are no longer a nice-to-have for airlines. On the contrary, mobile KPI apps have become an essential pillar for many airlines regarding operations monitoring. However, there’s one thing that is exciting to me even more at the moment — although it is tightly linked to mobile KPI…
This blog post is a summary of the discussions I had during the last weeks and months with colleagues from airlines — talks about how they currently use technology and how they want to use it in the future. And based on that, two fundamental technological mistakes many of them are doing from my perspective…
With many of my blog posts, I focus on the aspect of the content and visualization aspects of airline dashboard software. However, this represents only one part of the airline dashboard software. There’s a second part that is probably even more important. And this is about the software components you need to set up an…
For a long time, Master Data Management had the image of the most boring topic in the entire world. Thankfully, it seems like this has started to change. Both, Master Data Management in general and Master Data Management Tools are becoming increasingly essential for companies! Master Data Management Tools — Let’s Have A Look At…
Especially for hub-and-spoke airlines, passenger (connection) management reflects a crucial aspect of their airline operations. Moreover, many passengers consider a seamless and stress-free connection as one of the essential quality indicators of an airline. Passenger Connection Management — One Of The Most Complex Airline Processes However, passenger management also reflects one of the most complex…
Operations Control Systems (Sabre Movement Manager, Netline, etc.) reflect a crucial data source when it comes to setting up an airline real-time dashboard. Certainly, there many other systems you could and should connect to a real-time dashboard. However, after having set up dozens of dashboard I can give you one thing for granted: It always…
Let me nail it down right at the beginning: Whatever benefits there might be, master data management (or MDM) does not exactly have the image of being super sexy. Many companies consider master data management as an administrative act. Simply required but without any benefits. But is that really all about it? No, it’s not.…
Providing iPad (or tablet) versions of your airline dashboard to your executive team is essential these days. However, we all know that executives —for good reasons— have specific requirements. Usually, they travel a lot, have minimal time, and have to be perfectly informed about their company’s performance. From our experience, we’ve observed that in most…
Nobody likes failed projects. The same applies for airline dashboard projects. There are only a few things that are more demotivating than putting lots of effort, time, and brain into a project that finally fails. Unfortunately, I also had to witness airline dashboard projects that failed in my career. And since these projects typically have…
It was definitely pretty tough to select only ten reasons why airlines need an operational real-time dashboard. But I accepted the challenge. With this blog post, I’ll give you ten reasons. Ten reasons why you should use an airline operations real-time dashboard. But no worries, this is not a spammy sales-post. But a post that…
Airline Operations KPI Dashboards are a perfect tool to improve operations. They provide an unmatched situational awareness and the possibility to know what is going on in operations. I talk to lots of guys from airlines about real-time operations dashboards. Thus, I can learn about people’s perceptions and dogmas when it comes to dashboards. Talking…
The design of an airline dashboard reflects one of the three essential “D-pillars” when it comes to dashboards: Data, (KPI) Definition & Design. And also design isn’t the complex part I’d rate it as toughest. Why’s that? Contrary to data and KPI definition, everybody has a taster for design. Nonetheless, personal taste should never drive…
Every airline operations dashboard is only as good as the content it provides. This, actually, is not very surprising. However, I’ve seen many dashboards that doesn’t provide much value when it comes to the contained content. Nonetheless, I’ve set up a whole bunch of airline dashboards during the last years. Dashboards for all types of airlines:…
Just a few years ago, providing information on mobiles was considered top-notch. Users were happy with the ability to monitor information and updates from wherever they are and whenever they want. Same applied for airline operations dashboard and KPIs. Although this hasn’t changed completely, today, users expect much more from an app than just the…
When we started to develop our solution to support Electronic Airplane Fuel Processes (eFueling platform), we had a clear vision. Together with our launching customer Lufthansa, we wanted to digitize an airline’s entire airplane fuel process. When we started this journey, we had many discussions. With representatives from Lufthansa, many other airlines, but also additional…
Fuel costs are one of the most significant cost factors of airlines. According to IATA, the airline industry’s fuel bill is estimated to have totaled $188 billion in 2019. That means fuel expenses account for almost 25% of an airline’s operating expenses. For decades airlines have been trying to reduce costs by applying various measures:…
eFueling stands and falls with connected airports. You can operate a best-in-class eFueling solution — as long as you don’t manage to connect a considerable amount of destination airports to your solution, the effort won’t pay off. Conversely, with every airport, you get to connect to your eFueling solution, the benefits will rapidly increase. However,…
Airline Operations KPI Dashboards are such great tools to create an enterprise-wide situational awareness. First and foremost, these dashboards are about visualizing KPIs. For example, on-time performance, regularity, or misconnex ratio. Secondly, it is about real-time information and details about upcoming flights, ground events, etc. Most of the airlines I know focus on those aspects…
The primary use case of an airline operations real-time dashboard is about visualizing information an 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…
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…
Content is king — and content reflects one of the crucial aspects of an airline operations dashboard. Actually, the entire success of an airline operations dashboard is tightly linked to connected data sources and shown content. Initially, Airlines Focus On Internal Data When Setting Up An Operations Dashboard Nowadays, almost every airline possesses a vast…
With one of our recent blog posts, we presented the KPI Trends that will gain importance in 2020. The article addresses aspects like dynamic dashboards or benchmarking KPIs. Today we want to focus on upcoming technological trends that —from our point of view— will play an important role in 2020. Probably not surprising, each of…
One of the most asked questions we receive is built around the topic of savings that can be achieved by using airline real-time operations dashboards. In our latest blog post, we already discussed the financial effort of setting up and operating an airline operations real-time dashboard. However, we did not cover the aspect of saving…
In one of our last airline dashboard blog posts, I mentioned that a question that is usually raised within 30-60 minutes of an initial meeting with potential clients is “how long does it take to implement the aWall?” The aWall is our real-time dashboard solution. And besides discussing the functionality and visuals, potential clients are…
With this blog post, we give you a quick overview of the essential airline maintenance information that should be visualized on your operations dashboard. Although we like to call it airline operations dashboard, the content shouldn’t be limited purely to flight operations information. Conversely, a perfect dashboard combines information from different sources/areas, curates them, and…
The idea of airline operations KPIs more and more attracts airlines. Many of them have started to track KPIs regularly or even in real-time. However, a considerable proportion of airlines concentrate on “traditional” KPIs, for example, punctuality, stability, etc. Don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with that. Conversely, we encourage and empower airlines to…
Let’s talk about the idea of using Tableau as an airline operations (real-time) dashboard. To make it clear right from the beginning: I love Tableau. Actually, I think Tableau has changed the way companies are approaching the world of data analytics — tremendously and sustainably. Tableau literally enabled business departments to get in control of…