Scheduling-A Vital Company Service
A Challenge . . .
A Heodache
First in a two-part series on airline
scheduling, based in part on information
supplied by the Air Transport Associa
tion.
Every airline employee has surely at
some time or other been asked ques
tions like these:
“Why does this flight leave at 5:11 in
stead of an easy-to-remember time like
5:00?”
“Why doesn’t that flight go non-stop
instead of making two stops?”
“Why do you have four flights be
tween 5 and 7, but only one flight be
tween 2 and 4 o’clock?”
Questions such as these might appear
to be trivial and detailed, but they strike
at the very heart of one of the most im
portant functions of airline manage
ment — scheduling.
Scheduling is a complex process. A de
tailed description of the steps taken to
develop Piedmont’s schedules would fill
a large-size book ■— and it would be con
fusing to anyone unless he were willing
to give it long, hard study.
The principles of scheduling are not
so complicated, however, and they
should be understood by each airline em
ployee so that he might be able to ex
plain to his friends and neighbors how
our schedules are the finest possible in
terms of the long-range needs of our
passengers, the communities we serve,
and our country.
To Serve the Public
The two words that best describe the
why’s and wherefore’s of airline sched
uling are “public service.”
Almost any question that can be asked
about' our schedules — frequency of
flights, departure and arrival times, num
ber of stops en route, type of airplane —
can be answered by the statement that
it is the service required by the public.
Minutes Are Important
You can be sure our company does
everything possible to serve the public’s
travel demands. If, for example, a flight
is scheduled to leave at 5:11 p.m. instead
of 5 o’clock, you can be certain that
those 11 minutes are important to the
success of that flight. If a 5 o’clock de
parture were more suitable and would
produce more passengers, you can be
sure Piedmont would do all possible to
make the switch.
Schedule Goals
Just what is scheduling? ATA Presi
dent Stuart Tipton has defined it as
“ ... the art of designing system-wide
flight patterns that provide optimum
service, in both quantity and quality,
consistent with the financial health of
the operator.”
Preston Wilbourne, Director of Tariffs
and Schedules, is Piedmont’s expert in
the art of scheduling.
“The aims of a schedule are simple,”
says Wilbourne. “We’re in business to
carry passengers. We try to come up
with a schedule that will carry as many
passengers as we can, as far as we can,
and as economically as we can.”
However, that, as the cliche goes, is
much easier said than done. It is obvious
that each departure from every city is
scheduled to the maximum convenience
of that point so that it might generate
the maximum traffic.
Total Needs Studied
We cannot always consider each city
separately, nor can we consider sched
ules from the requirements of aircraft
maintenance and overhaul and other op
erational considerations. Also departure
times, obviously, are related to arrival
times, and on some routes the arrival
time might be more critical than de
parture time. Furthermore, departures
and arrivals must be related to connect
ing service. And so it goes.
City X is not a problem in itself. The
requirements of that city for service
must be related to the demands of other
cities, and our complete schedule must
be developed from the standpoint of
optimum service over our entire system.
The overriding consideration, how
ever, is public service because again, as
we better serve the public, we prosper.
Load Factor
A high load factor (high percentage
of seats occupied) is a major objective
in schedule planning because it is a sign
that we are operating flights at times,
and to the places, and when and where,
most people want to go. It is an indica
tion that we are performing a good pub
lic service.
What’s more, we are enhancing our
chances for profitability; and profitabili
ty is a vital element in public service,
since an economically sound and grow
ing air transport system is essential to
the welfare of communities, the country
as a whole, and the national defense. It
is essential also to each employee from
the standpoint of job security and career
opportunities.
Careful Analysis
Through market research, analysis of
traffic studies, and years of operating
knowledge and experience, an airline can
judge market potential — including con
necting and through passengers — with
a rather high degree of accuracy.
Piedmont determines traffic flow in
and out of the points served by careful
study of our boarding and traffic flow
reports. Also useful, says Wilbourne, is
the CAB Domestic Origin-Destination
Survey of Airline Passenger Traffic. The
survey is a ten per cent sampling of pas
senger traffic between cities. It helps
determine if traffic flow between points
is steady, and is an aid to our sched
uling department in planning frequen
cy of service to given cities.
An airline must take advantage of
“fill-in” and connecting opportunities
whenever possible in schedule planning.
It is one means whereby an airline can
provide a service which otherwise would
be grossly imprudent.
Often, however, it is impossible to
create traffic flow opportunities. By its
very nature, traffic flow varies from
case to case, depending on geography,
airline route structure, and other serv
ices available. So you cannot generalize
that City A can support a certain type
of service simply because City B re
ceives it.
Must Know Market
Schedule planners must angle like
fishermen. They must (1) know when
and where the fish are running, and (2)
use the attractive lures.
Translation:
1. To the greatest extent possible, you
must schedule flights when and where
most people are on the go, and
2. You must try to offer the most ap
pealing service from the standpoint of
departure and arrival times, type of
equipment, etc. Remember, if you don’t,
your competitors will.
Time Is Chief Selling Point
Departure and arrival times are vital
when it comes to sales appeal. It’s the
very speed of aviation that causes this.
The difference between a 5 p.m. and a
6 p.m. departure was unimportant on a
three-day coast-to-coast train trip. But
one hour makes a big difference in the
air age, when for example, a jet spans
the nation in less than six elapsed hours.
As a result, schedule convenience
ranks high when it comes to influencing
a passenger’s choice of airline.
What if you were not in the airline
business? Instead you worked for some
“outside firm?” Would you sit around
an airport for an extra hour waiting for
our airline when another airline has a
departure in ten minutes?
All Phases Considered
All this leads to a logical question:
“Why not then just shift flights around
to make sure each one gets top sales
appeal?” This is often impossible, be
cause in an effort to plan the best pos
sible service, our scheduling department
runs headlong into a host of operational
and traffic complications.
In the first place, many phases of op
erations are governed by Civil Air Reg
ulations. In some cases, physical limita
tions — such as the lack of an aircraft
gate position at an airport terminal ■—
dictate "what you can and cannot do.
Moreover, the total schedule pattern
is a tightly woven inter-related structure
because of flight connections, the rout
ing of aircraft for maintenance, and so
forth. Therefore, a change of only 15
minutes could create serious conflicts in
any one or all of these areas.
One Flight Change
Take the case of the flight operating
from City A to City B to C and on to
City D. If you were to alter this flight,
you would open up a good many changes
in other flights to preserve connections,
avoid gate problems, and so forth.
This flight receives connections from
eight flights at City A. When it gets to
City B, it delivers connections to seven
more flights. In addition, its arrival and
departure timing at City B dovetails
closely into a gate occupancy cycle with
other planes.
When it gets to City C, it connects
with three more flights. Finally, upon
arrival at City D, it delivers connections
to seven flights, and the airplane then
turns back out as a schedule to the west.
Requirements To Meet
Traffic and sales objectives, mainten
ance, flight operations, and ground op
erations requirements must all be con
sidered when planning a schedule. Each
is dependent on the other, but seldom
can all the needs of every department
be met.
In a presentation before the Civil
Aeronautics Board, Melvin A. Brenner,
Vice President of Schedules and Equip
ment Utilization for American Airlines,
outlined some of the problems facing to
day’s schedule planners.
“At the outset,” said Mr. Brenner, “let
us realize the sheer impossibility of de
veloping a schedule pattern which will
simultaneously satisfy all desirable ob
jectives. Many of these objectives are
inherently in conflict with one another.
“ . . . Probably the schedule planner’s
most important function is to evaluate
these varied and partially conflicting ob
jectives, and come out with the optimum
balance between these several goals.”
Getting closer to home, Piedmont’s
scheduling department experiences the
same' conflicts. “It affects the whole
economy of the company,” says Wil
bourne.
“Every proposal submitted by the
home office and from the field is care
fully checked with every major depart
ment to assure as nearly perfect co
ordination between them as possible.”
Next month — Constructing A Sched
ule.
CONNECT TO
3 FLIGHTS
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TURNS TO
NEW FLIGHT
CONNECT TO
3 FLIGHTS
CONNECT FROM 4 FLIGHTS
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I GATE CONGESTION-
i 2 GATES, BOTH OCCUPIED
CONNECTIONS FROM
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THE TRAVELING PUBLIC
MAKES THE BIG
DECISIONS IN
AIRLINE
SCHEDULING