Disruption Management by Amadeus

Disruptions reduce airline profitability and impose considerable delays across the network. While airline disruptions might start with one flight delay, it can then spread ‘virally’ throughout the whole travel ecosystem, Vincent Lacroix, Airline IT solutions–Head of Reservations, Flight and Disruption, Amadeus, tells TravTalk.

TT Bureau

Q What are the notable costs for delays and cancellations?

In the whitepaper ‘Shaping the future of Airline Disruption Management (IROPS),’ published by Amadeus, we defined airline disruption as “dealing with the consequences of cancelled or delayed flights”. As a consequence of planes and crew not arriving as planned, further networks will face cancellations and delays, even from a relatively minor initial problem. T2RL’s report stated that “the consensus estimate of the cost of disruption to airlines is about 5 per cent of airline revenue, or about $35 billion worldwide.” This figure was reached by taking an average of the studies to date which quantify the cost of airline delays to airlines. T2RL then added its own estimate on top of that to place a value on the costs of passenger delays and the supporting industry. When calculating the total combined costs of expenses such as hotel accommodation, meals, rebooking, etc. the costs add up to a significant amount: between 43-55 per hour per passenger. The estimate of the total value, including the cost of the loss of productivity and down time, is $60 billion annually. Beyond costs, airlines’ direct and future revenue is at stake. Airlines now tend to factor in this element in their evaluation, which means that the evolution of solutions to disruption is being further prioritised.

Q What is the industry’s point of view on disruption, and what is being done to tackle it?

We are now seeing an increased focus on disruption, due to a number of factors. The air transport network now handles even more passengers, numbers are expected to reach 7.3 billion by 2034, as a result airlines and airports are now turning to innovations that can help provide a more efficient operation, limiting disruption. With the rise of social media there is an increased incentive for the industry to tackle issues that are found to be consistently frustrating for consumers, among other factors. It is also key for industry players to increasingly work together to tackle the issue of disruption. With the arrival of new technologies, such as centralised data servers bringing data together from multiple sources, the industry is taking a more collaborative approach to tackle disruption, and we expect to see breakthroughs in this area soon.

Q What are the industry specialists doing to minimise the issues?

Historically, airlines have empowered their Operations’ department to manage disruption recovery. However, in the last several years, the industry has shifted towards working collaboratively to tackle the issue and has begun investing significant amounts into disruption mitigation systems. Today, operational managers and developers are working towards overcoming the difficulties that have slowed progress down in the past

Q Do explain the identified causes and solutions by Amadeus?

Amadeus offers an endto-end solution, which capitalises on Amadeus’ wealth of traveller data across the passenger’s journey. Amadeus’ disruption management portfolio includes:

• Amadeus Schedule Recovery: optimised flight rescheduling (e.g. Qantas).
• Amadeus Passenger Recovery: multi-flight optimised re-accommodation (eg SWISS).
• Over 80 other solutions address disruption issues in addition to their initial purpose, including Departure Control System (DCS) (with Disruption Transfer at individual passenger or flight level, and Self Service Disruption).
• Amadeus Altea Inventory: includes single flight re-accommodation, allows TAs to support any disruption thanks to full visibility & can decrease ADMs (Airline Debit Memos) that would minimise cost on both sides. Re-accommodation in Altea inventory (at flight level).
• Amadeus Ticket Changer offers travellers a self-servicing tool to change their ticket online any time.
• Amadeus Baggage Reconciliation System (BRS) provides real-time information to ensure baggage accuracy whilst enhancing a fast turn-around of aircrafts, on-time departure and accurate and secure passenger/ baggage reconciliation. (Icelandair).
• Amadeus Airport Common Use Service enables check-in anytime, anywhere with an internet connection. Operations can be easily be moved elsewhere so it mitigates business continuity risk from unplanned disruption.

Q What are the other roles to be played by Amadeus in this regard?

Amadeus’ solutions work to mitigate and reschedule disruption across the traveller journey. Solutions focus on four key areas, and below we include a case example of how these tools work together in the case of disruption:

• Operation Control Centre–provides end-to-end visibility of all airline operations
• Schedule & Crew Recovery–the solution has the bandwidth to manage: customer service, operational costs, schedule integrity, crew connections, keeping to recovery time, revenue, rebooking costs, overnight costs, merchandising, passenger revenue, passenger value and loyalty ensuring all systems run as smoothly as possible during the disruption
• Passenger Recovery-reschedule, rebook, reissue, re-route bags, re-accept on DCS (Departure Control System) based on each passenger profile
• Re-accommodated passenger notified–via digital channels, airport agents and self-service stations resulting in a full recovery.

Q What are the main causes for flight delays and cancellations?

There are a number of key causes that lead to airline disruption. The most common are bad weather, air traffic control constraints, sirport congestions, strike action (e.g. airline, airport, 3rd party), third-party issues (e.g. rail connections to airports, ground handler), crew logistics, Natural disaster, Terrorism/ war/ political instability, Local anomalies (e.g. sand storm, snow storm), mechanical faults and IT issues.

As you can see, airlines are not usually the cause of disruptions, though they have to manage them in order to minimise their consequences, in order to get back to smooth operations as quickly as possible.

Q In your opinion, what would the future of airline disruption management be?

Recent investment into this area is a positive indicator that we are headed towards a breakthrough, thanks to technology innovation and increased collaboration. This technology breakthrough will not happen overnight, however: the growing enthusiasm for tackling disruption is necessary to maintain momentum and staying on track. Making small and gradual changes towards a more collaborative and integrated approach will lead to substantial results.