Officials at American Airlines Inc. have one thing to say about their summer service: We must do better. Although it couldn't control the storms that plagued the Fort Worth-based carrier's operations during its busiest months, officials are working on a plan to improve their response to such events and minimize schedule disruptions.
After five years of aggressive cost-cutting and eking as much efficiency out of its operations as possible, American is making adjustments to better weather the storm, so to speak. The carrier has built an extra five to seven minutes into flight schedules at its busiest hubs and is looking for better ways to identify open seats during the last flights of the night to accommodate stranded passengers.
Officials are also re-evaluating ground operations, flight routing and scheduling. And the carrier is studying maintenance scheduling and how it stages aircraft overnight for the next day's flying. American's systems operations control – its operating center – has implemented changes to better handle crews, airplanes and passengers when the carrier's schedule is disrupted by weather, congestion or other problems.
Airline officials are quick to blame the nation's overly burdened, outdated air traffic control system for creating a difficult operating environment. But with fixes several years away and the nation's passenger volume growing, Mr. Cush said, American must make changes to keep hiccups of its own from worsening the situation.
"The system is unforgiving now, and if anything breaks down in our system, the air traffic control system doesn't have the ability to let us make up that time," Mr. Cush said. "We recognize we're operating in a different environment, and we may be for the next few years."
Three years ago, American realigned how it scheduled maintenance and crews for its aircraft. Flight crews – both pilots and flight attendants – were scheduled on the same plane as much as possible so that one late arrival didn't delay departures for more flights. And certain aircraft would spend the day flying back and forth between key cities, an effort that helped contain delays to a smaller geographic footprint.
"We made a lot of good adjustments that worked pretty good for us," Mr. Cush said. "But now we're in a different operating environment."
story here
After five years of aggressive cost-cutting and eking as much efficiency out of its operations as possible, American is making adjustments to better weather the storm, so to speak. The carrier has built an extra five to seven minutes into flight schedules at its busiest hubs and is looking for better ways to identify open seats during the last flights of the night to accommodate stranded passengers.
Officials are also re-evaluating ground operations, flight routing and scheduling. And the carrier is studying maintenance scheduling and how it stages aircraft overnight for the next day's flying. American's systems operations control – its operating center – has implemented changes to better handle crews, airplanes and passengers when the carrier's schedule is disrupted by weather, congestion or other problems.
Airline officials are quick to blame the nation's overly burdened, outdated air traffic control system for creating a difficult operating environment. But with fixes several years away and the nation's passenger volume growing, Mr. Cush said, American must make changes to keep hiccups of its own from worsening the situation.
"The system is unforgiving now, and if anything breaks down in our system, the air traffic control system doesn't have the ability to let us make up that time," Mr. Cush said. "We recognize we're operating in a different environment, and we may be for the next few years."
Three years ago, American realigned how it scheduled maintenance and crews for its aircraft. Flight crews – both pilots and flight attendants – were scheduled on the same plane as much as possible so that one late arrival didn't delay departures for more flights. And certain aircraft would spend the day flying back and forth between key cities, an effort that helped contain delays to a smaller geographic footprint.
"We made a lot of good adjustments that worked pretty good for us," Mr. Cush said. "But now we're in a different operating environment."
story here
