Happy Jetting a Conversation with … Dave Barger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jetblue Airways, Page 14
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A MAGAZINE FOR AIRLINE EXECUTIVES 2009 Issue No. 2 Taking your airline to new heights Happy Jetting A Conversation With … Dave Barger, President And Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue Airways, Page 14. 11 Air Malta makes big changes across 20 Global carriers take various steps to remain 46 Planning departments follow industry best entire organizations in the black practices to compete © 2009 Sabre Inc. All rights reserved. [email protected] Real-Time Solutions For Real-Time Operations Sabre® AirCentre™ Flight Explorer offers an informative, robust, real-time and predictive solution to enhance an airline’s overall operations as well as its travelers’ experience. By Kristen Elmi | Ascend Contributor Real-Time s if the daily operational challenges incorporating multiple data feeds, dynamic ers, eliminating the need to choose only solutions within the aviation industry are not weather overlays, situational alerts, predic- one. Display and animate North American A enough, commercial aviation is con- tive weather and air traffic tools designed next-generation weather radar, worldwide stantly being challenged by external factors to drive an airline’s business performance infrared astronomy satellite coverage, Solutions such as the current worldwide economic success. Whether running a major, low- international graphical meteorological downturn, volatile oil prices, dated and con- cost, hybrid, regional or commuter airline; terminal aviation routine weather reports, strained infrastructure, shrinking air space a global air express or air cargo company; a and add other dynamic weather reports capacity, and increasing political pressure major or regional airport; an air charter ser- including airman’s meteorological informa- to control the environmental impact of the vice; a fixed-based operation; or an airline- tion, significant meteorological information, For Real-Time industry. The value of operating at maximum related service; Flight Explorer helps make convective SIGMETS, collaborative con- efficiency, therefore, has never been more informed decisions on how best to manage vective forecast, pilot weather report, and crucial. fleets, crew and overall flight operations. real-time lightning and onsite turbulence. And if these factors aren’t bruising When Flight Explorer was acquired Comprehensive and advanced event sys- enough, there’s the much-needed overhaul by Sabre Airline Solutions ® last year, the tem that generates alerts via voice, e-mail, Operations of U.S. and European air transportation combined team set out with a goal to open onscreen event list, PC audio or log file systems — NextGen and Single European the aerospace and aviation door to the for aircraft events such as arrivals, depar- Sky ATM Research, or SESAR — creating future. The shared focus on enhancing the tures, change in estimated time of arrival, future unknowns in terms of capacity and collaborative decision-making capabilities of flight plan received or altitude, proximity to operational performance … not to mention air traffic operations led to this vision. And destination, METAR, runway visual range, the costs and technology requirements to Sabre Airline Solutions continues to support diversions, and FAA delays. implement. the advancement and evolution of Flight One of the most powerful assets of Additionally, Atlantic Interoperability Explorer by heeding customer requests Flight Explorer is the Dynamic Data Integration Initiative to Reduce Emissions, or AIRE (part and ensuring expanding development to System designed to integrate and display any of NextGen and SESAR efforts), Asia and compete globally. in-house data including all current and future South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions, At the core of Flight Explorer is: weather, flight planning (all company flights or ASPIRE, and the European Union’s A broad and expanding source of global and routes), and other on-site dynamic data Emissions Trading Scheme all endeavor to data that provides real-time flight tracking within the solution. This provides airlines com- reduce aviation’s environmental footprint on information around the world via the U.S. plete flexibility whereby integrated dynamic a global scale. Federal Aviation Administration’s ASDI data can be vendor or client specific. It also Naturally, better fleet planning, route feed for instrument flight rules traffic, U.K. includes a Web-based dashboard interface to and network planning, flight planning, oper- Class I data feed, international radar feeds, ensure 99.99 percent system reliability and ational control and decision support, fuel Honeywell GDC datalink and ARINC Direct performance. management, and air traffic management for ACARS position messaging. The Route Analyzer feature within can significantly contribute to the reduction Extensive, customized range of weather Flight Explorer, designed to quickly optimize of carbon dioxide emissions, lessening the solutions from industry-leading provid- rerouting, reveals the routes available in environmental impact of airline operations. But beyond these important environmental Photo by Jupiter Images issues, in the face of all industry pressures, airlines need the right processes, tools and technology to help operate at optimal efficiency. Flight Explorer provides the aviation industry with an operations management decision-support solution that can confident- ly address, expertly manage and remedy all current and future operational needs. Introduced as the “Flight Explorer Aircraft Situational Display” tool in 1997, the solution was one of the first flight track- ing systems on the market. It immediately gained recognition as the industry’s premier real-time flight tracking and management system. It provided a unique solution to the aviation industry, enabling flight plan- ning and dispatch operators to visualize an aircraft’s current state, in real time, using a single, integrated solution. With continued investment, innovation and enhancement, today, Flight Explorer leads the market with an installed base of more than 5,000 systems. Route Analyzer quickly identifies available routes based on actual and predicted weather Flight Explorer now goes far beyond using an extensive, customized range of weather solutions from a variety of industry-lead- simply flight tracking. It provides opera- ing providers. This functionality enables operations professionals to quickly make necessary tionally critical situational awareness of route adjustments in the event of weather-related irregular operations. an airline’s operating fleet while in flight, By Kristen Elmi | Ascend Contributor ascend 79 Photo by Jupiter Images generated when a reroute advisory is cre- ated, updated or deleted by the U.S. FAA. Also, a holding analyzer pattern tool displays a list of flights that are within a specified region to determine how they are stacked Going With The “Flow” in a potential holding pattern and informa- tion fields are updated every 10 seconds. Providing options in this unified, informa- solutions tive, detailed and real-time manner helps airlines make proactive decisions across their operations. Last year, every dollar increase per barrel (42 gallons) of fuel drove an additional US$46 million in fuel expenses for U.S. pas- senger and cargo airlines, and every penny increase per gallon drove US$195 million in annual expenses. Historically, fuel expenses have ranged from 10 percent to 15 percent of U.S. passenger airline operating costs, but averaged more than 35 percent in the third quarter of 2008. Flight Explorer pro- vides a unique functionality that indicates and visually displays the estimated flight Using robust, real-time operations solutions enables airlines to run smoothly, regardless range based on current fuel on board and of unanticipated disruptions, helping ensure the best possible customer experience and specific burn rate for each aircraft type. contributing to the bottom line. It can also account for the static reserve fuel amount. This feature is useful when making decisions about diversions, emer- gencies and ETOPs and is vital to help- relation to actual and predicted weather and In addition, the new Traffic Flow ing airlines plan and monitor effectively to published and anticipated air traffic restric- Management reroute advisory feature and achieve optimal fuel economy and on-time tions. It also enables dispatchers to make update alert provides a list of TFM advisories performance. necessary route adjustments prior to filing and enables flight planners and dispatchers Sabre Airline Solutions, through its a flight plan, utilize detailed airport summa- to view and analyze reroute options textu- expertise and partnerships, helps airlines ries containing weather to anticipate delays ally and graphically. Advisories are sorted manage and control their flight operations and reduce delays for a better customer according to action level, giving priority to and deliver their promise to their customers experience. those at the top of the list. An alert can be with increasing efficiency on a daily basis. Photo by Jupiter Images The technology company recognizes an airline’s need for the knowledge and tools required to operate at top efficiency, just as an airline’s leaders recognize that their teams’ smart decisions stem from pos- sessing and applying experience and train- ing with advanced solutions. Flight Explorer provides the aviation community an opera- tions management decision-support solu- tion, enabling operators and dispatchers to confidently address and skillfully manage