CSI Business Consulting- airplane in air 1

Crew planning improvement to support growth ambitions - Aviation

Context

When Covid hit, this airline had just accomplished a successful financial restructuring, focussing again on its profitable core European business. With Covid, airtraffic capacity was reduced, and then as Covid was more and more under control, capacity had to be built up again in an operationally safe and sound manner. In these consecutive ramp-ups of aircraft numbers, re-staffing in an efficient way became very challening.

CSI Business Consulting-reviewing the planning

Our Mission

Develop and embed Lean insights and tools to provide a more agile crew planning process towards the network and scheduling departments, all while in parallel increasing crew satisfaction and efficiency.

CSI Business Consulting- pilot training

Results

  • An initial diagnostic phase led to the definition of 6 workstreams, with each a series of key initiatives. Each of the initiatives was tackled in a collaborative way to design and implement solutions in terms of process improvements, systems/tools improvements, skills development and mindset changes.
  • Significant efforts were put in instilling a culture of continuous improvement in each of the teams through training and cross-departmental workshops.
CSI Business Consulting- airplane in air 2

Approach

  • An initial diagnostic phase led to the definition of 6 workstreams, with each a series of key initiatives. Each of the initiatives was tackled in a collaborative way to design and implement solutions in terms of process improvements, systems/tools improvements, skills development and mindset changes.
  • Significant efforts were put in instilling a culture of continuous improvement in each of the teams through training and cross-departmental workshops.

Main challenges

  • Working across EU locations required adaptability to work with clear cultural differences.
  • The crew management value chain was under the responsibility of various Directors within the company, requiring thorough and continuous coordination and alignment.
  • Besides the day-to-day operations, consecutive ramp-ups during summer operations had to be operationally managed by the involved people while at the same time dedicating time to the project.
  • Within the client’s internal project team, various team member changes had to be managed.