Ways to Improve Flight Scheduling

Due to the significant increase in air travel demands, the issues of flight delay have become more prominent. One of the main contributing factors to this problem is airport capacity. During rush hours, many airports are operating at full capacity. It is impossible to expect the airlines to back down on their flight scheduling just to avoid delays or even have unfilled seats on any flight as these are unrecoverable losses. It should be noticed that flight delay is not caused only by airport capacity limits, but also by airline management, weather, aircraft mechanical problem, aviation control, and passenger problems can also play a big role in delaying a flight

.Regardless of the cause, departure/arrival delay prolongs the amount of time required to fly the aircraft from one airport to the other and it negatively affects the aircraft utilization rate. It is essential for airlines to have proper scheduling to ensure that adequate utilization is achieved and profits are maximized.

Flight scheduling involves deciding on service route pairs, departure time, and arrival time for flights that the airline wishes to offer. It can be presumed that airline tends to prioritize their flight scheduling to cater to the timing of peak passenger demands over avoiding delays. By estimating potential delays to be endured for each flight segment, better fleet management can be made possible during the flight scheduling process. This is where old IT infrastructures need to be updated with the latest technology for innovation to accommodate better fleet management during the flight scheduling process. It is part of a much bigger initiative to develop a decision-making aid tool to facilitate airlines in managing their available resources during flight schedules. With the new system, airlines can use data from The Bureau of Transportation Statistics in DOT to weigh in several scheduling alternatives and select the one that brings the largest profits to their operation with their limited available resources.

Also, one factor to consider is the total expected additional time that should be included for departing flights from the airport during the flight scheduling process. This may reduce the amount of available time of the aircraft for operational utilization. Perhaps having extra time for taking off at the airport can help reduce the delays and avoid penalty fees.