Summary
- Airline Operations Command Centers (OCCs) manage flight tracking, crew scheduling, maintenance, weather observations, and handle disruptions.
- Some airlines have experienced major disruptions due to IT failures, leading to flight cancelations.
- Future OCCs will incorporate technologies like Digital Twins, AI, 5G, blockchain, and quantum computing.
Airline management is the art of coordinating and directing airline activities whereby the organization employs a combination of logistics, technology, and human skills.
Connecting all these nodes is the Operations Command Center (OCC) – the ‘brain’ that ensures that all flights, crews as well as passengers are moved safely, quickly, and effectively.
Yet given the enormity of today’s airline industry, which is beyond the imagination of a few decades ago, how do OCCs control such vast networks?
Understanding the OCC’s Role
Airline Operations Command Centers (OCCs) are tactical control facilities that are always operational and where crucial choices are made. They ensure that the airline networks around the globe operate effectively.
These centers are located worldwide and different airlines (especially small or startup airlines that cannot afford to create their own) can use the same Command Centers or work with shared OCCs.
Photo: Coleman | Shutterstock
Larger airlines, however, will usually have their own that are designed to meet their operational requirements. Carriers like Alaska Airlines (in Seattle), United Airlines (in Chicago), Delta (in Atlanta) as well as British Airways (at London Heathrow Airport) use their own OCCs to coordinate their flights.
Modern OCCs consolidate several critical tasks that work hand in hand to make sure airlines are running smoothly.
- Flight tracking and monitoring
- Crew scheduling and management
- Scheduling of aircraft for maintenance
- Observation of meteorological conditions and the assessment of their effects
- Dealing with delays, cancelations and other disruptions
OCC Tasks |
|
---|---|
Flight tracking and monitoring |
The observational check of the current status of all flights, adherence to the flight plan, and, if necessary, the problems. |
Crew scheduling and management |
Managing the crew allocation on flights in a way that satisfies legal provisions and optimizes the use of available human resources. |
Scheduling of aircraft for maintenance |
Organizing the maintenance activities to ensure that an aircraft is airworthy, and that operational interferences are minimized. |
Meteorological conditions observation |
Checking the weather and the forecasted changes in order not to disrupt the flight schedule. |
Disruptions handling |
Minimizing operational disturbances, including delays, cancelations, and diversions (through weather conditions, mechanical failure, or anything else). |
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Common OCC locations include airline headquarters (to communicate with the executives directly), specialized centers (fully technologically supported), major airports (for immediate response to operational problems), and regional centers (for localized support).
For example, the Integrated Operations Center of American Airlines, and its associated tool, the Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool (HEAT), since its launch in 2022,
HEAT has been credited with saving more than 1,000 flights
from cancelation, enhancing operational resilience, and reducing flight disruptions during storms by re-timing arrivals and departures based on multiple factors.
However, OCCs are not only used by airlines, but also by other entities of the aviation industry, such as Air Methods in Denver, USA (for real-time monitoring and control of its air medical fleet) and EUROCONTROL in Brussels (responsible for coordinating air traffic management across Europe).
Inside the OCC: how technology manages airline operations
The OCC is the nerve center for everything connected to aircraft operations and the repository for all operational information. The following are the main technologies in use today.
Current core technologies in OCCs |
|
---|---|
Integrated OCC software platforms |
Concentrate airport/airline operations control through the coordination and consolidation of data from other systems in order to gain better visibility and render better operational controls. |
AI-driven decision support systems |
Enhance the planning solutions, employee management and working schedules with the use of artificial intelligence. |
Real-time data monitoring and analytics |
Translate real-time big data from different sources into consolidated and integrated views to support better operational supervision and decision-making. |
Video wall solutions |
Give a detailed point of reference to the operations, hence allowing for the monitoring of various functions in parallel due to a clear view of the operations. |
AI applications used by airlines include Lufthansa Systems’ NetLine/Ops++ for scheduling, crew management, and disruption recovery for faster disruption response.
Real-time data tools also include SkyNet Aero’s dashboards and the KLM-BCG AI Suite, which gives real-time operational insight while ensuring that performance metrics are balanced.
Photo: Ramanaya Yauheniya / Shutterstock
Airports also use such systems to support and coordinate with airlines. Platforms like TAV Technologies AOCC combine data such as ATC, baggage, and security with A-CDM, FIDS, and RMS tools.
For non-experts in the field, A-CDM improves airport operations through collaborative information sharing; FIDS provides real-time flight information to passengers, and RMS tools optimize resource allocation and utilization within airports.
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Complexities and challenges in mega-operation management
Airline Operations Command Centers face challenges such as data overload (which needs efficient analytical tools), security threats (which needs strong protection), and internal integration.
OCCs are overwhelmed with large volumes of data from different areas of flight operations, weather forecasts, and passengers. This can flood operations controllers with information that is hard to analyze and make sense of in order to make informed decisions.
Photo: iamlukyeee / Shutterstock
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, human beings can handle only 50 bits of information consciously at one time. Operation controllers, however, are subjected to millions of bits of information per second, which results in cognitive overload, whereby important information may not be perceived or may be perceived in the wrong way.
Over the years, carriers such as KLM have developed a complete set of AI-based tools to digitalize and enhance airline operations and awareness to address this data overload.
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However, as airlines incorporate digital systems in their operations management, they make themselves vulnerable to cyber threats. Losses and thefts can affect many operations and endanger passengers’ private data.
Ransomware attacks on the aviation industry escalated to what researchers from EUROCONTROL suggested was 2.5 attacks per week in 2023 on aviation-related organizations internationally.
Furthermore, airlines have implemented different systems in many departments. This leads to integration issues within the OCC, and therefore, it is difficult to coordinate during disruptions.
Photo: RaksyBH | Shutterstock
A typical case involved British Airways on May 27, 2017, when a power failure affected its main data center. Despite the outage lasting only 15 minutes, it caused cancelations and delays of flights, affecting more than 75,000 passengers across the world, including passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
It originated from an IT engineer performing a maintenance task that destroyed the servers because of a sudden change of power supply.
Again, in July 2024, an IT global blackout associated with CrowdStrike’s software impacted many airlines and airports around the globe. It caused several thousand flight cancelations and delays as key systems for passengers’ information and ticketing were affected.
Some airports were forced to issue handwritten boarding passes because of system breakdowns, showing that disparate IT systems can greatly affect airlines in emergencies.
The future of airline operations
Current OCCs are more inclined to technology, particularly in evaluating real-time data using emerging tech like Digital Twins, Machine Learning, 5G Networks, and Blockchain.
OCC emerging technologies |
|
---|---|
Digital Twins |
Virtual representations of operations recreate situations and estimate possible interferences. |
Machine Learning |
These tools include the best routes to follow, the likely delays in the journey, and the best decision to make. |
5G Connectivity |
Internet-based high-speed networks allow the flow of data and speed up responses. |
Blockchain |
Facilitates safe and efficient exchange of working information such as flight logs and passengers’ details. |
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Another technology for the near future is ‘quantum computing.’ It is capable of changing aviation, especially within the OCCs, as it can solve complex problems vastly quicker than classical computers.
Some of the important uses include optimizing the flight trajectories of real-time flights to minimize fuel consumption and risks. Another area that benefits from quantum computing is the general assessment of many price models in the overall airline revenue management, real-time planning, and restoration of flight schedules in the event of disruptions.
Airbus and the aerospace industry as a whole are already looking at these quantum technologies for future use. Although in its infancy, quantum computing holds the prospect of major improvements in operational effectiveness and design creativity in aviation.