Edition 24
The last few days have seen social media bombarded with videos and posts about the sorry state of delays in India. Hardly any major airline has been spared, with IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet being in the posts more often than others. The videos are just the tip of the iceberg, there are far too many posts which are asking the airlines why their flights are delayed while they have already boarded, followed by posts later which talk about the pilot being missing.
The pilot is not missing in the true sense. He is just operating another flight, which is delayed and your flight is delayed because the connecting pilot has not yet landed ,leading to another delay. The answer to this entire thing possibly lies in the software which has taken over the pilot rostering in most airlines. With a given set of inputs, any well designed software optimises the utilisation for which it is designed. In this case, the software ensures beautiful output which takes care of flight duty time limitations in all areas like actual flying, total time and rest time but then where is the problem? The problem lies in the fact that the software will consider perfect conditions for planning, while the actual conditions vary significantly.
Harsh winters, diversions, extended hold patterns typically lead to the planned aircraft rotations and crew pairing going for a toss. This means, the connecting crew is delayed – which sets a chain of next set of delays; connecting crew running out of duty time limitations requiring a fresh set of crew – leading to delays.
This requires manual intervention, to find a pilot and have a roster change which impacts not one but many pilots (and crew). It is a slow process, involves tinkering with the system and a lot more. These back office actions put the stress directly on the pilots and the frontline staff at the airports who have to handle irate passengers.
The solution? Transparency. There is no fun in having passengers holed up inside the aircraft for two hours without service – not informing them about the connecting pilot and generally irritating them. The second solution is giving some breathing space to the optimiser and upgrading pilots to captains easing up shortage – a seemingly costlier solution from an airline perspective. Until the things are resolved, are the passengers going to ask “Where is my pilot?” before boarding?
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