Airline Restructuring and Transformation
THE CHALLENGE
As part of a broader engagement that Skylight Aviation had been commissioned to undertake, one aspect that was materially affecting network profitability was the schedule design, crew scheduling practices and interpretation of soft and hard rules.
SriLankan had made some progress in this area but were concerned that soft rules were overly constraining the schedule design, but conversely, that schedule design was contributing to excess establishment needs.
Limited cohesive robust schedule planning, build, crew establishment or roster build governance was in evidence and a commercially driven schedule that prioritised over all other inputs.
THE SOLUTION
Skylight Aviation developed an extensive change management programme in conjunction with Sri Lankan Airlines’ Executive Management that was further enhanced by our SME’s design of detailed solutions, a realistic implementation roadmap and change management process that was underpinned by the on-site deployment of Skylights’ airline operations Subject Matter Experts.
THE OUTCOME
In collaboration with the senior management and business owners in Flight Operations and Cabin Services, our team successfully delivered a number of major changes in the schedule planning and operational resource planning lifecycle that materially improved operational, schedule and cost outcomes:
- Overall establishment reduction of c. 10-15% of crew FTE requirements via improved planning and roster build processes
- Further FTE improvement derived from introduction of “smart schedule” capability that benefits both commercial schedule and operational needs via balanced outcomes
- Changes to soft rules, including crew complements, via extensive engagement with management and trade unions that delivered multi-million USD recurring benefits
- Introduction of a robust schedule planning process that builds on the existing planning horizon and instils end-to-end planning disciplines at all points of the process