Data Sharing between Airlines and International Airlines for Scheduling Purposes - Case Study Example

?Executive Summary It is important that airlines share data amongst themselves in order to facilitate effective scheduling of flights. This paper gives a description on data sharing between airlines and how it is used to facilitate effective scheduling, its benefits as well as its limitations. The paper also gives a description of two other applications of data sharing between airlines. These are the codeshare agreement and the sharing of passenger name record (PNR). It also gives the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the two options. A SWOT analysis of this airline company is also provided and the document closes by providing recommendations for the airline company accompanied by their justifications. Data Sharing between Airlines and International Airlines for Scheduling Purposes Introduction Competition in the market may dictate that airlines keep a secret of their data according to Gustavo (2005). This situation also applies where individual airlines are reluctant to share data amongst themselves for security reasons. However, data sharing between airlines has proved to enhance operations by enabling effective scheduling (Gustavo, 2005). It also provides an insight into constrains of individual airlinesbecause data is checked for inconsistencies. Better stated, frequent data sharing enables partners to revisit any irregularities. The data that may be shared between airlines to aid scheduling include internal fight plans, tables queried from database, flight identification information like date, time, aircraft and flight number (Gustavo, 2005). It also includes, time information, weight, fuel, positional information and delay information like duration and number of delays. Data exchange between airlines ensures that the block or schedule times allocated for each airlines is one that can enable it optimize the use of its resources and to avoidrecurrent delays. If the schedule time allocated for an airline is too long, then it will not be able to optimize its resources like infrastructure, staff and aircraft (Gustavo, 2005). This is because they will be blocked for la onger times resulting in revenue loss. On the other hand, if the schedule time is to short, it creates a lot of rotational delays. Data sharing ensures that factors like distance, choice of aircraft, operating speed, night curfews, taxi-times and prevailing winds are considered during allocation of schedule times. From the above explanations, it can be concluded that data sharing is of high significance in the planning for delays. Since factors that affect arrival time are taken into consideration, it results in the development of a realistic schedule and the final effect of this is on-time performance. The main limitation to achieving effectives from data sharing is that in many cases, flights leaving at their designated times arrive after the scheduled arrival time and this has the potential of creating reactionary delays. A limitation imposed on data sharing is on the period of time that airlines can store this data (Strauss, 2010). Passenger name record (PNR) and the codeshare agreement Apart from sharing data for purposes of scheduling, airlines can also share passenger informationlikepassenger name record (PNR). In the past, terrorists have used airplanes as weapons against target places or nations. It has also threatened the prosperity of this important business. The main importance of sharing PNRis the deterrence of terrorist travel because it keeps known terrorists of airplanes. However, this can intrude into the privacy of the passengers due to the exchange sensitive information and could also result in the discriminate use of the data. The limitation of this is the inability to deter unpopular or unknown terrorists. The data can only be held for 30 days (The House Committee on Homeland Security, 2011). Codeshare agreement is another important element of cooperation between airlines. Under codeshare, two airlines share the same flight. For example, a seat can be purchased on one airline but a cooperating airline operates it under a different flight number. The main benefit of this to airline companies is increased service frequency on a route served by both cooperating airlines. The display of flight numbers exposes carriers that do not have their own aircraft. Codeshare makes it easy for customers to connect flights and reduces the chances of incurring loss due to mishandled luggage. This is because codeshare results in shared responsibility. However, the system is not transparent to passengers and some find it confusing (ABC News, 2009). SWOT Analysis of American Airlines The American Airlines is the major airline in the United States and it is the second largest passenger airline on the basis of the miles transported, operating revenues, and the passenger fleet size (Abdulla 2009). American Airline operates a broad domestic and international network and it has scheduled flights in Europe, Caribbean, Asia/Pacific, Latin and South America, and North America.A SWOT analysis of this major airline will assist us in understanding how data sharing be made effective and efficient between airlines and international airlines for the purposes of scheduling. American Airlines have a number of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths The strengths of American Airlines include the size of the fleet, the number of routes, partnerships, the IT infrastructure, and government relations. These strengths can be harnessed and data sharing between the airline and the other airlines made efficient and effective. An important strength in this case is the IT infrastructure. The company can venture into strengthening and innovation of an IT infrastructure that can assist effective and efficient data sharing between the airline and international airline for the scheduling purposes. Partnership can also assist the airline and international airlines to share data effectively. Partnerships will make it easy for the airline companies to share data effectively and make the scheduling of flights easier. Weaknesses It has a number of weaknesses such as the financial position, the cost structure, unprofitable routes, the existence of many divisions within the company, and the reliance of business fares (Abdulla 2009). For effective data sharing the company can do away with the unprofitable routes and stop relying on the business fares. Opportunities American Airlines is faced with a number of opportunities from its external environment and these opportunities stem from the airline industry itself, technology and the government. There is a favorable or suitable wage negotiation climate, travel has increased significantly, low interests rates, the existence of government backed loans, information technology, new fuel efficient engines, and the partnership with the Asian Airlines (Abdulla 2009). Partnership with the Asian Airlines will greatly assist in data sharing and thus effective scheduling of the flights. Threats There are increased air travel inconveniences that are mostly related to security issues, the business travel is declining, existence of extensive competition from point-to-point competitors, the availability of pricing information, and the overcapacity within the industry (Abdulla 2009). Recommendations American Airlines should engage in data sharing for the purposes of scheduling flights. The company has many unprofitable routes and data sharing will assist the company is reducing these unprofitable routes. Partnership with the Asian Airlines is a great opportunity for the company to schedule its flights internationally and in particular within the Asian region. The partnership will offer a great chance for data sharing. From the SWOT analysis of American Airlines, it is evident there are many chances for data sharing between the airline and international airlines; data sharing will assist American Airlines to schedule flights and avoid any inconveniences that may arise due to partial or full absence of data sharing. References ABC News (2009) What the Heck Is a Codeshare, Anyway? Retrieved on 22nd June, 2011 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/FlyingHigh/Story?id=865304&page=1. Viewed on 22nd June, 2011. Abdulla, F. S. M. (2009) American Airlines. Retrieved on 22nd June, 2011 http://www.scribd.com/doc/16170571/American-Airline-Case-Study. Strauss, M. (2010) Value Creation in Travel Distribution. Retrieved on 22nd June, 2011 http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Travel-Distribution-Michael-Strauss/dp/0557612462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291050497&sr=8-1. The House Committee on Homelend Securirty (2011) Stress Value of Sharing Names of Airline Passengers to Deter Terrorist Travel. Retrieved on 22nd June, 2011 http://homeland.house.gov/press-release/lieberman-king-collins-thompson-stress-value-sharing-names-airline-passengers-deter. Viewed on 22nd June, 2011. Gustavo A. (2005) Middleware 2005: ACM/IFIP/USENIX 6th International Middleware Conference, Grenoble, France, November 28-December 2, 2005 : Proceedings. Birkhauser Publishing Company. Read More