As soon as an airport or an airline has a punctuality record month, they publish press releases, they celebrate. But how sustainable is such a short-time success? If you check their performance from then on, you may find them falling back to the levels before.
Can on-time performance be actively managed? If you think it can't be managed or can only be resolved by others, the following 7 habits may present a different perspective. If you already manage punctuality, you can assess where you are in your quest.
| Habit |
Characteristics |
| Accountability |
- There is a sufficient number of delay codes to differentiate delay causer
- Each delay code (with sub-code) has an owner or responsible organization
- The delay code assignment process is clear and in place (assign, accept, reject, handling of disputes, final call).
- Secondary delays are allocated to the original causer
- Delay cost is calculated and assigned to the causer
|
| Transparency |
- Delay code assignment and on-time performance of every organization is transparent to everybody.
- Data quality is high
- Share performance with other airports
|
| Standardization |
- Only one definition of delay codes and delays across the airport based on IATA standard, incorporated in the Airport Handling Manual (AHM)
- Any non-conformance e.g. different reporting from an airline to its head office will be brought forward to the Governance Forum
|
| Governance and Benchmarking |
- Multi-stakeholder Airport Operations Control Center to manage the daily operational on-time performance and escalations
- Has a Punctuality Manager
- Punctuality Board, chaired by the Airport's Punctuality Manager, with delegates from handling agents and airlines proposes and tracks actions
- Punctuality targets are defined and broken down to each stakeholder
- Maybe an award/penalty pool for on-time performance
- Benchmark against other airports
|
| System Integration |
- Delay codes and delays are captured or integrated into one 'global' system.
- That system should also allow to automatically track issues of a flight which could have caused the delay in case of disputes.
|
| Communication/PR |
- Constant, effective communication among all stakeholders
- Maybe an award for the best punctuality improvement program
|
| Empowerment |
- Agree on challenging yet achievable goals but leave it up to the partners to implement sustainable improvement
- Provide sufficient resources for punctuality management and improvement programs
|
