CSC Helps Major Airline and Airport Overhaul Ground Operations
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Airport ground operations, a broad area including all operational activities in an airport, are currently undergoing major changes, some of which led to CSC helping Air France transform its main platform, the hub at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, located just outside of Paris. The project was one of six honored in 2003 by CSC’s Leading Edge Forum, which awarded it the prestigious Award for Technical Excellence.
The hub has become a key advantage for major airline companies. Since 1996, Air France has structured its activities and flight planning to make Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), its official hub, an efficient correspondence platform. This concept consists of creating rendezvous time slots between arriving and departing flights. For example, all arriving flights are concentrated on a dedicated time slot. This is followed by a time slot dedicated to departing flights. This sequence of arrival/departure time slots is repeated six times a day. Such a schedule multiplies correspondence opportunities with minimum waiting times between flights — typically 45 minutes to two hours. The hub concept dramatically increases the number of origins and destinations an airline can provide its customers. On a daily basis, Air France provides more than 2,000 correspondence opportunities at CDG (with less than two hours waiting time), yet technically there are only 400 flights per day.
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Related Information:
Why should an airline or airport review its ground operations? Senior vice president of Air France’s ground operations, Pascal de Izaguirre, elaborates on the transformation of ground operations. Find out more about CSC’s experience in ground operations. Contact Us and Let Our Experience Help You Produce Results. |
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The hub concept has contributed significantly to increased traffic at Air France and has thus become its foundation for strategic growth. However, this concept imposes large constraints in terms of ground operations: activity is concentrated during short periods of time, and time allowed for succeeding in transfers for both the passenger and luggage is very short. These operational constraints became even more prominent at CDG with increased traffic since the launch of the hub (an approximate increase of 20 percent each year since 1996).
In addition, given the competition of other large European hubs (e.g., British Airways at Heathrow, U.K.; KLM at Schiphol, the Netherlands; Lufthansa at Frankfurt, Germany) the hub at CDG presented two major handicaps in terms of its infrastructure, which was originally designed for point-to-point traffic and not correspondence traffic. First, it had a significantly inferior contact percentage — the percentage of flights parked directly at the terminal. These flights do not require passenger transport by bus to the terminal, reducing baggage transfer time. The contact percentage has a strong and direct impact on flight punctuality and successful handling of bags in transfer. Second, it had a less efficient baggage handling system. The handling of bags at CDG — especially bags in transfer, which are the most difficult to handle — requires the use of numerous nonintegrated and complex infrastructure systems, such as sorters and handling zones that add to an already arduous task.
Significant evolution in the CDG infrastructures has been planned to allow Air France to compete with other airlines. The changes began with the opening of a new terminal (E) in June 2003. This will be followed by a new satellite in 2006 and another satellite later. These new infrastructures will allow Air France to refocus its operations on the east side of the platform with the other modern terminals, which will in turn facilitate efficient correspondences and improve considerably the contact percentage.
Another planned evolution is a baggage sorting system with the progressive integration of TBE (Baggage Sorting System–East) beginning in December 2004, which will provide an interconnected baggage-handling system for Air France.
To obtain the most from these new infrastructures, Air France is rethinking its operational processes (passenger processing and baggage handling) to improve quality for their clients while improving the company’s economic performance.
CSC and Air France: A brief history
CSC has been assisting Air France on this project for more than three years and contributed to the project in three main areas:
Review of operational processes: CSC is actively participating in the construction of new processes. This work has already resulted in major changes in the baggage-handling processes initiated in 2002, including the incorporation of new security regulations that imply mandatory complete control of baggage. The next application will concern passenger handling, using the new Terminal E as an opportunity to deploy an innovative organization for passenger check-in.
Program management: CSC provides the support to pilot the global transformation program of the hub with an enforcement of management by objectives, economic as well as operational. In addition, CSC assists operational teams responsible for opening Terminal E. Finally, CSC played an active role in the management of the development project for the sorter TBE — a particularly complex project — working with Air France, ADP (Aéroports de Paris, owner of the system) and Cegelec (the industrial partner).
Information systems: The evolutions in the operational processes require that the information systems be revamped. In this area, CSC participates in the definition of IS changes, the definition of user needs and the deployment of such systems. CSC’s work has been focused primarily on the Departure Control System (the system that controls check-in and departures) and baggage handling management systems. In addition, CSC has assisted Air France with experiments in biometrics, which will be used to identify and register passengers.
About the Leading Edge Forum
The Leading Edge Forum (LEF) serves as "The Technology Voice of CSC" by providing thought leadership and a technology point of view for both the marketplace and CSC. The LEF’s programs and initiatives include in-depth technology reports, the LEF Centers of Excellence, which are dedicated to providing world-class IT service, and the Award for Technical Excellence, which is the most prestigious recognition for technologists at CSC. Established in 1989, the award recognizes valuable contributions to CSC’s clients and its own technical knowledge base.
Related Information:
Each year, CSC’s Leading Edge Forum awards projects that demonstrate innovation and technical excellence. The Baggage Logistics Plan project for Air France was one of the 2003 LEF Award recipients.
Find out more about recent trends in airline distribution, the advent of low cost carriers and the impact on traditional airline companies in La Revolution Low Cost, published by CSC France.
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