Introduction and Background

 The resources of an organisation, in particular the human resources, can be viewed as the critical ‘driving force’ which makes the organisational operational. The aircrew of an airline are vital and integral components and the effective management of this important aspect is critical in order for the airline to be able be operationally fit to execute is schedule of services. Aircrew resource   management   has   specific   characteristics   and   problems   which   differentiate   it considerably from other human resource management systems.  Emden-Weinert and Proksch (1998)  state  that  the  ‘problem  is  characterised  by  an  overall  objective  function  which  is composed of conflicting objective…complex constraints imposed by federal aviation regulations union work rules and company policies’.

 An airline is faced with considerable costs and expenses, particularly in the operational side. As in any industry in order to be sustainable and viable in the long term, an organisation must be in a position to effectively use its resources which will possibly facilitate in contributing to its overall profitability. This paper will consider the issue of how airlines can contain and minimise costs associated with the resource management of their flight and cabin crew.

 At a purely simplistic and superficial level it would seem that all is required is to match the resources with what is actually required. In reality, this task is far more complex since the speciliased human resource management of an airline’s crew is highly contingent on upon a number of variables including the airline’s human resource strategy, its size and the technology it has in place to efficiently manage   these.   Failure for an airline to properly roster crew commensurate with the operational schedule is costly and can have both short term and long term implications. The challenge for the airline is reach an optimum level of crew resources without compromising or breaching  any industrial, Governmental and safety regulation. This challenge is further compounded with the scope of keeping costs as low as possible. The utilisation of crew must be kept within the strict safety guidelines set by the relevant authorities such as CASA in Australia. An aircraft may have a greater daily utilisation rate which is incongruous with the allowed flying time for a particular crew member. Such constraints must taken into consideration particularly in the planning processes.

The  aircrew  planning  process  has  four  key  fundamental  aspects  which  are  universal  to  all airlines, even though each may have slight variations with their own individual process (Cybula and Roberston, 2006). This variation may be seen in short haul airlines and long haul. Day and Ryan (1997) argue that the process of aircrew rostering is a combinatorially complex problem. They elaborate that the type of carrier needs to be considered when devising an aircrew planning process  since  both  types  of  carriers  have  characteristics  which  are  in  inherent  to  them respectively.

 The actual planning process needs to be devised on two levels; short term or micro level and The Aircrew Planning Process forms an integral and critical function of the crew resource management. It is imperative that the airline establishes a sound and concrete process from the outset. An efficient planning process allows the airline to monitor and effectively manage its crew resources and make any necessary changes in line with the prevailing operating environment. Attaining a suitable level of efficiency will assist the airline in allocating the optimum level of crew and as a consequence minimise the potential to incur increased costs as a result of poor planning and management.

 (i)  Resource Planning

 The resource planning process is of critical importance since it has direct repercussions on the ability of the airline to maximise its profits (Dawid, Konig, and Strauss, 2001). Given that it is a mid to long term plan, one is in a position to appreciate that its correct development and implementation is of decisive magnitude given that it has direct implications on the airline’s profitability.

 Resource planning also has applications for the short term as well, specifically for the creation of a roster period which typically is 28 days. The process is similar in scope to the long term planning, however in relation to the roster period it is based on a more micro perspective. The roster needs to take into consideration training and the annual leave requirements of the aircrew.

(ii) Pattern Planning

 The pattern planning process is where the aircraft schedule is analysed and turned into patterns of work (Cybula and Roberston, 2007). Cybula et al, (2007) further add that the pattern planning process is building the optimal set of patterns in order to minimise the number of crew who have to work and fly the crew as many block hours as possible. The rational and scope behind this is that it drives high annual utilisation and allows the airline to employ further crews. As a consequence there is a direct cost reduction and containment to the airline.

 (iii) Crew Rostering

 Dawid et al. (2001) state the primary function of crew rostering is to provide a fair and even distribution of the workload among all crew members and to maximise the crew member’s aggregated satisfaction with their individual lines of work. It is also at this stage that the airline allocates the actual work to the crew. Whilst the core function of crew rostering is short term, there is also the long term function which ongoing of ‘pre-allocations’ which are placed in advance into a particular individual’s roster. Cybula (2007) states this can occur even up to 2 years in advance.

 (iv) Crew Tracking

 Crew tracking’s main function is to ensure that the aircrew and aircraft operating on the day are within the specified legal limits as set by agencies such as CASA. It serves as a warning system for crew which may be reaching their legal limits. The general basic function of the crew tracking system is to manage all the overall aspects of the operation on the day in real time (Cybula, 2007). Furthermore, in relation to day of operations this is in fact the end of the line in terms of picking up compliance breaches and such breaches are deemed irreversible once they occur, thus there is grave importance in this area to maintain a high standard of correctness.

Implications of the Aircrew Planning Process in the short and long term

 It is now evident that the Aircrew Planning Process needs to be addressed in both the short term and long term respectively. Certain aspects of the short term planning are reliant on successful execution and implementation of the long term strategies. If these falter, it will not allow the successful functioning of the short term plans. An evident example is in the Resource Planning and implementation of the roster period. Successful long term planning will allow for any necessary adjustments to be made which may manifest themselves at relatively short notice. In essence, the long term plan sets the foundation and will allow related short term strategies to be readily addressed and remedied if required.

 The planning process needs to consider other important factors both in the long and short term which will have implications to the overall performance of the airline. SABRE Aircrew Planner (2006) identifies the following factors in relation to aircrew resource management and groups them by the applicable timeframe:

–     Long term (5 years to 18 months)

 Market/Customers to serve, Basic schedule structure, Partnerships/Alliances, Long term fleet plan and facilities, Routes and Frequencies and initial aircraft assignments

–     Mid term (18 months to 3 months)

 IATA slot optimisation, Crew assignment and rostering, Revenue and Price optimisation

–     Short term (3 months to 0 days)

 Short term re-fleeting, Upgrade/Downgrade equipment, Cancel low-demand flights, Recover Aircraft and crew from Disruptions

Regardless of the time frame, these strategies require careful consideration since they are associated with economic characteristics and as such their effective management will allow costs to be contained and possibly minimised.

Effective use of Aircrew resources and the concept of organisational ‘slack’

 At the core of an organisation’s operations is the availability of resources. Lack of resources or the inefficient use of resources will negatively impact the successful operations of the organisation. Demeulemeester (1995) argues that in order to determine resource availability it important  to  determine  the  type  of  resource.  He  elaborates  that  determining  the  resource availability allows an organisation to minimise the sum of the availability costs over all resource types.  When this is analysed from the perspective of aircrew resource planning, it pervasively highlights the significance of using the resource planning function to allocate resources at their most suitable level. In this instance this would be the cabin crew.

 Excess resources can also have negative implications to an organisation and will decrease the overall efficiency of the operation. Such excess resources will invariably contribute to increased costs to the organisation. The availability of too many resources brings forward the idea of organisational ‘slack’. Bourgeois (1981) defined organisational slack as a cushion of excess resources that can be used in a discretionary manner. The concept of organisational slack has been of considerable interest to management researchers since the early 1980s (Cheng, 1997). From an airline’s aircrew planning process having a certain level of extra resources in the form of cabin crew is an essential requirement. This is referred to as reserve crew and as its names suggests its primary purpose is to be able to readily supply crew in the case where the scheduled crew member is unable to fulfil his or her tour of duty. In terms of reserve crew the airline will strive for an adequate number yet without any excess (Cybula and Roberston, 2006).

 The role of Crew Management Systems (CMS) and their function

 The type of technology an airline has in relation to effectively managing their crew depends on the size and complexity of the actual carrier. In general the larger the carrier and network, the more sophisticated the system technology needs to be in order to be suitable for the airlines requirements. Technology has universally facilitated the processes and operations of an organisation. Optimisation in operational efficiencies can be largely attributed to how an organisation applies the technologies it has and uses them in relation to its resources. The need for having an efficient method when using computerised aircrew resource planning systems is essential since the level of complexity is too large for these systems to be manually managed (Dawid, Konig, and Strauss, 2001).

 A legacy carrier such as QANTAS in order to achieve optimisation in its processes requires advanced IT infrastructure across all its divisions and departments to allow it to achieve its strategic efficiencies.  An aircrew resource manager   may   state  ‘Spreadsheet planning worked fine 10–15 years ago when we had two types of craft…however, as we grew, relying on a manual process limited our ability to do comparative analyses. It was difficult to optimize our crew and infrastructure resources — so there were clearly hidden costs stemming from that approach. And, of course, with spreadsheets, data integrity is certainly an issue’ (Kronos web, 2007).

Airlines can use several crew resource software applications such as Kronos Altitude and Man Power Planning (MPP). The Altitude software is used for the requirements of short and long term planning requirements and it supports enhanced decision making. It effectively manages training requirements and leave. The MPP software allows for the management and optimisation of the crew roster. Furthermore, for a company where crew work conditions are governed by Industrial Relations requirements, this software ensures compliance with this (Kronos web, 2007). When appreciated and analysed from this standpoint, it is apparent that automation has played a key role in reducing the costs associated with aircrew resources.

 Voget (QANTAS)  informs these two tools deliver significant cost savings to QANTAS by stating ‘Whether it be long-term planning or short-term fine tuning, Altitude MPP helps us in our training and evaluation processes, and minimises the costs of these processes to the company’. QANTAS has intentions of integrating these systems and their applications with other company software such a Leave  Solver  and  Training  Resource  Management  as  a  way  of  further  reducing  costs  and facilitate the crew establishments and training programs (Kronos web 2007).

Adaptability of the CMS to cope with a dynamic environment

 The operational aspects of an airline exist in highly dynamic environments. The demand for air travel is conditional on numerous issues and an airline must be in a position to provide services matching the level of demand. Any planning and forecasting must take into consideration all factors which may impact the normal scheduled operations of the airline. These factors can be either  short  term  or  long  term  such  as  in  the  case  of  major  environmental  changes (political/natural) which will affect the demand for airline travel.  

Airlines will construct their schedules and allocate their crew resources with the lowest cost possible. When the schedule is operated as planned using the most suitable level of crew resources, the airline will be in the most suitable position to maximise profits and reduce costs (Cole, Larsen, Larsen Ross and Tiourine, 2007). In other words it would try and obtain an operational equilibrium. The reality is quite the opposite since being in a state of equilibrium would suggest the operational environment is static. Most organisations are considered from operating ‘far from equilibrium’ and at best they can be ‘equilibrium reaching’ (Meyer, 1982 and Meyer, Gaba and Cowell, 2005). This is not to suggest that airlines are unable to successfully manage their aircrew and offer consistent schedules, however they need to be in a position to take the necessary action in order to address any deficiencies that arise which will impact normal operations. Meyer et al (1982/2005) suggest that organisations need to be able to take adaptive and appropriate action to what he terms as ‘environmental jolts’ so as to be in a position to still maintain successful operational schedules. In relation to the aircrew resources, not taking the appropriate action, such as the misallocation or under utilisation of crew adds to the operating costs of the airline.

 The Crew Management System the airline has in place therefore needs to be highly adaptive and requires a strong level of inter-departmental communication and collaboration so as to maximise the potential to have an optimum level of crew resources. Any CMS needs to be able to adequately manage any potential disruptions and uncertainties facing the airline. Failing to manage these in an effective manner may prove costly to the airline. The CMS will need to factor in the disruptions that may arise which will affect the schedule and consequently the utilisation of the crew. Cole, Larsen, Larsen Ross and Tiourine (2007) address the issue of disruptions and suggest that ‘disruption management’ is an issue that will have both long and short term effects in aircrew resource management if it is not adequately addressed. They state that whilst the CMS has allowed airlines to gain optimum operational levels and efficiencies, the issue of disruption is at times not suitably addressed and implemented in the CMS thus creating inefficiencies and adding to the overall costs.

Aircrew resource management and in particular the rostering of crew holds significant economic importance to the airline (Arabeyre,Fearnley, Steiger, and Teather, 1969). It is therefore of significant relevance that good economic management is a leverage tool with which to minimise the costs associated with aircrews. At the core and basis of this paper, the prevailing and prepoderant theme is the notion of obtaining optimisation and efficiencies on both an organisational and operational level for the airline. It is evident that these are gained through the maximum available utilisation of the crew within regulatory and industrial criteria. Since crew costs at legacy carriers is considered very high, even small improvements in the crew utilisation can lead to substantial savings and reduce operational costs (Emden-Weinert and Proksch, 1998).

The aircrew resources need to be managed and allocated from both a long, mid and short term perspective. The long term strategies are used with the main purpose of forecasting the future requirements of the airlines in close alignment with the current fleet and schedule systems and well as future fleet and network expansion. It is clear that the cabin resource management department of the airline needs to be aware of the overall airlines future plans in order to be able to suitably plan for the future. Furthermore, the long term plans need to have a certain level of flexibility and adaptability in order to cope with changes and uncertainties affecting the airline which in turn will impact the long term organisational strategies.

Short-term the aircrew resources need to be in a position to adequately provide crew in line with the provisions of the roster period. Just as in the long term planning, the short term strategies need to be structured and implemented so as to be able to cope with changes and uncertainties which will affect the operations of the airline.

The challenge for the airline is to determine what requires long term strategic approaches and what requires short term ones. Boyd (2000) argues that airlines that take short termist approaches to the HRM in the airline when in fact long term strategies are needed with scope of cost rationalisation in fact create increased cost burdens in the future. He further argues that certain airlines have changed their focus from service to cost reduction and this has caused the value of cabin crew to decrease to airlines. While there is little doubt airlines are under pressure to reduce costs and cabin crew have not been exempt from this, airlines which are successful have realised the value aircrew are as ‘human capital’ to the operation of the airline. As the majority of legacy carriers value the aircrew resource function and have implemented strategies and systems which help the airline achieve its operational objectives at the lowest cost possible.