ABSTRACT
The next time you fly somewhere and you are waiting to board your plane, take a look outside at the waiting aircraft. Most of us do not really appreciate this but there is frenzied activity going on. The pilot and co-pilot are carrying out pre-flight checks; baggage handlers are unloading the baggage from the in-bound flight and loading the baggage for the out-bound passengers; one group is cleaning the cabin and the toilets; another is loading the fuel; yet another is loading the food containers. The only way the plane will get off on time – and the percentage of on-time departures is an important measure of how well an airline is performing – is if all these groups manage to successfully coordinate their actions and work at the same pace; if even one group lags behind the others, the plane will be delayed. Delays, even small ones, in one flight taking off – especially at large and busy airports such as Frankfurt, New York or Singapore – often have a ripple effect on flights later in the day with all flights getting progressively more delayed as the day wears on. Thus, on-time departure of a flight requires a disparate number of people to coordinate their actions. It is only when all the people and groups involved do so that the plane takes off on time.
