A capstone project submitted to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Aviation Management Certificate Program. This Capstone Project was prepared and approved under the guidance of the Group's Capstone Project Chair, Dr. This study is the result of the effort and knowledge gained by the group members through the certification program and also from those who supported us during this challenging journey.
First of all, we would like to thank all our friends and families who always supported us during the most difficult times, often depriving us of special moments. We also thank all members of Embry Riddle Central and South America, especially Maria Ritter, who has always supported and helped us. In Brazil, the ANAC 400 resolution, in addition to re-accommodating passengers to other flights, requires airlines to provide a range of material assistance under certain circumstances.
The researchers tested the potential adoption of the solution with a survey, where the vast majority of respondents are in favor of using self-service and avoiding queues at the airport. The researchers also created a financial analysis to demonstrate the benefits of the solution by reducing the number of employees required to carry out the process.
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to design a solution that reduces the cost of the number of employees of the company. The solution aims to provide these services to the passenger through the company's mobile application (APP). Of course, there is no guarantee that all passengers will prefer APP's amenities.
The unforeseen costs in the airline's daily operations are caused by many factors, such as bad weather and unscheduled aircraft. Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) Resolution 400 According to Resolution 400, material assistance is intended to meet the passenger's needs. II - on the carrier's own flight, to be carried out on the date and time of the passenger's convenience.
The analysis of the Brazilian and European regulations shows that the cost of disruption is a real offender for the airline's profits. In the review of the literature, the researchers could not find studies that deal with the question of the costs related to the operation of the passenger's re-accommodation and assistance.
Methodology
To measure the size of the impact on airlines, the researchers will explore the number of canceled flights, the number of delayed flights and the number of minutes of delays. These costs consist of the amount spent on issuing vouchers for food, hotels and ground transportation. As a consequence of the requirements of ANAC Resolution 400, the cost of material assistance will be used to understand the amount spent by the airlines.
Labor costs are the dominant variable in the total cost of disruption to an airline. In order to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the new process involving accommodation and voucher issuance, this study also aims to simulate the "as is" process (Figure 1) and the "to be" process containing all the proposed automation and changes. Repeat the simulation the same number of times as you did with the As-Is process, and at the end the output data will be compared to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the new process.
According to Maruster (2009), simulation is an essential step in process redesign methodology. This ensures the success of the solutions proposed in the research. Even with the automation of the process, at this stage there will be sorting of passengers by destination and prioritization based on the customer's level in the airline's frequent flyer program. At this stage of the process, customers are accommodated on a new flight according to the priority set in the previous step, so that the frequent flyer is prioritized for the best accommodations.
In the fifth stage of the process, only connecting passengers receive a hotel voucher if the flight is delayed or changed for more than 4 hours. Embry-Riddle University students and airline employees were invited to be part of the group. After this group answered the survey, the researchers asked for feedback about the clarity and objectivity of the questions.
With the preliminary results, the researchers also checked the data provided by the platform to see the accuracy of the answers and how this data could be used in this work as important and useful information to support this research. Based on the results and feedback the researchers gathered through this pre-test, the researchers adjusted some of the survey questions, and then the researchers sent the final version of the survey to a larger group. The invitation for the first survey was sent by the airport authorities of Azul, Gol and Latam to more than 200 employees who are part of the airport ground staff in Brazil.
Outcomes
Assuming that the employee rates in Brazil are approximately 70% of the salary paid, the researchers consider the formula below for costs per To begin the scenario design, the researchers considered the volume of transported flights and passengers in 2018 due to the continued growth of Brazilian aviation. Scenario B was designed based on the number of cancellations and average load factors in 2018 for the three main airlines in the Brazilian market.
The researchers considered the elements as contributing to mitigating the risk of failures, identifying potential bottlenecks and reducing idle time. By simulating the future process, it became clear that there is still a need for human intervention to start the automated process. In the new solution, the waiting time became irrelevant because it relies only on the passenger's action in APP.
34.5% of respondents reported that the process of receiving assistance from the airline was not smooth. In question 6, the researchers attempted to measure the efficiency of the current process from the perspective of the respondents. Regarding the efficiency of the process of issuing coupons, 52.6% of respondents consider it inefficient.
The automation of the process requires the construction of an IT solution, integrated with the Passenger Service System (PSS) of the airline, and implemented in the airline's APP. To estimate the cost of the solution, the researchers separated the cost of implementation from the operating cost of the solution. Some of the marginal costs, such as links or API port, are not considered in this study.
This involves the effort to develop the core solution, all the integrations with third parties and the development on the airline's APP. However, once this has happened, most people find the process of getting compensation difficult and slow. Of course, every change in the operational process takes time to be implemented, requires the involvement of the employees and training.
Also, the solution proposed here depends on the existence and use of the airline's mobile application. Researchers believe that this could contribute to the improvement of the vehicle and reinforce its importance to both carriers and travelers. The continuous improvement of the processes depends on the commitment of the team and the focus that the airline will give to the subject.
Since redeeming vouchers is easier with the self-service solution, the number of redeemed vouchers may increase after the implementation of the solution.
