Airline operations are carefully planned and orchestrated to be reliable and constantly on the move. Because when an airline stops, not only its planes and crew do, but our customers stop too, making it more difficult for our operations to return to normal.
American Airlines has developed state-of-the-art technology that keeps customers moving, even when weather conditions impact hubs. The Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool (HEAT) dynamically adjusts the airline's operation to ensure that users, crew and aircraft continue with their itineraries when weather threatens to disrupt schedules.
Developed in-house at American, HEAT optimizes information about the weather, how many passengers are on flights, customer connections and gate availability, as well as any traffic or crew limitations. Then, an advanced algorithm analyzes this data and adjusts the arrivals and departures in each of the hubs. Experts at American's Integrated Operations Center (IOC) - the nerve center of the operation - use HEAT to help weather the most severe weather conditions and their impacts, to keep the operation running, bringing customers faster to their destination in adverse weather conditions.
“HEAT is an innovative tool and part of our irregular trading scenario guidance that will only get smarter with use,” said Timothy Niznik, American IOC Director of Analytics. “Every time we run HEAT, we analyze the results and we incorporate them, in such a way that it allows us to improve the strategies and technologies that help us to continue with our operation”
Since its launch last year, HEAT has prevented at least 1,000 flight cancellations on the American Airlines network.
“HEAT allows us to optimize our flight time in inclement weather to provide a better experience for our customers and crew – it's definitely a game changer,” said Bob Shirley, Air Control Coordinator and Dispatcher, and a member of the team that created the HEAT tool.