Data driven decision making (DDDM) in airline management: Einar Ingvi Andrésson, Manager Fuel Efficiency at Icelandair explains how it's done and what it delivers.
Before diving into our experience at Icelandair with data driven decision making (DDDM) and, in particular, applying OpenAirlines' SkyBreathe to our fuel management actions, it will be useful to explain a tittle about Icelandair's business. (...)
Priority number one is always safety: in this respect, many pilots regard Iceland as essentially an aircraft carrier in the middle of the North Atlantic where you have to contend with cross-winds, icing and occasional volcanoes. There are also the ‘low hanging fruits’ such as EOTI (engine out taxi in) to consider: should they be tackled at the outset or is there something else more urgent..? trajectory optimization, maintenance, ground operations. It’s important to think about whether to do IT related things in-house or to outsource; with the former course it will be necessary to deviate from the core business (running an airline) to be a full IT house with a huge software development team and the rest of what an IT business demands? All airlines have to decide whether to build an full in-house IT capability, outsource everything or look for a ‘sweet spot’ between those two extremes.
In this, we found a tool, SkyBreathe® from OpenAirlines, which actually helps us address some of these questions of how best to prioritize our thinking, activity and time. (...)