Lars Söderqvist, you are the product manager for the Jeppesen Crew Rostering product. Can you please give us a quick overview of how you view the difference between preferences and requests for airline crew?
- Sure. A request is a roster property, often in limited supply, that the airline would like to ‘promise’ crew in advance. An example can be a day off at a certain date. If all crew, far in advance, ask for Midsummer off, the airline will grant these requests in some prioritisation order that may be based on the success ration of past requests, seniority, a first-come-first-serve basis, or a combination of those. Once a request is granted, crew should be able to trust that this ‘promise’ will be upheld over time, also surviving day of operation. Preferences on the other hand, are roster properties that the crew express, often with some prioritisation between them, and the airline will grant them if the operational situation permits. These preferences, often also called ‘bids’, are more susceptible to being ‘sacrificed’ when the airline needs flexibility in meeting a varying demand to bring home their revenue. This could be due to disruptions from weather, congestion, technical problems but also other crew falling ill.
Thank you. Why are airlines not only using requests? Would that not make it easier for crew to know their roster in advance and trust that it is being ‘delivered’?
- It would. But look at this way: if only requests were used, a lot of crew influence would be lost by not allowing crew to express their preferences on other aspects. For example, it could be that the airline could only ‘afford’ to promise 100 crew to have Midsummer off, as there will always be uncertainty in both the full demand and the supply of crew on that day. With preferences complementing the requests, the airline would also have knowledge that, let’s say some other 20 crew members, would really appreciate having that day off as well. Whenever possible, the crew management process (automation and manual work) can then prioritise keeping that day open also for these crew, and in the end hopefully 'deliver’ to them too. The drawback is of course that these crew members are not certain it will happen, but overall much more influence is delivered compared to only using requests. Crew may express preferences for a lot of properties the airline can never afford to have requests for.
Give me some examples.
- Short pairings, to come home more often to family. Starting late, to better deal with a commute. Layovers on certain stations. Early finish on Thursdays every second week, to make the tennis game. Compressed work, to leave longer stretches of days off. Being paired up with a certain colleague. Working opposite times from your spouse, to enable more parenting time for the kids. Working the same time as your spouse, to have time off together. Avoiding night duties. And so on… We’ve implemented all of these over the years, and many others.
Thank you Lars. This sounds like it could make a great difference to crew in terms of work-life-balance. Let’s continue this chat in the next FRM News Flash, I would like to hear you explain how this is done practically, at scale, for an airline with a thousand crew to plan for!