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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1764.PDF
•flT International, 3 October 1963 571 Operational Regularity "CHOLOGY AND ECONOMICS OF A TOPICAL PROBLEM By G. DELMAS* (Institut du Transport Aerien) "Flight International" photograph •HERE can be no doubt that scepticism as to the ability of air- f lines to operate on schedule is a factor that discourages travel by air. Safety and regularity are notions that can variously defined according to the standpoint adopted or the ree of accuracy sought. We may consider regularity with the row view of the compiler of statistics, and take for its repre- tation an index such as the percentage of flights scheduled that actually performed, or some similar parameter. Much more lerally, we may take regularity to be the quality that is achieved p the deployment of aircraft and the performance of schedules jsured in conformity with established plans, and when the latter jiually answer the twin requirements of economically reason- pperation and satisfaction for the user. considered, regularity appears as an ideal never completely ed, always to be striven after, and permanently influencing * and action at every level of management and operation. kBthe other hand, for the great mass of passengers, regularity, fety, is a notion the only practical significance of which is a ve one, realized by then? and affecting their thoughts and s only when something abnormal happens. Public awareness accidents, long interruptions of service and spectacular inci- What the passenger experiences is the effects of the in-flight t'^Jch led him one moment to fear the worst; of the delay u made him miss a connection or an appointment; or the sion which upset the careful planning of his holiday tour. But i everything goes off smoothly "safety" and "regularity" are en for granted, as two quite natural phenomena requiring no "ort and paid for implicitly with the ticket. For the passenger, therefore, regularity is largely a subjective "ion, and this makes it difficult to appreciate, and even more fficult to measure, in any useful way. People's ideas on the ibject vary greatly according to the time-lapse involved, and also -otecomers are not permitted to affect the starting time of a train: tne case were otherwise, an inextr/cab/e situation would soon result" to their degree of knowledge on the real conditions of air transport operation. Twenty-five years ago an aircraft leaving Europe for South America or the Far East was expected to arrive within a day of the average journey time. Later the margin was narrowed down to a matter of hours; and then, in many cases, to fractions of an hour. Travellers on the railways or urban transport react to differences of a minute; the more regular the medium, the more sensitive is the traveller to delay. One category of user—the businessman—plans his time as the transport media at his disposal permit, and his schedules closely follow the march of progress, making the most of it with little to spare. To seek "clockwork regularity" at all costs may, therefore, be an absorbing pursuit for the technician, but a somewhat chimerical one—because the objective, customer satisfaction, will be in creasingly far away. It seems preferable to adopt, at any given time, a reasonable objective incorporating a margin of uncertainty which the user might be prepared to accept and allow for. People must be persuaded that a certain amount of trifling delay is not really of significance and that a minority of late departures or arrivals, up to a certain limit, is to be accepted. We must recognize that for a number of years yet there will be fundamental differences between the operation of a railway and that of an airline. Although progress is to be expected, for the whole of that period the arrival of an aircraft at its destination at the scheduled time should be treated as a phenomenon conditioned by many factors independent of one another and not entirely predict able before departure. A realistic view of this kind should provide the framework within which improvements must be sought, while remembering that, in this as in other sectors, honesty toward the user is what pays best in the long run. Travellers should, therefore, be brought to exact awareness of the possibilities offered them, and educated to derive maximum satisfaction from a mode of travel which, since it remains subject to certain caprices of Nature, man cannot yet master in all its details. Analysis of the various obstacles to regularity enables the dis tinction to be made between (a) the quite inevitable—certain weather phenomena, for example, (b) cases in which action can be taken to make them at least less frequent, and (c) cases which can be eliminated completely once they are diagnosed (i.e., certain technical or organizational shortcomings). In which of these cate gories should we put the obstacles to regularity which stem from the customer himself? There are some pessimists who would include them, along with fog and glazed ice, among the factors we can do least about; but changes in mentality can appear quite quickly and modify the problem. The attitude of an airline to its passengers cannot be compared with the way in which surface travellers are treated. Latecomers are not permitted to affect the starting time of a train: if the case were otherwise, an inextricable situation would soon result. An ocean liner does not keep 2,000 passengers waiting for one of their number; and anyway, in most instances, the state of the tide or the availability of tug-boats would prevent it from so doing. But in air travel the number of passengers for each departure is much smaller, and each is known as an individual to the airline, with habitual * The author's contribution is based on a study of the subject carried out by the Institut du Transport Airienfor some of its members.
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