PUNCTUALITY BUFFER TUNER

Assesses where the risks for delays and the risk of further damage to the schedule (code 93) are largest.

Planning for schedule robutness is mostly a matter of expert judgement. The punctuality buffer tuner helps to provide an objective quantitative fundament under this judgement. 

It uses statistical input about the historic performance of flights, shedding direct from indirect delay causes. Then it calculates the combined probability that an aircraft will be available at a planned departure time. So if two aircraft are planned to arrive one hour before a planned departure, the odds that one of them will be on time to operate the planned departure are higher than when it depends on the reliability of only one inbound aircraft.

The Punctuality Buffer Tuner then matches this probability with the company standard and indicates how each departure stands in comparison with this standard.

The Punctuality Buffer Tuner was designed to help schedule planners optimize the robustness of the schedule:

• Buffers needed: The output shows where the buffers are too small, but also where they are too large. Thus it guides the planners towards the most effective and efficient planning of buffers.

• Operational reserve: A very specific form of punctuality buffer is an operational reserve. This tool helps to define the need for such spare aircraft, to define its effects and to make the trade-off with the costs for an extra aircraft unit. 

• Better on time performance and better efficiency: Efficiency and reliability are often seen as contrary interests. The approach behind the Punctuality Buffer Tuner proves the opposite. It is possible to achieve better efficiency by removing slacks at times that they are not needed, while on time performance will improve with smart buffers at the right timings.  
  

This model is an ideal way to bridge the visions of operational, commercial and financial departments.