Cost Efficiency

Aircraft operations are costly – but can be profitable if managed properly

For aircraft operators to ensure continuous strong market positions and profitable businesses, a variety of cost parameters must be constantly analyzed and optimized. Obvious areas for optimization include aircraft maintenance, fuel, and crew.

But many aircraft operators seem to give a lower priority to the importance of cost-effective flight planning. Imagine being able to lower production costs already from the flight planning stage by enabling OCC to take cost-effective decisions. This is only possible if cost information is available and presented in way that allow dispatchers to compare numbers and analyze data.

Exploit cost-effective route planning features

The PPS Flight Planning System (PPS) is not only one of the most price-competitive software solutions of its kind in the market today, but also one of the most cost-effective. Even in a basic setup, PPS provides any aircraft operator with very relevant route-specific cost awareness data in real time. The various route costs in play for each flight include:

• Aircraft cost
  Dry operating cost (DOC) of the aircraft per hour. Typically, this would be the cost of operating an aircraft including maintenance, crew etc.
• Fuel cost
  The cost of fuel for the flight based on fuel burn for the actual route and actual fuel price. A dynamic cost parameter which changes depending on weather conditions.
• Overflight cost
  The costs involved when transiting airspaces. PPS provides advanced overflight cost calculations based on entry/exit-points and flying time within FIR’s.
• Total cost
  To many users the most relevant cost parameter as is sums up all the above costs. Often used as the comparative cost parameter, letting the user choose the route with the lowest overall cost

Other important source data used in calculations include aircraft weight and fuel profile configurations, forecasted enroute winds and temperatures, global route restrictions and more.

The route comparison feature in PPS helps the aircraft operator to save money and increase profits by selecting the minimum production cost routing for every flight.

Let us look at an example of selecting routes based on lowest cost:

Route comparison: Oslo Gardermoen (ENGM) to Tenerife South (GCTS)

Route analysis in PPS Route Comparison Tool

At first, the route on direct track seems to be the obvious choice because of lowest fuel burn. But total cost results suggest that the route west of track via Tango airways is more economical to fly with a saving of $ 416. Why? Because the savings in overflight cost by crossing cheaper FIR’s are significant and clearly justifies the higher fuel burn! Any cost saving becomes significant when adding multiple flights per day!

TOTAL COST SAVINGS = $ 416  by selecting route west of track via Tango airways.

Automated route optimization

By purchasing the AutoDispatch add-on, aircraft operators can also reap the benefits of letting PPS automatically choose the most economical route. Such a PPS setup not only lowers the production costs associated with the flight itself, but also those related to the preflight planning phase. This will further decrease operational costs for the aircraft operator and help strengthening market position.

Fair pricing and greatest ROI

Saving money on routes is essential business – but does not make sense if savings are exchanged for expensive software subscriptions! Despite its very beneficial cost-optimization features which we’ve covered here, PPS still delivers one of the best ROIs on the market today if compared to flight planning systems with similar complexity.

Want the greatest ROI? Choose PPS.