by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Monday December 27, 2004 @02:33AM (#11189578)
Well... to try and provide a little clarification here, as I work for Comair. Here's the skinny:
Crew and aircraft scheduling is done through a software package called SBS Track. This very same software package is used by many other airlines, including the two I worked for before coming to Comair. I don't know if their systems have the same hard-coded limit that ours does or not. This software package has _nothing_ to do with reservations, or anything concerning passengers whatsoever. It is simply the software we use to schedule our aircraft and crews to fly the list of flights that Delta wants us to fly.
Crew scheduling is done by creating "pairings". A pairing is a sequence of flights that comprise a crewmember's trip. Anytime a change is made, a new pairing is generated, with the new sequence of flights. The system has a hard-coded limit of 32k pairings ("transactions" is the what the IT folks call it) in a calendar month. As of 10:00 pm on 12/24, that limit was reached. Crew Scheduling was unable to create any new pairings, unable to track who would be flying what airplane to where, and basically unable to keep the airline flying at that point.
It was not any kind of a hardware failure, there are backups for that. It is simply a software limitation, that when it was coded many years ago, nobody realistically thought it would ever be reached. Why they hardcoded a limit into it in the first place is beyond my knowledge.:)
A major part of the problem is Comair's concentration in Cincinnati. CVG is our only crew base, and it is the largest single crew base of any airline in the world. Over 1800 pilots and 1100 flight attendants in one base. Not even any of the majors have a single base that large. Several of our software packages are woefully inadequate, and replacements have been sought for some time.
As for getting things up and running on paper, this is a monumental task. Scheduling for 160+ aircraft and 2900+ crewmembers, and compliance with all FAA regulations, maintenance requirements, crew rest requirements, and contractual requirements is incredibly complex. In addition, we have crews and aircraft stranded across the country due to the weather that moved through that caused this whole mess in the first place. Add to that the very limited number of people who actually have the knowledge of all the requirements for scheduling, and coming up with a full schedule for the next day would be nearly impossible.
Jan. 1 starts a new month, and the system will return to full functionality then. Until that date, however, our operations will be very limited.
Some clarification (Score:1, Informative)
Crew and aircraft scheduling is done through a software package called SBS Track. This very same software package is used by many other airlines, including the two I worked for before coming to Comair. I don't know if their systems have the same hard-coded limit that ours does or not. This software package has _nothing_ to do with reservations, or anything concerning passengers whatsoever. It is simply the software we use to schedule our aircraft and crews to fly the list of flights that Delta wants us to fly.
Crew scheduling is done by creating "pairings". A pairing is a sequence of flights that comprise a crewmember's trip. Anytime a change is made, a new pairing is generated, with the new sequence of flights. The system has a hard-coded limit of 32k pairings ("transactions" is the what the IT folks call it) in a calendar month. As of 10:00 pm on 12/24, that limit was reached. Crew Scheduling was unable to create any new pairings, unable to track who would be flying what airplane to where, and basically unable to keep the airline flying at that point.
It was not any kind of a hardware failure, there are backups for that. It is simply a software limitation, that when it was coded many years ago, nobody realistically thought it would ever be reached. Why they hardcoded a limit into it in the first place is beyond my knowledge.
A major part of the problem is Comair's concentration in Cincinnati. CVG is our only crew base, and it is the largest single crew base of any airline in the world. Over 1800 pilots and 1100 flight attendants in one base. Not even any of the majors have a single base that large. Several of our software packages are woefully inadequate, and replacements have been sought for some time.
As for getting things up and running on paper, this is a monumental task. Scheduling for 160+ aircraft and 2900+ crewmembers, and compliance with all FAA regulations, maintenance requirements, crew rest requirements, and contractual requirements is incredibly complex. In addition, we have crews and aircraft stranded across the country due to the weather that moved through that caused this whole mess in the first place. Add to that the very limited number of people who actually have the knowledge of all the requirements for scheduling, and coming up with a full schedule for the next day would be nearly impossible.
Jan. 1 starts a new month, and the system will return to full functionality then. Until that date, however, our operations will be very limited.
Re:Some clarification (Score:1)
Re:Some clarification (Score:1)