How Aeroflot achieves and maintains operational excellence

Redesigning and implementing a more effective and efficient control infrastructure enabled Russia's flag carrier to improve on-time performance, customer satisfaction. It created more flexibility, faster decision making, schedule stability and at the same time improved operations-related profitability.

The story

Strong demand for your services is good news only if you can meet it - and continue ensuring the same high level of customer satisfaction. Realizing that its operational systems and resources would collide with that fundamental truth sooner rather than later, Aeroflot took action.

The baseline approach for Aeroflot has been that Operations is where strategy and planning meet customer expectations. At the same time, external influences makes airlines change plans. The Operations control centers are the heart of the airline. It's where you win or loose customers and business.

Aeroflot opted for a holistic approach to modernizing - not evolutionary but revolutionary. Operations and hub control functions, responsibilities, processes and tools would all be upgraded in parallel. Interrelated areas were reviewed for efficiency gains, for instance in crew and flight planning, and not limited to turnaround management aspects.

Working with Aeroflot as a team, we laid out a plan for positioning resources and processes to achieve operational excellence - and maintain it as the airline expands to meet increasing demand.

After mapping current workflows and procedures against our knowledge base and industry best practices, our consultants went to work with Aeroflot and its various vendors on the key building sites: crew planning, crew control, flight planning, operations control, weight & balance, hub control and turnaround managemen. In concrete terms, it meant redesigning and then setting up two buttresses for Aeroflot's business: the Hub Control Center to address growing traffic and minimize disruptions in Moscow, and the Operations Control Center to optimize all the aspects of keeping airplanes on time and in the air - and passengers satisfied.

As Aeroflot geared up for the future, we were there every step of the way: from introducing new processes along with new job descriptions to fulfill them, to shaping a new working environment and a new way of working, and accompanying the organization to a new level of excellence.

 Along with the processes, the infrastructure design is being upgraded as well. With a "business drives technology" approach, we supported Aeroflot in the specification, customization and implementation of IT solutions. We then helped put in place feasibility checks, process implementation and testing procedures as well as review workshops and regular management training sessions to measure success - and ingrain the positive change throughout Aeroflot's operations.

Lufthansa Consulting delivers:

• Hands-on industry expertise and Lufthansa Group experience to customize best practice to Aeroflot's needs
• Infrastructure design and vendor coordination
• Gap analysis on against Lufthansa Consulting knowledge base and industry best practice