The circumstances in which airlines operate are changing more quickly than predicted in annual budget plans. Not many airlines can manage these changes efficiently.
Planners that continue to predict the future by extrapolating from the past expose their organisation to a higher level of operational and financial risks - typical for legacy airlines with the inherited planning techniques with no space for complexities experienced in real life.
The wider the gap between plans and reality, the more improvised is the decision making resulting in more disrupted and more costly operation.
However paradoxical it may sound, disruptions could be turned into an executive ally in controling and managing disruptions. Those who learn to ‘read’ them will better understand the true causes and consequences of operational changes, will have better chances to make them less damaging, and will be rewarded with more returning customers.
