When airline schedules do not go according to plan, we often see airline managers seeking answers to the wrong questions. They gather reams of unreliable data on delays to justify poor operational performance and discuss the issues during the regular delay meetings. Much of precious management time is wasted on the analysis of insignificant problems that could be resolved locally at the operational level. These meetings often include unrelated problems, solutions, goals, interests, and concerns.
So, a meeting called to discuss delays and other operational disruptions may become a discussion about staff absenteeism, a dysfunctional computer unit, scheduling oversights, software errors, passenger compensation, or similar problems. These issues could be fixed locally.
It's challenging to understand why management attention is not more focused on the problems that matter most, such as the true origins of the most costly delays and other disruptions that spread widely across the airline, impacting passengers.
It looks like the reluctance to view the problems through more powerful lenses gives those in charge of organizational wellbeing a false sense of security, leading to incremental decline.
Airlines deserve and can do better than this!
