Profile: heyetec
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What's Happening Now
July 23, 2010 10:35 am
Thank you for the comment, heyetec. You seem to have some knowledge about the relationship between airlines and local airports. The DOT is interested to know if it would be possible for tarmac contingency plans to be part of the airlines contract of service? Is this possible or are tarmac delays so uncertain that enforcing an airline wide policy simply is not practical?
July 28, 2010 11:19 am
Thank you for your comment. Would you mind elaborating on the six sigma approach? Thank you!
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Handling Tarmac delays requires coordination between the airline and the local airport. The cause of the delay could be anything in the transportation system, ground or flight equipment problems, local or destination weather, crew issues,etc., but the accommodation of the passengers relies on the airport’s ability to handle them. Therefore, the airline must work with each airport it serves to develop a plan for that airline at that airport.
A clause in the Contract of Carriage could require that the airline establish a Tarmac Delay Contingency Plan with each airport the airline uses. Furthermore, the airline must keep relevant ststistics about delays and their handling, conduct periodic reviews and revise the plan with the goal of improving customer satisfaction and reducing the causes for the delays (a Six-Sigma approach). I think anything more specific would be unworkable.
Six Sigma is a process that improves quality by
1. Assigning an executive for improving quality (eliminating or reducing the problem).
2. Identifying problems and ranking them according to accepted criteria.
3. Developing and implementing a process for correcting the highest priority problem.
4 Collecting data to measure changes to the problem (getting better or worse).
4. Reporting results of the data collection and modifying the problem correction process whenever the data indicate the problem is not improving.
6. Return to step 2 until the problem is reduced to acceptable levels.
7. Go to the the next problem.