Aviation Organisations Research Articles

Management Systems in Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities to Upgrade to an Integrated Management System

Airlines’ principal focus these days is on managing safety risks. However, multiple management systems are established individually to manage other risks without any form of interoperability to function as one integrated management system, to have a holistic view of the different risks in an organisation. This study will review if an integrated management system can be developed by looking at the interoperability of existing management systems to define a common standard/language across all individual management systems, to work as one integrated system. A survey was developed and rolled out via aviation organisations towards airlines to capture the quantitative data on how management systems are implemented, as these data are currently unavailable. The main contribution of this article is that it provides an overview of how management systems are implemented within airlines today, how they work together, and where interoperability could be improved between different systems. This paper provides the primary outcome of the survey, an overview of the status of interoperability between the different systems, and where interactions could be improved. Findings have shown that although different management systems are implemented, there needs to be a correlation to be able to work as an integrated system. Secondly, different management systems speak different risk languages with work against integration. Finally, large airlines with a fleet of over 50 aircraft have less integration between their different management systems. Besides the lack of regulations, IMS in aviation needs more research. This paper’s contribution lies here, as it provides an overview of which management systems are implemented in the aviation industry and if integration exists between those. Due to the limited research in this field, this paper, with the survey results, provides new insights into if and how interoperability exists between different systems in aviation. It also provides a unique insight into the different management systems airlines use. The results will be used in the following research phase to develop a concept for an integrated management system, one language, on which other management systems can be built.

Airport business models and the COVID-19 pandemic: An exploration of the UK case study

The COVID-19 pandemic had been a major crisis for the air transport industry due to its global reach, duration, and continuing uncertainty. Demand for air travel fell globally by around 90% in the period immediately following the introduction of lockdown restrictions which induced significant revenue loss for the industry and led to widespread bankruptcies and job losses. Within this extremely challenging business environment, commercially operated airports have struggled.This paper investigates how airport management has been impacted by this sudden and prolonged fall in the demand for air travel. Specifically, the UK case was studied through the Business Model Canvas, with documentary evidence supplemented with 31 in-depth interviews from the Government, airports, airlines, and other aviation organisations and from a variety of stakeholder roles within airports across the country. Interviewees were asked about how airport business models responded to COVID-19 and how they were likely to change in the future as a consequence.The findings suggest that COVID-19 encouraged airports to restructure key components in their business models. Fundamentally, airports have significant fixed costs, and it has been especially challenging to run terminals and operations with little or no revenue from conventional channels. The study finds airports were introducing more flexibility into their cost base while diversifying their revenue streams into areas such as developing business parks and enhancing retail portfolios. This is leading to a restructuring of airport business models to improve resilience to future systemic shocks. Overall, 4 future airport business drivers and approaches have emerged: 1) Cost-effectiveness and minimisation, 2) Diversification of revenue streams and intensified commercial activities, 3) Enhanced digitalisation and operational efficiency, and 4) Sustainability focused approach.

The case for change: aviation worker wellbeing during the COVID 19 pandemic, and the need for an integrated health and safety culture

The workplace is an important setting for health protection, health promotion and disease prevention. Currently, health and wellbeing approaches at an aviation organisational level are not addressing both human and safety needs. This issue has been intensified since the COVID 19 pandemic. This paper reports on the findings of a survey pertaining to aviation worker wellbeing and organisational approaches to managing wellbeing and mental health. The survey was administered at two different time periods during the COVID 19 pandemic (2020 and 2021). Collectively, feedback was obtained from over 3000 aviation workers. Survey feedback indicates that aviation workers are experiencing considerable challenges in relation to their health and wellbeing. These challenges are not being adequately addressed at an organisational level, which creates risk both from an individual and flight safety perspective. The descriptive findings of both surveys along with a regression analysis is used to make a principled case for augmenting the existing approach to managing aviation worker wellbeing (including mental health), at both an organisational and regulatory level. It is argued that aviation organisations, with the support of the regulator should implement a preventative, ethical and evidence-based strategy to managing wellbeing and mental health risk. Critically, aviation organisations need to advance and integrated health, wellbeing, and safety culture. This necessitates an alignment of human, business, and safety objectives, as articulated in concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and responsible work. Critically, this approach depends on trust and the specification of appropriate protections, so that aviation workers feel safe to routinely report wellbeing levels and challenges, and their impact on operational safety.

Key performance indicators for turboelectric distributed propulsion

PurposeRecent advancements in electrified transportation have been necessitated by the need to reduce environmentally harmful emissions. Accordingly, several aviation organisations and governments have introduced stringent emission reduction targets for 2050. One of the most promising technologies proposed for achieving these targets is turboelectric distributed propulsion (TeDP). The objective of this study was to explore and identify key indicators for enhancing the applicability of TeDP in air transportation.Design/methodology/approachAn enhancement valuation method was proposed to overcome the challenges associated with TeDP in terms of technological, economic and environmental impacts. The result indicators (RIs) were determined; the associated performance indicators (PIs) were analysed and the key RIs and PIs for TeDP were identified. Quantitative measurements were acquired from a simulated TeDP case study model to estimate the established key PIs.FindingsIt was determined that real-world TeDP efficiency could be enhanced by up to 8% by optimising the identified key PIs.Originality/valueThis study is the first to identify the key PIs of TeDP and to include a techno-economic environmental risk analysis (TERA) based on the identified key PIs. The findings could guide developers and researchers towards potential focus areas to realise the adoption of TeDP.

Statistics and Analysis of Aircraft Collisions with Birds (Bird Strikes) in Military Aviation

Abstract The article describes statistical data regarding bird strikes with military aircraft (A/C) and analyses them applying the method of probabilistic criteria. The presented analytical materials can be used by planning undertakings aimed at ensuring flight safety in aviation organisations and at the airports.

Developing a systemic lessons learned knowledge model for organisational learning through projects

A significant challenge for government and business project organisations is to ensure that lessons are learned and that mistakes of the past are not repeated. Both knowledge and project management literature suggests that in practice lessons learned processes rarely happen, and when it does it is concerned with lessons identification rather than organisational learning. There are limited practical models for general management to use to conceptualise what organisational learning is and therefore how to enable it. However, aspects of health care, nuclear power, rail, and aviation organisations have successfully implemented organisational learning by way of the Swiss cheese model for safety and systemic failures. This paper proposes an adaptation of the Swiss cheese model to enable project organisations to conceptualise how they learn from past project experiences and distribute successful project know-how across an organisational network of elements such as individual learning, culture, social, technology, process and infrastructure.

Social complex adaptive systems. A response to Haggis

A significant challenge for government and business project organisations is to ensure that lessons are learned and that mistakes of the past are not repeated. Both knowledge and project management literature suggests that in practice lessons learned processes rarely happen, and when it does it is concerned with lessons identification rather than organisational learning. There are limited practical models for general management to use to conceptualise what organisational learning is and therefore how to enable it. However, aspects of health care, nuclear power, rail, and aviation organisations have successfully implemented organisational learning by way of the Swiss cheese model for safety and systemic failures. This paper proposes an adaptation of the Swiss cheese model to enable project organisations to conceptualise how they learn from past project experiences and distribute successful project know-how across an organisational network of elements such as individual learning, culture, social, technology, process and infrastructure.

Human factors in safety and business management

Human factors in safety is concerned with all those factors that influence people and their behaviour in safety-critical situations. In aviation these are, for example, environmental factors in the cockpit, organisational factors such as shift work, human characteristics such as ability and motivation of staff. Careful consideration of human factors is necessary to improve health and safety at work by optimising the interaction of humans with their technical and social (team, supervisor) work environment. This provides considerable benefits for business by increasing efficiency and by preventing incidents/accidents. The aim of this paper is to suggest management tools for this purpose. Management tools such as balanced scorecards (BSC) are widespread instruments and also well known in aviation organisations. Only a few aviation organisations utilise management tools for human factors although they are the most important conditions in the safety management systems of aviation organisations. One reason for this is that human factors are difficult to measure and therefore also difficult to manage. Studies in other domains, such as workplace health promotion, indicate that BSC-based tools are useful for human factor management. Their mission is to develop a set of indicators that are sensitive to organisational performance and help identify driving forces as well as bottlenecks. Another tool presented in this paper is the Human Resources Performance Model (HPM). HPM facilitates the integrative assessment of human factors programmes on the basis of a systematic performance analysis of the whole system. Cause–effect relationships between system elements are defined in process models in a first step and validated empirically in a second step. Thus, a specific representation of the performance processes is developed, which ranges from individual behaviour to system performance. HPM is more analytic than BSC-based tools because HPM also asks why a certain factor is facilitating or obstructing success. A significant need for research and development is seen here because human factors are of increasing importance for organisational success. This paper suggests integrating human factors in safety management of aviation businesses – a top-ranking partner of technology and finance – and managing it with professional tools. The tools HPM and BSC were identified as potentially useful for this purpose. They were successfully applied in case studies briefly presented in this paper. In terms of specific safety-steering tools in the aviation industry, further elaboration and empirical study is crucial. Statement of Relevance: The importance of human factors is recognised by operators at the sharp end of aviation, where flights are conducted or coordinated. At the blunt end, measurement tools are needed to manage operational resources.