Tag: Delta Airlines

Video Tip: Feeding Delta Airlines’ Passengers

Airlines know passengers aren’t picking flights because they prefer one carrier’s short rib to a rival’s ravioli. And most coach passengers on domestic flights still have to pay if they want more than a small snack, although complimentary meals are available on a handful of the longest cross-country flights.

But food is a key part of the passenger experience, and airlines have been making investments in recent years. That includes partnering with outside chefs, offering more choices and mining data on passengers’ likes and dislikes.

Even with changes, don’t expect Michelin to start awarding stars. Feeding customers at 35,000 feet brings challenges terrestrial restaurants don’t have to deal with.

Dishes need to hold up after being chilled and reheated in flight. Flight attendants, who handle final food prep, are busy and are not chefs. And even gourmet food suffers in flight, where low air pressure and dry air dull flavors.

But let’s take an inside look at how Delta Airlines uses operations management processes to make it work. In this 4 and 1/2-minute video click here we can watch the story as told by The Wall Street Journal on March 31, 2023. We see that at Delta’s largest kitchen facility at its hub in Atlanta, teams must cook, package and transport 3,200 meals a day for the airline’s first-class passengers.

Today’s airline meals, of course, do not compare to the 1950s and 1960s, which was dubbed the “golden age of air travel,” when multi-course meals and alcohol were served on board to economy fliers, as we see in the photo.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What technology is Delta employing?
  2. How does it handle scheduling for delivery to flites?
  3. What is the facility’s layout?

OM in the News: Everything Has a Life Cycle, Including the 747

Retired Delta 747s in the Arizona desert

There may be no airliner as recognizable as the Boeing 747, the world’s first jumbo jet, with its iconic hump of an upper deck. The introduction of the “Queen of the Skies” was a triumph of engineering and grace: unprecedented size and speed with spiral-staircase international glamour. But the airline business has changed, and the giant plane has become more expensive to operate. A couple of weeks ago, the final 747 flight by any commercial U.S. airline took to the sky.

“Like so many others before it,” writes The New York Times (Jan. 20, 2018), “the plane was heading to the Southwest to retire.”  Hours after takeoff from Delta’s Atlanta hub, the jet was circling Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, making its final approach to Pinal Airpark, between Phoenix and Tucson. It’s an ideal place to store airplanes long-term, and about 120 aircraft are parked there now, scattered across the desert floor. The dry air prevents major corrosion, so their parts can be used to help keep other planes flying. About 50% of the retirees are stripped and sold for scrap. But some end up working for air carriers in Africa, Asia and South America, for whom buying a used aircraft is a lot more affordable than buying new, even though they are less fuel-efficient.

The 747 aircraft was a marvel for when it was built. But, a marvel of 1960s engineering is not necessarily suited to 2018 industry needs. Many airlines are moving to a business model that focuses on connecting more cities directly with smaller, more fuel-efficient planes, rather than funneling passengers through a few large hubs. As we state in Chapter 5: “Products are born. They live and they die.”

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. How is production of a 747 different from making a 737?
  2. What are the major OM issues facing Boeing, as maker of the 747, and customers of the plane, such as Delta?

OM in the News: How Alaska and Delta Airlines Reengineered Quality Control

If you fly a lot, you will want to read this article in The Wall Street Journal (Jan.5, 2012) and use it in class when you cover the topic of Managing  Quality (Ch.6). It begins by dealing with American Airlines, which ranked dead last (again) in customer service in the Journal’s annual analysis of major air carriers. The score card ranks airlines on on-time arrivals, delays, cancelled flights, missing bags, bumped passengers , and complaints filed with the DOT.

Alaska  Airlines, which overhauled its operations in 2007 after several dismal years of reliability came in 1st in 4 of the 7 key operational areas. What did it do to change? For one thing, Alaska has set 50 internal quality checkpoint standards on a timeline for each departure. Flight attendants have to be on board 45 min. before departure; agents must board the 1st passenger 40 min. before departure; 90% of passengers need to be boarded 10 min. before departure; the cargo door must be opened 3 min. after arrival; the 1st bag has to be on the conveyor belt within 15 min. of arrival; and so on with 45 other measures for which data are collected on every flight.

Similarly, Delta engineered a major operational turnaround last year after coming in 2nd worst in punctuality and baggage handling and worst in cancelled flights and customer complaints. It has opened maintenance operations in 9 new cities to keep more its fleet ready to fly. It has also invested in a new baggage system and new technology in its operations control center. “There are a lot of side benefits of running a good, clean operation”, says Delta’s VP-Operations.

Discussion questions:

1. Why do some airlines, like Jet Blue, have a terrible problems with delayed flights, while others, like Alaska, do not?

2. What quality measures would students select to monitor besides the ones mentioned here?

OM in the News: Tracking Your Bags Online at Delta Airlines

Under  pressure from the federal government to deal with lost luggage issues, airlines are responding with some unique customer service  approaches–thanks to OM. For example, we noted in this blog a few months back that Alaska Airlines has set up new processes that guarantee bags will arrive within 20 minutes after the plane parks at the gate–or else customers get $20 or 2,000 points.

The Wall Street Journal (April 23-24,2011) just reported that Delta Airlines has started a new online service to let customers track the whereabouts of their checked bags. Launched a few weeks ago, passengers can follow their bags from scanning at check-in, to the flight they are loaded on, and then to arrival at baggage claim. Delta says, “Letting passengers see where their bags are can cut down on worries and calls when a bag doesn’t show up on the carousel on time”.

Tracking can be done on Delta’s website with a mobile phone or a laptop. And if a bag is lost, the passenger can now file a claim online at the same site. If you have ever had to wait for a bag that never arrived, then queued up for an hour to file a claim —and who hasn’t— this use of technology in service (see Ch.7) is a clever advancement.

The concept, of course, is not new. FedEx has been tracking packages for decades. United Airlines has for a year used FedEx to offer overnight delivery of golf bags, skis, and suitcases ($79-$99 each way), and allowed passengers to track their possessions online. And Ford used to offer buyers a chance to track their car through the production process.

Delta, by the way, is already well below the industry average for lost bags, and has improved 27% from last year’s 4.04 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

Discussion questions:

1. Is this really a critical new service? Or does it resemble the Ford marketing tool?

2. What are some other service technologies the airlines can employ?

3. Why do airlines have vastly different lost baggage rates?

Teaching Tip: Computing Break-Even for an Airline Flight

 At what price does an airline break-even when it sells you a ticket to fly from Point A to Point B? It’s an interesting question and makes a good example for covering break-even in Supp.7 (see Figure S7.5).

Fortune  (March 23,2011) just provided an excellent analysis, along with an interactive pie chart that allows you to alter the price of fuel. It takes Delta’s flight from Los Angeles to La Guardia (NY), with a brief layover in Detroit, as its basis. With the average price of a one-way ticket (including 1st class) on this particular flight of $506, Delta was making a $33 profit per ticket in 2010. When fuel was pre-Mideast instability  jitters just a few months ago, $98 of the cost was in that one item, the largest of all costs incurred.

Today, the profit is down to $4! Fortune makes the point that if you fly coach on a competitive route, the carrier is probably in the red. (Hello baggage, pillow, and food fees).

Here is the cost breakdown: Labor ,$95; Plane rent/ownership, $26; Non-plane rents,$17; Nonemployee labor, $32; Payments to partners, $54; Interest, $12; Taxes/fees, $75; Other/misc., $63.

As the flight begins, with a 23 min. boarding time and a 24 min. taxi to the runway, Delta has already spent over $1,000 in labor, fuel, and maintenance. Flying to the layover in Detroit costs $11,674, and getting to the gate another $309.

I think using the interactive fuel price graph makes a point that any flying student will appreciate.