Much like passengers, airports and airlines want to avoid as much idle time on the runway as possible. Not only can it draw criticism and complaints from travelers, excessive tarmac delays on the runway can incur heavy fines for airlines.
The downpour of issues from long runway delays is why so many airports prioritize efficient gate management. The chances of something bad happening drops with each stride an airport takes in making the process seamless. Even outside of tarmac delays, airlines and pilots need ways to store aircraft in between flights. Smoothing out the airport gate management process makes the experience much less of a headache.
Software is a natural fit for gate management, just as it’s been for almost all airport operations in the past decade. If there’s a lesson in those 10 years, however, it’s that not every airport operations software is a cure-all.
Airport gate management solutions can see a lot of success under the right configuration and the right features. So what should an airport look for in a platform when building a gate management solution?
A Foundation for a Gate Management Solution
We’ve already explored some possible solutions and must haves when it comes to software for airports in this blog post about bringing gate management into the digital airport ecosystem.
But when we drill down into a platform, we have to look at the tools it provides and how those features can be adapted into a solution that solves a particular problem.
Gate management, as an operations, primarily relies on visibility of data and a fluid escalation process. Other aspects also deserve attention, but the two items we outlined in the previous sentence are what we’ll center our airport gate management solution around.
Dashboards facilitate each of these deliverables in some way. With some extra pieces tacked on, a dashboard can go a long way and serve as a central location for all gate management facets. Veoci has dashboards available for all solutions, and the platform’s airport users recognize the value of these information hubs; we’re demonstrating just what dashboards can do through a webinar focused on FAA annual certification inspections, which you can sign up for and watch here.
Veoci is more than just dashboards, however. Forms and workflows allow for data gathering and quick process escalation, and its threaded chats make communications simple. Most importantly, this all happens on one platform, letting all data seamlessly come together for a full operational picture.
Let’s dive a bit more into the solution and see how these features make the solution effective.
How Dashboards Improve Gate Management
Democratized information
Dashboards bring all relevant information to the forefront. This translates to an easy and accessible view of all vacancies, pending parking assignments, and upcoming departures.
Democratizing this operational data puts more power into the hands of the airport team, especially the personnel actively participating in gate management. Centralizing through a dashboard in an airport operations software creates a single picture from which a whole airport can run the operation. Doing so also gives leadership and other parties a sightline into the operation.
There’s another small benefit to dashboards: saved time. Switching between various reports and waiting for data to load can eat a lot of time. Compiling all essential data into one location will give that time back to the gate management operators, allowing them to spend more time strategically assigning gates and preventing runway delays.
One gate for all things gate management
While dashboards bring in data from all corners of a gate management operation, they also present an opportunity to share links and other items with any onlookers.
Veoci dashboards can host links to forms, workflows, chats, other dashboards, and external resources. The objects that feed data into a dashboard can’t do it without some input from personnel on both the airport and airlines sides. Cutting down the pathways all personnel have to take to reach the pieces of the solution that make the dashboard possible will save time and frustration.
Moving the Process Forward
We mentioned how other pieces of a solution, like forms and workflows, and dashboards, but what do they shoulder for the operation?
Gate management is effectively a collaboration between airport personnel, airline personnel, or some combination of both. Veoci, for example, uses workflows and forms facilitate the behind-the-scenes work that shows itself on dashboards and push the process along. The platform sends notifications to the right parties as things progress.
A configuration like the one described above gets close to automating the process and does what software for airports should: allows airport personnel to focus more on developing issues or other ongoing operations.
