Brainstorming- increase number of flights per airplane

I'd break this into small short term efficiency gains and large long term efficiency gains:

Short Term:

(1) Load/unload passengers and cargo more efficiently

(2) Clean & prep for upcoming flights faster

(3) Hire more crew (only makes sense if being understaffed is a limiting factor to having more flights)

(4) Fly shorter routes so you can fit more flights in a period of time

(5) Add routes during times that planes are sitting idle

Long Term:

(1) Buy more dependable planes that are down for repairs less often

(2) Buy planes that have a longer total life span

(3) Buy faster planes that can complete a route in a short period of time

(4) Lobby airport to help optimize taxi-times, decrease runway downtime

EDIT----

Just wanted to add a few caveats related to the responses below.  The context of the case is crucial in assessing the feasibility of any of these ideas.  If the client has a very short-term profitability goal or limited funds for an investment, none of the long term options are viable, except maybe (4).  Additionally, options like “Flying shorter routes” might not be profitable at all, and might be discarded depending on the context.  

Hi there,

With such questions, I would advise you to have a look back at the prompt/ initial problem statement to come up with a valid answer/ list of possible actions (which we don't know).

For example, the airline COO could be unsatisfied with the utilization of the airplanes and tries to make this up by increasing the no. of flights per airplane and thus the revenues per airplane. For instance, flying shorter routes might not necessarily make sense with regards to revenue because if you don't handle operations on the ground, the share of non-flight activities (which are not paid by passengers) will simply increase - even if you would increase the no. of flights per airplane.

Moreover, I would advise you to structure your answer in a way that helps you come up with valid possible actions and the interviewer perceive you as a truly structured thinker. Such a structure could be designed, for instance, by the different procedural steps an airplane goes through:

• Driving to the gate
• Preparing for boarding (getting fueled up, getting other technical checks done, cleaning inside of airplane aso.)
• Boading the passengers
• Driving to the take-off point
• Flying to the destination
• Getting technically checked/ repaired

In case you would like to have a more in-depth discussion on the aviation industry or the whole case study (I assume it is part of one), please feel free to to contact me directly.

I hope that helps,

Hagen

Hi there,

Without seeing the background/ context of the case, we can have the following 3 general "buckets" and few elements under each. Assuming we are talking about the total number of flights over the course of the lifetime of an airplane:

1. How can we extend the lifetime of the airplane?
   1. Utilize more durable airplanes
   2. Increase maintenance checks
   3. …
2. How can we reduce downtime/ idle time of plane?
   1. Improve speed of re-fueling
   2. Improve speed of maintenance checks
   3. Improve speed of luggage/ cargo transfer
   4. …
3. How can we increase speed of flying from origin to destination?
   1. Increase speed of plane
   2. Reduce load of plane
   3. …

Point 1 is about increasing the lifetime of the plane while points 2 and 3 are about increasing the no. of flights within that lifetime.

Please note these are quite general points – we would need to understand the background/ context of case to make more specific points.

Do let me know if you need further support.

Do you mean the lifepsan of an airplane or flights per day/week/year?

If the lifespan, then we can structure this!

1) Buy higher quality planes

2) Maintain airplanes

3) Minimize wear-and-tear (when flying, frequency, etc)