Flight Planning systems

[Fanatic]

Hi can anyone help me?

I am researching a project which is looking at airline flight planning systems and trying to collate a list of what systems are available, what is good and what is not so good about Commercial Aviation Flight Planning systems.

Is there anyone out there from the airlines who can tell me what system your airline uses? Mainly from a pilot's perspective, what they like about their Company's system and what they don't like?

Thanks in anticipation.
F

[Intruder]

We have used Navtech and FWZ. FWZ is current, though there are rumors of a return to Navtech.

Flight Plan format is much better on FWZ, though I don't know if the enhancements we got are also available on Navtech now.

[Denti]

We currently use LIDO as flightplanning system with an inhouse server farm, so we don't run it at lufthansa systems.

[mutt]

FWZ is current, I understand that Sabre Aviation Solutions have purchased FWZ, that may explain why you are moving to NavTech :):)

Mutt

[tubby linton]

Airdata-probably the worst on the market.Frequently inaccurate flight planing computation and the system crashes on a regular basis.

[Fanatic]

Thanks so far
Could you please state who you fly for and why you think the system you use is so good or bad? That would be a great help.

All providers say their system is the best but what do users think, & why?

ta

[Intruder]

Most of us "users" use what the company buys. We have no say in the decision, and often have little or no experience with other vendors.

[mutt]

When we did this project, we hired expensive consultants with detailed roadmaps, drew up selection criteria of over 600 items, invited a number of companies to give their sales pitch, and then we bought the wrong one!

Mutt

[Denti]

Ah, the absolutely normal management process at work ;)

[jetopa]

I used to work a lot with the result of this planning tool and I always liked its accuracy. Layout of OFPs a bit outdated and the gals and guys from Ops always complained that PPS looked too old-fashioned, buy hey - it worked and alway told me the right numbers in terms of fuel consumption etc.. The routes were mainly correct, too.

They are particularly strong in the GA community, but as far as I heard they also have some airline customers...

[Canuckbirdstrike]

It would help if you expand on what you mean by "good". Many times pilots complain about how information is depicted on the OFP. That is solely a formatting issue for a database output report. If you are concerned about how cost effective the flightplanning choices are that is another question.

I have seen many great looking OFP's but the underlying information is junk. Kind of like an 80 year old after the 5th face lift!

Something to ponder in your analysis: If the flight planning system saves $10/flight in operating costs and you operate 200,000 flights a year (medium size airline) that saves $2 million in costs per year. If you incur a cost of $2 million it can require $35 million ore more in revenue to mitigate the cost in today's low operating margin airlines.

[Intruder]

However, we operators have no idea how much a planning system costs, or what alleged savings might be claimed by the vendor or Flight Ops department. All we see are the results -- the OFP.

[VC9]

Navtechinc can produce a format that suits your operation. Page 2 of our navlog has all the info required for entry into the FMS mostly in the order that it is entered. It also has a selection of winds that are entered at each waypoint in the cruise. Each aircrafts fuel degradation has been entered into the database so it is very accurate. Even though it is designed to be used by flight dispatchers, our pilots use it without i issues. Unfortunately our IT department hasn't bothered to assist with automating some of the functions that are compatible with our crewing system. Pilots were very reluctant about it's introduction but I suspect there would be outrage if it was withdrawn.

[jetopa]

... might be two different things, depending on your perspective.

As a pilot, I want


data accuracy - you want to be sure that the routing filed is really existing that particular day you're flying.

fuel figures that reflect reality - and not what the commercial department might want to see (self explanatory).

data which are as close as possible to WMO-predictions - and it should be impossible to manipulate them in order to make a flight 'dispatchable', from the sales dept. point of view.

easy-to-use OFP layout which reflects your particular needs.


Sounds easy, doesn't it?

From my personal experience, dealing with a rather small company where you had a personal contact to somebody who took care of whatever problem you might have had, made the difference.

[amraam12]

Skyplan Services Ltd. has their own in-house flight planning system with support for over 250 aircraft types and 160 flight plan formats, and the ability to create one to suit your particular needs. Includes the ability to bias the fuel burns to suit the particular aircraft. Can be used by both large airline dispatch departments right down to the individual private aircraft pilot / owner.

amraam