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Alaska Airlines Using NBA Strategy To Keep Flights On Time
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12/19/2007 1:54 p.m.
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Like basketball superstars, Alaska Airlines' Seattle station employees now have countdown timers to help them keep the airline on schedule.
Introduced by the National Basketball Association in 1954, the 24-second shot clock is designed to keep basketball games moving by requiring players to attempt a field goal within a set amount of time. Much of the popularity of professional basketball is credited to the invention of the shot clock.
Alaska Airlines hopes its new Ramp Information Display System (RIDS) will have the same effect.
Currently located at eight gates at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the three- by eight-foot electronic displays show the number, destination, and scheduled arrival and departure time of a specific flight. Like an NBA shot clock, they also indicate how many minutes remain before the aircraft is scheduled to depart.
The 170-pound screens are positioned high on the side of the terminal building, where they can be seen by ramp service agents, aircraft technicians and pilots. Smaller displays featuring much of the same information are being installed inside jetways, where flight attendants can view them without stepping off the aircraft.
"Having the same information easily available to gate agents, pilots, flight attendants, ramp service agents and others helps improve coordination between all of the work groups responsible for getting a flight off on time," said Bryan Bean, RIDS project manager.
Information displayed on the screens is automatically updated every 60 seconds from the VISOPS database, with changes received from the ACARS and Gate Sheet systems. Operations agents at the station input delays and gate changes manually.
Response to the RIDS has been universally positive.
"I haven't heard a negative word," Bean said.
Geoff Harting, dispatch supervisor for Menzies Aviation in Seattle, agrees. "I wish we had one at every gate," he said.
Ryan Zimmer, a Menzies ramp service agent at Sea-Tac, also appreciates the information provided by the RIDS.
"It helps me identify crews that are struggling," he said. "If I see a crew that still has three carts of bags to load and the RIDS screen shows the flight is scheduled to push back in five minutes, I know I need to put some additional help on that flight."
Plans call for RIDS to be installed at every gate on the C and D concourses at Sea-Tac, as well as Alaska Airlines' gates in the North Satellite terminal by next summer.
"We have also begun the permitting process to install them at all of our gates in LAX, Portland and Anchorage, if given the green light to proceed," said Bean.
Alaska's RIDS were produced by South Dakota-based Daktronics, one of the world's largest manufacturers of programmable display screens.
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