{"id":1128,"date":"2016-10-19T08:41:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:41:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:41:03","slug":"a-juggling-act-the-dispatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/a-juggling-act-the-dispatcher\/","title":{"rendered":"A Juggling Act: The Dispatcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDon\u2019t assume.\u00a0 Verify, verify, verify.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s good advice from James, an experienced dispatcher working for one of the largest passenger and cargo airlines in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The job of dispatching, on its face, seems straightforward and simple:\u00a0 Prepare legal releases, make sure they are sent to the crews, follow the flights along their journey, and coordinate with the crews on any unexpected issues that pop up.\u00a0 The reality, however, is that the dispatch center for an airline of this size is a complicated beehive of activity.\u00a0 They work to safely dispatch flights to and from 6 continents 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

From the time James arrives at work for his morning shift at 0300z, the unexpected is the rule rather than the exception.\u00a0 The workload is high: during a twelve hour shift, James might dispatch between 22 and 27 flights, three or four of which might be Ultra Long Range (ULR) operations.\u00a0 The goal is to have the releases ready six hours in advance.\u00a0 That seems like a lot of time, but for ULR operations it can take between one-and-a-half and two hours to plan a flight.\u00a0 The aviation business is dynamic\u2014this is especially true in the Middle East.\u00a0 As departure time approaches, James might have to revise the release five times due to changes in aircraft loading.\u00a0 The goal is to order enough fuel to complete the flight successfully, but not so much as to detrimentally impact the economic viability of the flight.\u00a0 It is a constant juggling act where one has to always be flexible.\u00a0 \u201cYou try to stay organized and pace yourself,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

\"Emirates\"But the clock is always running, and delays can cost money\u2014big money.\u00a0 Operations from Europe and the Middle East to India and Southeast Asia can prove especially challenging in this regard.\u00a0 There is an enormous amount of traffic on these routes and every aircraft must transit the Muscat FIR.\u00a0 Muscat doesn\u2019t have radar coverage over much of its area of responsibility, so air traffic control is done the old fashioned way: position reports and time estimates.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t like flying through radar controlled airspace; separation between aircraft must be increased to ensure safety.\u00a0 To accommodate all of the flights, every day at 1500z until 0000z Muscat institutes strict flow control through its FIR.\u00a0 Missing a departure time by even a few minutes can result in your planned altitude being unavailable, resulting in an increase in fuel burn.\u00a0 \u201cMissing a slot time means getting stuck at FL270 all the way across the Indian Ocean,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

The African continent offers particular dispatching challenges not seen elsewhere in the world.\u00a0 Africa is a morass of differing rules and regulations that can change whenever an aircraft crosses an international border.\u00a0 Overflight privileges\u00a0 must be obtained well in advance and prescribed company routes must be rigidly adhered to.\u00a0 If an aircraft unexpectedly wanders into the wrong county\u2019s airspace, \u201cyou might find yourself in a spot of bother,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

NOTAM communication in Africa is notoriously poor.\u00a0 James tells the story of a recent flight where the crew was advised that the airport in Nairobi was closed after they were airborne; in fact, they were less than two hours out.\u00a0 James quickly began coordinating with the Kenyan authorities and planning viable divert alternatives.\u00a0 The Kenyan voice on the other end of the phone insisted that, although the airport was technically closed, it would be no problem for the aircraft to land.\u00a0 \u201cThis really isn\u2019t the way we should be doing business,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

While Africa presents challenges, flights over China experience route rigidity unequaled throughout the world.\u00a0 When an aircraft needs to change course for weather avoidance, the common response from Chinese air traffic control is, \u201cmaintain the airway.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do dispatchers plan safe routes through such extensively controlled airspace?\u00a0 Preflight planning must include a very careful look at the weather and NOTAMS for active restricted airspace and incorporate routing that give dangerous areas a wide berth.\u00a0 \u201cYou plan as conservatively as you can, but you have a limited selection of routes that are approved six months in advance,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

Dispatching for a global airline presents many challenges.\u00a0 Professionals like James have become outstanding information gatherers, meteorology gurus, and consummate diplomats negotiating a wide range of cultures and national regulations.\u00a0 For a dispatcher, curiosity is an important risk management tool.\u00a0 Nothing is left to chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDon\u2019t assume.\u00a0 Verify, verify, verify.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s good advice from James, an experienced dispatcher working for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}