BRITISH Airways is investing a staggering £7billion in AI to cut delays, speed-up baggage handling and bookings – and ensure jets never run out of bubbly.
The Sun was the first media outlet invited inside the airline’s new security-restricted nerve centre – dubbed ‘Mission Control’ – to showcase cutting edge technology making flying better.
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The carrier’s biggest-ever outlay in its business is revolutionising how it works – soaring past rivals with a data-led automated operation which allows passenger complaints to be resolved in real time.
As we were ushered inside BA’s Integrated Operations Control Centre on Wednesday, 95,513 passengers were waiting to board one of the airline’s 712 flights.
In the hectic summer months BA can handle around 140,000 flyers on 850 services a day.
And considering unscheduled issues will hit passengers on around 70% of flights, that’s a lot of unhappy flyers needing urgent help.
So six separate computer systems for different areas of BA have now been jettisoned for one giant global interface which unites the airline – streamlining services and tracking aircraft movements.
The live-data is beamed into BA’s Heathrow hub on huge screens, allowing bosses to take pre-emptive action to limit operational hazards.
“It’s like an elaborate game of computer puzzle Tetris”, Richard Anderson, the airline’s Director of Global Operations, told The Sun.
Ground-breaking immediate responses to limit disruption are now the norm – meaning a smoother and seamless travel experience for flyers.
Latest technology allows managers to liaise with crew and passengers at 30,000ft as problems arise.
The Sun looked on as staff monitored 700 flights in a 24-hour period, with 40 flights in motion at one time.
Electronic updates inside the nerve centre revealed the carrier was hitting 90% punctuality on services leaving Heathrow before 9.30am.
A huge 50% of BA’s operations fly out of the West London airport.
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Across the hub, BA’s ‘Pre-Ops’ team allocates its fleet of 256 aircraft to the airline’s monster schedule.
Staff work alongside the new decision support tool ‘Pathfinder’ to create the optimal combination between aircraft and flights up to 10 days before departure.
The technology uses swathes of data to create a flight schedule minimising delays after analysing weather, air traffic control, aircraft capacity and customer connections.
And BA staff are ready and able to react to sudden events in seconds.
The Sun observed as a weather storm closed in in Iceland, meaning extra BA jets were allocated to the region to ensure passengers would not be stranded.
And hotels were immediately lined up for any passengers still unable to leave Keflavik.
Strike disruption in Frankfurt meant switching the schedule so bigger BA jets with more seats could fly to Germany, preventing travel chaos and stranded passengers.
A passenger dropped off by her mother at the airport in Dusseldorf for a flight to LA via London was airborne when her mum tragically died in a car crash.
BA sorted all the logistics for the devastated flyer, meaning she dodged a four hour US Customs delay in the US and so immediately caught a return flight from LA, landing back in Germany the following day.
Another passenger who missed his Heathrow flight couldn’t then reach his scheduled connection in Hong Kong to get to his son’s graduation in Sydney.
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But thanks to BA’s new system – and crew alerting bosses to the problem – they got him to Australia in time, by landing the next flight out of London at a different aircraft stand in the Chinese state which meant he could avoid queues, and make a connection to reach Oz.
The days of passengers forlornly standing at an airport’s luggage carousel waiting for bags that were not loaded onto the same plane are long gone.
Now, travellers can be alerted to such a mishap while still in the air – with plans immediately in place to reunite them with their bags, and arrange compensation.
No longer will BA passengers be left to fend for themselves.
Even annoyances such as a fault with the inflight entertainment system can be reported immediately – with engineers waiting to fix the problem on touchdown.
And frustrated passengers will be moved seats.
A link up with Paramount Plus means BA flyers will be able to continue watching films or TV series they’ve started on-board after disembarking.
Vouchers and discounts for upset travellers are set to include the US streaming firm’s services.
And catering issues can also be solved without delay.
Last July, after the soft launch of BA’s new technology, The Sun told how BA staff served KFC on-board after a major issue with the inflight food on a flight to the tiny Bahamas hub of Nassau.
Without food the return journey to London had no chance of take-off.
But quick-thinking crew on the outbound service could immediately alert bosses, who had time to place a huge order of chicken – the only food available locally – so passengers could get back to the UK with a plane full of greasy grub.
On a flight to Miami last week Club World passengers drank the plane dry of Champagne.
Crew gave early notice to stock up on bubbly – so returning travellers weren’t flying dry.
Another plane took off with no menus on-board, but BA was able to send details of available dishes to the phones of all its inflight passengers.
The airline’s mammoth £7billion investment means paper-based processes are a thing of the past.
BA Engineering alone used a staggering one billion pieces of paper in a year – including manually recording any defects on pre-flight aircraft inspections.
Now, the entire operation is digitised, and helping save the planet.
Richard Anderson told The Sun: “Welcome to the heart of BA.
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“We made a huge investment in AI and optimisation in 2023 as we came out of Covid.
“Everything we do has the customer at the heart of it.
“This centre is set up to make sure we deliver a safe and punctual operation.”
A massive computer screen in BA’s HQ shows a live visualisation of each aircraft movement in and out of the airport’s cramped two Heathrow runways.
Pink planes are BA jets, the white ones belong to other airlines, flashing amber jets mean the flight is delayed and blue images mean a plane is coming into land.
The colour coding allows staff to track if passengers will make their connecting flights in time.
The initials ‘AMZ’ alert staff to airfield congestion. ‘TDZ’ refers to a technical defect.
Another BA team is in charge of safety-critical load control of planes – checking the weight and balance against fuel use.
Customer care staff now sit scattered throughout each department – including separate short-haul and long-haul hubs, and an aircraft stand planning team.
The real-time data – replacing retrospective analysis – is a God-send for the 40% of BA passengers who are connecting to another flight.
Ajay Dhilon, lead proactive customer care manager at BA, told The Sun: “The new platform, built following a partnership with Microsoft Teams, links our flying crews on board our aircraft to the ground.
“It’s live, ground-to-air wifi connectivity. We are able to resolve customer issues in the moment.
“Sometimes issues can be resolved before even the customer has landed.
“We are able to proactively resolve issues and rebook passengers on flights and find alternative solutions.
“Sometimes things don’t go to plan.
“Things may break on board.
“We are able to recover them there and then.
“We can pre-empt any service failure and mitigate them happening on return services.
“We are a 24/7 team and the technology means many issues are solved without passengers even knowing.
“Cabin crew love the new system because they are no longer alone.
“They have direct communication with us.
“Crew can respond to travellers’ questions and show them that something is being done.
“Now there’s information and answers at the crew’s fingertips.
“They used to be flying ‘blind’, now we are with them every step of the way.”
Next for BA is rolling out the new tech to each hub worldwide, and with other airline partners.
Soon the entire airline will axe time-consuming manual processes with tech-based solutions to ensure that the right information is in the right place at the right time.
Lisa Samways, BA’s Global Operations Business Development Manager, told The Sun: “An analytics company also helped us develop Mission Control.
“We use real-time data to pinpoint exactly where our aircraft are.
“With that we can provide additional information, like our connecting customers requiring any form of extra assistance with delayed flights.
“We can be far more proactive.
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“We can ensure our customers have a more seamless journey.
“And we can use technology to prevent delays in the future.”
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