At the very start of the global pandemic airlines had to make rapid – and major – adjustments to their flight schedules as demand fell away and travel restrictions prevented flying. Throughout the past 18 months airlines have remained ‘light on their feet’, continually adjusting their schedules to optimise networks and capacity to meet travel demand as and when it occurs. The notion of planning an airline schedule for the next 6 months still seems like a distant memory but schedule volatility is improving. It still has some way to go before it achieves the stability that was once familiar, but the trend is in the right direction.
Measuring Volatility
One way to measure volatility is to compare the volume of airline capacity in the schedule two weeks in advance of flights being scheduled to depart and comparing this with the airline capacity at the start of the actual week when flights are scheduled. The volatility is the change that takes place in those two weeks and can be…