The Challenge
- The merger of India’s national carriers – Air India, Indian Airlines, Alliance Air and Air India Express – into Air India brought serious issues to the fore, the biggest being the management of change.
- Making the implementation of a CMS more daunting were the multiple crew unions and the umpteen crew categories.
- DGCA’s new FDTL deadline had also put the carrier at high risk of being listed non-compliant.
- The incumbent application provider failed to deliver a system that addressed the new FDTL Rules.
- Crew Data was scattered in silos and was difficult to collate.
- There was lack of clarity on rules and guidelines across the multi-type operations of the merged entity.
The Solution
- ARMS® V2.5 Crew Management Sub-System (CMSS) – the first system to clear a DGCA Audit for New FDTL Rules – was offered on a hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Model, as a turnkey solution.
- Being offered on a pay-per-use (OPEX) model, there was no upfront capitalization (CAPEX).
- The proposition included: Project Management, Data Services, Training & Customization.
- The project covered Flight Deck Crew and Cabin Crew for both wide-body and the narrow-body fleets.
The Result
- ARMS® V2 was first deployed at Air India Express in a record time of three (03) months and the DGCA audit was cleared as per schedule.
- The ARMS® team assisted AI to progressively collate, sanitize and encode all the crew data across the merged erstwhile entities.
- The system was customized to address all the complexities of multiple unions rule sets and crew types.
- Against the odds and user resistance, the Auto-Roster function was customized and operationalized within a year from initial deployment.
- Air India Executive Management finally decided to terminate the incumbent application provider and migrate completely to ARMS® V2 CMSS