Mark, could you tell us a little about yourself and what you do at SWISS?
Sure. I’ve been with SWISS since 2002. And my job today is Head of Operations Steering. That means I’m in charge of the Operations Control Center or OCC, which is home to our Operations Control, Hub Control, Flight Dispatch and Passenger Irregularity Handling. I’ve actually been in flight operations for my entire working career: before I joined SWISS, I was an operations controller at Crossair. So I really am a total ‘operations (ops) guy’.

The OCC is the nerve centre for all our operations. What would you say are your teams’ main tasks?
My teams monitor and manage our day-to-day flight operations, because no day ever runs the way you planned it. Our Network colleagues draw up flight schedules months in advance, and these always look great on paper. What we can never plan for, though, are factors like the weather, technical problems with the aircraft, sick crew members… day-to-day life, in other words. When all these situational variables get factored in, we in the OCC have to take a series of decisions in response: switching aircraft, delaying a flight or maybe even cancelling it entirely. In doing so, of course, we have to very carefully consider what impact our action will have on the customers and crews. Which is where SWISS NOC comes in: Network Operations Control.

We assume that summer is always a stressful time in the aviation industry. But why are things particularly challenging this year?
Partly because we have an exceptionally large amount of strike action in various European countries, and partly because of the extreme weather we’re experiencing. So far, 2018 had been the record year for cancellations due to strikes. But we’ve already broken that negative record this year, and did so as early as April. The ‘bise’ wind conditions are causing us a lot of delays, too. We’ve had ten consecutive days of bise in the last couple of weeks. That’s something I’ve never experienced before in all my "ops" years. And it poses us a major challenge, too.

How do these bise wind conditions affect your day-to-day work?
They reduce Zurich Airport’s capacity. In normal weather conditions, the airport can accommodate around 40 landings an hour. But when the bise is blowing, that falls to just 30. This causes Zurich arrivals to stack up; and this in turn leads to landing delays. What we then have as a result is passengers missing their onward connections, aircraft not being ready in time for their next rotation and delays for their crews, too. We try to keep the effects of all this to a minimum. But we can never eliminate them completely. The priority for us in all such situations is to maintain as much schedule stability as we can. That means avoiding cancellations wherever possible and accepting that flights will be delayed instead. That way, at least we don’t end up stranding the passengers concerned.

With all these exogenous factors like the strikes and the wind, what can you actually do yourselves to keep flight schedules as stable as possible?
Make sure you’ve done your homework! And we have. Our crew reserves are more robust than they were last year. And we’ve ensured we have sufficient aircraft, too. In fact, we’ve been more conservative in all our summer planning, because we saw the warning signs early that this summer would be a challenge. We’ve also made sure that we have adequate resources within the OCC. All this conservative planning will give us more scope within the system, and will help us respond effectively in the event of delays. Our paramount objective for this summer is to keep our schedules as stable as can be. But it’s only through all the many efforts of our entire team that we’ll be able to do so. Having said that, we will still see and feel shortages at our service providers – at our handling agents, for example, and also with the security check personnel at Zurich Airport.

If you could make one request to SWISS passengers for the next few weeks, what would it be?
Give yourselves ample time to get to the airport for your flight, and get there in good time, too – at least two hours before scheduled departure is the current recommendation. It also helps us a lot in our daily work if, when they book their flight, our customers provide us with a way of contacting them should we need to do so: their travel agent’s email address won’t be of much use in the event of a delay. It also really helps us if our customers register themselves in the new Travel ID. It helps them, too: if they log in under their profile to the SWISS App or at swiss.com, they can see all their flights at a glance, along with any changes or delays.  

How do you unwind from your hectic working days?
I love to travel, and I love spending time with my family, who are hugely important to me. That’s usually escape enough: life’s never dull with four children between 12 and 23!

When’s your next trip, then?
Not in the next few weeks! But in September we’re off to Zimbabwe and South Africa. My wife was born in Johannesburg, so we often head down south.

Many thanks, Mark, for your time and your insights!