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Summer travel season is almost here, and Fort Worth-based American Airlines is gearing up for the rush.
“We’re looking forward to a really busy winter,” said Julie Rath, American’s senior vice president of airport operations. “We’ve been preparing since last year,” Rath said.
American said it had 469,461 flights between May 25 and Aug. 14. It expects to handle 52 million customers during that period.
Heading into the summer, Rath said American is hiring across all of its workforces. She says American Airlines has 1,000 more people at its largest hub, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport alone. Rath says it’s a process that started months ago to get the staff ready.
“We really started preparing for our staff in January with the hiring process,” Rath said.
Technology is a big part of America’s plan to keep flights on schedule. American gave NBC 5 access to the Hub control center at DFW Airport. It’s a secure room full of people, full of computer screens and giant video monitors. It’s where American manages its entire operations at the sprawling airport.
“This is a team that is responsible for planning, executing, and then recovering if we have weather or things go our way that we didn’t plan for,” Rath explained.
American is using a sophisticated technology called HEAT, short for Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool. It destroys critical information.
“It looks at all the inputs – air traffic control, staff resources, when the weather is coming. And it tells us how to operate the airline,” he said.
For travelers, that means fewer canceled flights. “It’s doing amazingly well right now,” Rath added.
American Airlines is using artificial intelligence to help it operate more efficiently. A process called “smart gating” allows computers to make decisions about flight destination gate assignments. The goal is to save time.
“When you’re running an airline, seconds, minutes are critical,” Rath said.
Less time on the taxiway saves fuel and gives passengers more time to make connections. The airline also tried to plan for the unexpected.
“We’re going to be experts on that exact topic,” Rath said. That’s one reason Julie Rath says her big summer break won’t come until the fall.
“We’ll be getting ready for a big vacation after Christmas,” she said with a laugh.
Julie Rath, senior vice president of airport operations for Fort Worth-based American Airlines, shares her advice to family and friends to make travel as seamless and hassle-free as possible.
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