Case Study

Ryanair

Ryanair's rapid growth has transformed the airline industry in Europe over the past decade. Arconics AirPortal is part of that success story.

Over the past ten years Ryanair has grown its traffic from under 700,000 to over 15 million passengers per year. This is forecast to reach almost 24 million in 2004. With 84 destinations in 16 countries and over 140 routes, it is predicted to be Europe's biggest airline within eight years. 

As Ryanair expanded across Europe, documentation overheads increased and managing operational information become more complex. Ryanair implemented a crew documentation system based on Arconics AirPortal.

"We use it as the main platform for two-way communication with our pilots," says the airline's Head of IT, Brona Kernan, adding that it is being extended to cabin crew shortly. The company has crew in ten bases across Europe, she adds, and they are never together at a central physical location, so the AirPortal is the "common central system and communication channel for them".

Operational and HR

• The AirPortal system is used to distribute the wide range of information required by flight crew:
• Operational information, including Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) and Flight Crew Instructions (FCIs)
• Human resources information, such as rosters and memos
• Updates to pilots' printed manuals
• The system deals with both electronic and paper-based documentation. Most of the operational and HR information distributed through AirPortal is in electronic format only. However, the system also manages the distribution of updates to the company's printed Boeing manuals. The updates are distributed electronically for pilots to print out locally and insert in their personal copy of the Boeing Manual.

Crew can access the AirPortal system from workstations at base or from home as required.

"We also use it as a way of capturing information back from the crew," says Brona Kernan, "Crew can apply for annual leave, swaps or raise a query. They can also record any operational issues."

She emphasises the value of feedback from flight crew, who visit all the company's airports each day. "They are our eyes and ears on the ground in all these airports. We use Arconics to capture that information."

Paper manuals

Distributing updates to Ryanair's paper manuals was a real problem before the deployment of Arconics AirPortal. "We had to try and say 'look, section 15, pages 1 to 4, take the old ones out of your manual and put the new ones in.' We had to have some way of trying to ensure that they signed that they got those changes. The more distributed and pan-European we became, this became a nightmare."

Information quality was also a problem with human resources material. "Memos were sent to bases to be placed on a memo board.  We couldn't be sure that they got there or were placed on the memo board. We can monitor who's logged in to the site, what they've seen, what they've looked at. If somebody says that they never saw it, we can say 'Yes, you did.'"

Arconics AirPortal puts Ryanair in control of crew documentation, controlling who can access documents and making some items a mandatory read. Crew logging in to the system must read these compulsory documents and acknowledge that they have read them. System managers can monitor compliance with compulsory reads and generate lists of any that are outstanding.

Choosing Arconics

Ryanair evaluated several content management systems before selecting Arconics AirPortal. The deciding factors included the level of control that AirPortal offered over documentation and the fact that it could be managed by the system users in Flight Operations.

"It is managed by one of our flight captains," says Brona Kernan. "IT had an involvement in setting up the base templates, but then from day to day it is managed by the flight operations personnel."

She says that the deployment was straightforward and the system is very stable. During the deployment, Arconics provided a short training course to the IT staff and the chief user in Flight Operations. No further training has been required since then.

Savings

Ryanair has made substantial savings in tangible costs, including paper and printing costs. The company is also aware of the less tangible benefits of Arconics AirPortal in guaranteeing both the quality of information and the assurance that it has been delivered.

Brona Kernan sums up the effect of Arconics AirPortal: "It has enabled Ryanair to communicate quality, timely, effective information to a distributed employee base, providing both tangible cost savings and intangible benefits, and supported the growth of our flight operations and cabin crew staff numbers."

Key features

• The Arconics AirPortal deployment was tailored to deliver maximum benefit for the airline. Key features include:
• User manager configured to match the airline's organisational structure.
• User permission system that allows publisher easily to control document. distribution, by individual or group.
• Classification system to organise system content.
• Input templates to ensure all documents have proper structure and metadata.
• Integration with the airline's crew database and daily synchronisation.
• Automatic expiry function removes content at the end of its life cycle.
• Fully dynamic information presentation, personalised for each crew member.
• Intuitive user interface to ensure rapid and easy uptake for new users.
• Detailed reporting on system status, usage and compliance with mandatory read requirements
• Third party documentation in portable document format (PDF) processed to facilitate downloading and keyword searching.