China Eastern Airlines has teamed up with SITA in order to achieve cost savings of more than US$4 million during 2015.
The airline has recorded a 16% drop in staffing hours and a 60% drop in overtime for ground operations after establishing a new Hub Control Center (HCC) with SITA’s resource management technology.
China Eastern, with a 500 aircraft fleet carrying 80 million passengers a year, has a workforce of 8,000 in ground handling operations at two major hubs, Hongqiao (SHA) and Pudong (PVG), and 5,500 of these are managed through SITA AirportResource Manager.
The control centre covers resource, hub and turnaround management at during delays and disruption, it can effectively reallocates gates, ground tasks, suggest flight schedule changes and re-accommodate passengers, all in real time.
"We have worked closely with SITA to develop our new HCC and the results we have seen from using SITA’s integrated technology for our ground operations are impressive. The cost savings we are experiencing will see the investment pay for itself in less than a year," said Hu Zhenming, Chief Service Officer and General Director of Airport Service, China Eastern.
