Operations: Best Practices for Safe Scheduling

June 13, 2023

In business aviation, striving for safety takes more than just following the flight operations manual to the letter. It takes a concerted effort by the maintenance team and flight crew, support from management and vigilant oversight by aircraft schedulers.

Veteran schedulers say the foundation of a safe flight department is a collaborative cultural environment. Psychological safety is a crucial step toward assuring physical safety.

Changes during the COVID-19 pandemic brought Susan Moss to her current role on the human resources team at Textron, but prior to that she spent 18 years in their flight department. The most important safety function of a scheduler, Moss said, is “being that front line of defense. I was the first one to hear of a flight and if there was anything out of the ordinary, I would seek guidance from the director or a crew member.”

She urged other schedulers to always ask questions if they come up. “Maybe when I first began my career in the field I might have said, ‘No, I’m not going to ask questions because they’re going to think it’s silly.’ The crew always made me feel like nothing I asked was silly.” She said, “If you see something, say something. If it becomes a false alarm, so be It. At least everyone is safe.”

A scheduler also provides safety by taking pressure off of their pilots. Carrie Wicht, aviation manager and scheduler at Harley-Davidson Motor Company, recounts a trip where her pilots were facing inclement weather. “We were planning that if we couldn’t make it into [their destination] that we were going to divert to [an alternate airport]. We had a car and driver waiting there for our passengers, so hopefully they could still make it to [the original destination] for their meetings,” Wicht said. “Then there’s not as much pressure on them that you have to make it into [the original destination] or [else] it’s going to be a disaster. Just to ease their minds that if it doesn’t work…we have other options.”

Fatigue Risks and Team Culture

Mark Larsen, CAM, NBAA director of safety and flight operations, agreed that schedulers can ease pressure on flight crews, especially in the face of crew fatigue. “One of the best places to mitigate fatigue is at the time of scheduling, especially for long-range or international flights,” Larsen said. At that stage, “it allows the most flexibility to adjust the flight times to minimize fatigue risk, while also accommodating passenger needs.”

Carolyn Yatsu, manager of flight scheduling for Nike, emphasized the need for a healthy team culture within a flight department. “The scheduling team participates in our department’s safety management system and takes interest in what others in the department do,” Yatsu said. “This way, we can bring along all the right people for trip planning and decision-making.”

“We have an in-house training program called Flight Familiarization,” Yatsu added. “The scheduler joins a live trip with passengers and shadows the flight crew. The whole experience is meaningful and relevant – plus it’s enjoyable to travel with the flight crew and take in everything first-hand.”

“You’re successful as a team, but you also fail as a team.” Moss pointed out. “Chances are, if something bad occurs, it’s probably happened before and you just never caught it. Always be on guard for the betterment of the organization, your coworkers and yourself.”