| Danial Norjidi |
ROYAL Brunei Airlines (RB) officially launched its Operations Control Centre (OCC) at Brunei International Airport yesterday.
On hand to officiate the launch as the guest of honour was YB Dato Paduka Awang Haji Bahrin bin Abdullah, the Minister of Development and Chairman of Royal Brunei Airlines.
As RB explained, at the Operations Control Centre the Corporate Business Unit and Operational Department handle the task of managing and coordinating execution of daily schedules as planned, while the OCC also houses the processes and personnel responsible for managing real-time operational decisions.
Its roles and responsibilities include proactively managing the impact of unplanned changes to schedules, providing quality service to the maximum number of passengers and directing the most cost-effective plan to return to published schedules.
Speaking at the event, Captain Saiful Bahrin Awang Bahar, Chief Pilot at RB Flight Operations called the launching “an important milestone”.
“As we are all aware, airline schedules typically do not operate as planned,” he said. “Hence, it is in every airline’s best interests to ensure that there is a proper management process in place to manage and coordinate the execution of daily schedules.”
YB Dato Paduka Awang Haji Bahrin bin Abdullah, the Minister of Development and Chairman of Royal Brunei Airlines (RB), in a group photo with RB officials. – AZROL AZMI
“OCC plays this important role for the day-to-day operations of all scheduled flights departing in and out of the Brunei International Airport.”
The newly structured OCC will see the integration of all the different but relevant departments involved, ranging from Ramp Handling, Reservations, MCC and Engineering Line Maintenance, in the same physical location, which they previously were not, Captain Saiful explained.
“In doing so, this will enable a more cohesive and coordinated workflow, as well as a faster and more informative decision-making process to help ensure the smooth operations of all scheduled flights.”
He added that, as and when required, the OCC can also function as a mini crisis centre able to handle disruptions far more effectively with all the affected departments in close proximity.
Speaking to reporters after the launch, RB’s new Chief Executive Officer, Karam Chand said, “The idea here is to get everybody into the same room and take advantage of all the technologies that are available.”
“I think by having people of all the key disciplines represented in the room, it helps in terms of decision-making. You can get to make a decision quicker, you can consider different scenarios. This is a live environment, you are doing your very best to have your aircraft flying as quick as possible. So by having all the disciplines, it really helps.”
“It’s really to make sure that we are looking after our customers,” he explained. “For example, in an operational environment, you would not normally see a commercial person, so now we are going to put a commercial person in this room as well. We’re always thinking about our customers ahead of everything.”
The outgoing Deputy Chairman and CEO of Royal Brunei Airlines, Dermot Mannion also spoke at the event, saying, “This is a state-of-the-art facility. Any airline in the world would be very proud to have the facility that we’ve now got, and as Karam says, in one area now, we have all of our key operations people present, which means they can monitor all of our activity across the network and do so very effectively.”
“It’s operating 24/7, so there could be 20 people operating in that area at any one time. In addition to the permanent staff in there, we have all the crews visit the area when they’re preparing for flights, so it’s a very active area all through the day and all through the night,” he added.
Also in attendance to witness the opening of the OCC yesterday were the RB Board of Directors and Darussalam Asset representatives as well as RB senior management and staff.
The post RB launches Operations Control Centre appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.