CASE STUDY
Improving planning capabilities across operations: How London Heathrow Airport realizes significant benefits on passenger experience and efficiency.
London Heathrow Airport
80.9 mill. passengers (2019)
214 Destinations
Heathrow Airport, also known as London Heathrow, is the main international airport serving London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted and Southend).Â
In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the busiest airport in Europe as per March 2023 serving more than 80 million passengers. It is also the airport with the world’s most international connections as of 2023, with an extensive route network of more than 200 destinations.
Introduction to the collaboration with London Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow Airport Limited engaged with Copenhagen Optimization to create an assessment of the maturity of the planning of 15 different operational areas at London Heathrow with the aim of improving planning capabilities across.
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The Solution: A Maturity Assessment
The assessment consisted of a combination of interviews and operational analyses. The planning of each operational area was rated on a scale from 1 to 5 within four planning dimensions – Methodology, Input Parameters, Performance Evaluation, and Systems.
The focus was to accurately describe the current planning scheme and building on this, to identify options for improving the planning and execution. Initiatives were presented aimed at closing the identified gaps allowing London Heathrow to significantly improve their planning capabilities.
The combination of an in-depth understanding of the operation and the ability to clearly communicate the findings were drivers of producing a high-quality assessment.
Outcome achieved:
- Delivered an objective and transparent capability maturity overview of the various planning departments.
- Significant opportunities identified to delay investments and reduce OPEX with quantified deep dive operational analyses.
- Several large-impact initiatives identified requiring low effort.
- Roadmap for planning improvement established.
Final thoughts
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