Heathrow Airport
Unlocking lasting improvements in punctuality
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Improved punctuality is key to achieving Heathrow Airport’s strategic objectives and, like many major airports, a changing operating environment makes this challenging.
We supported Heathrow on its journey to a realising a lasting improvement in punctuality by setting them up with an integrated portfolio of initiatives. These initiatives will deliver ongoing and long-term enhancements in customer experience, safety, and efficiency that will benefit airlines, employees, passengers, and the environment.
The critical measure for punctuality at airports is ‘On Time Performance’ (OTP) – measured in flights arriving and departing within 15 minutes of their scheduled times. Improvements in OTP have been delivered in 2024, including a 14 percentage point increase in Q1, with the aim of driving significant improvements over the coming years.
Ensuring punctuality at one of the world’s busiest airports
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports with over 200 routes served and 95 percent of the world’s economy accessible via a single flight. Businesses, communities, and industries across the country depend on the global connections Heathrow provides, and it’s estimated that since 2021 through 2025, the airport will have contributed £4.6 billion to the UK economy.
Punctuality is key to running an efficient and safe airport and providing a great customer experience. Pre-Covid, Heathrow Airport’s OTP had been amongst the top performing hub airports globally. However, during the summer of 2022, punctuality fell significantly below historical levels (from 80 percent in 2021 to 59 percent in 2022). To return to these levels, Heathrow recognised that they required a focused programme that involved the entire airport ecosystem.
PA partnered with us to help understand one of our most complex problems, provided expertise to shape an approach, and provided the rigour to drive implementation. This work was crucial in delivering on one of our key strategic priorities and has contributed to improved OTP this year.”
Understanding the complexities
Heathrow was keen to ensure that it fully understood the critical factors that had driven the deterioration in OTP. It was vital that it had the right plan in place to operate at full capacity, cope with growing and changing demand, and operate with the right level of operational resilience.
Our experienced aviation team engaged with key stakeholders in the airport’s ecosystem to understand the reasons why OTP levels had dropped. This included reviewing several causal factors such as resourcing levels, infrastructure constraints, and changes to airlines’ fleet and flying programmes.
Improving punctuality unlocks benefits in operational performance, safety, and customer experience – it is therefore one of the strategic priorities at Heathrow. I’m immensely proud of our team who partnered with the client to rapidly analyse a complex set of issues, plan the necessary interventions, and set them up to deliver successfully.”
Mining insights from data analysis
Our specialist team also held interviews and workshops with stakeholders to get to the root causes of the underlying performance issues. To support the review, the team analysed large volumes of complex and historic data from multiple sources to understand the nature and extent of the key factors which had impacted punctuality and pinpoint the major areas to target. The analysis identified key areas for targeted action at critical points in the turnaround, with a focus on those which are in the control of the airport. An example was the timeframe within which towing can be undertaken without having a punctuality impact. The insights were also used as the basis for engagements with both internal and external stakeholders. To allow real time analysis of the data, an end-to-end Power BI dashboard was subsequently developed to enable informed decision making.
We worked as a truly integrated hybrid team with Heathrow to plan and manage the delivery of a set of punctuality projects. This was underpinned by focused data analysis to ensure informed decisions on the key punctuality challenges alongside a communications campaign titled ‘On Time Together’ to help the Heathrow team engage with stakeholders across the airport.”
Putting the plan in place
The teams then combined key stakeholder insights, our subject matter expertise, and first-hand industry experience together with the data analysis to form priority focus areas. These were then tested and validated with sponsors to form guidelines that were underpinned by a suite of tangible recommendations.
Advice included a renewed focused on sharing information to support more effective delivery planning, guidance on performance monitoring and management to encourage a more data-driven approach to punctuality, and enhanced collaboration and communication enabling teams to work to a common goal of improved punctuality.
From an operations standpoint, there was a need to improve infrastructure serviceability, turnaround efficiency, and building up the capability of the Heathrow team to ensure adequate resourcing levels across the airport for key aspects which may impact punctuality.
We subsequently worked closely with the cross-Heathrow project team to plan and manage the delivery of a set of priority projects. The ‘Punctuality Plan’ drew on insights from the data analysis to ensure initiatives were focused on the areas that would deliver the greatest improvement in punctuality.
We took a collaborative and integrated approach to working with stakeholders across the airport ecosystem including airlines and ground handlers and regularly sought to review lessons learned to inform future approach and focus.”
Unlocking lasting improvements in punctuality
There has already been an improvement in punctuality between 2023 and 2024. With the Punctuality Plan now in place, the aim is to drive longer term improvements in OTP working in collaboration with the airport community.
Heathrow can now measure the efficiency of arriving aircraft and identify the best daily operating plan to deliver the schedule and minimise aircraft CO2 emissions. In fact, it’s estimated that small changes to individual flights could save up to 30,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Beyond this, by improving efficiency, Heathrow will unlock significant financial benefits and enable future growth.
Implementation of the plan required a collaborative approach, working with all stakeholders at the airport including airlines and ground handlers with the goal to deliver effective change in the short term and set Heathrow up for longer term success.
Working with PA has helped the Heathrow team better understand how to tackle OTP across the airport. If not for our partnership with PA and the insight it provided, the improvement in OTP would not have been delivered to the same extent.”
My thanks to all the team from PA for their support and guidance. We have only got to this point through their hard work and persistence to keep us on track.”
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