Summer Internship: What is Network Planning?

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Nicolas

Hello everyone!

I hope you guys are enjoying your summer. It has now been three weeks since I have been working Air Canada in Network Planning as a summer intern. I will take this time to explain a bit more on what I do at work. I am part of the team that plans the flight schedule about a year before departure. We are currently planning the schedule for 2017. Below is an overview of how the schedule is handled from the time it is built to the time the flights occur for real.

Network Planning (9 months and more)
Intermediate Scheduling (9 months to 3 months)
Current Scheduling (3 months to 48 hours)
System Operations Control (48 hours to time of departure)

Network Planning makes the schedule about a year before the flight. The schedule will then be handed off to Intermediate Scheduling where they will make the flight schedule more operational. They take more components into account such as airport slots, gate availability, and much more. The schedule is then given to current scheduling around 3 months before the flight will takeoff. SOC or System Operations Control manages the schedule in real time. For example, if your flight is delayed because of a maintenance issue that cannot be fixed in a reasonable amount of time, they will be the one who will try to find an aircraft in the fleet as a replacement so the passengers can get to their final destination.

I work in Network Planning and my main job is to build the schedule for North America. We have three groups in Network Planning: North America, International, and Profitability. We closely work with other groups like Intermediate Scheduling, Aircraft Programs, and Revenue Management. When we schedule a flight, our team needs to take into consideration aircraft maintenance, aircraft turnaround time, flight connectivity at major hubs, ideal departure times, flight crew duty time, aircraft types, passenger load factor, yields, etc. These will be described in my next blog!

Route Map from Air Canada’s largest hub, Toronto-Pearson.

We fly to 205 destinations including 64 in Canada, 55 in the United States, and 86 in Europe, Africa, the Middle-East, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Air Canada and its regional partners fly an average of 1,500 daily flights and operate a fleet of more than 380 mainline and regional aircraft.

Our largest aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER (77W) has up to 450 seats. (Photo Credits: Jen Schulz)

Our smallest aircraft, the Beechcraft 1900D seats a maximum of 18 guests. (Photo Credits: Author)

Our smallest aircraft, the Beechcraft 1900D (BEH) seats a maximum of 18 guests. (Photo Credits: Author)

There is a lot of complexity in trying to build the best schedule we can for 1,500 daily departures. Flights do not have the same pattern for a whole year. We operate flights that are daily and some that we only fly a few times a week. Some flights operate year-round while others are only winter or summer seasonal.

We also look at past performance of the schedule to see if we should increase frequencies on certain routes or even pull back completely. We identify new markets where we could potentially grow in the future. Some of the new routes we are currently looking at are… You will have to wait until we announce new destinations!

I am proud and honored to be part of a family of 28,000 men and women who work together to bring our guests safely and on-time to their final destination.

Until next time!

Nicolas

Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

Aircraft Programs: Post-Delivery of a B777

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Nicolas

Last week, I started my internship at Air Canada. I am working with the Aircraft Programs team until the end of this week. Next week, I will head to the Network Planning department for the remaining of the summer.

Economy cabin of Air Canada’s Boeing 777-300ER (77W) in a high density configuration of 450 passengers, which includes 28 Business, 21 Premium Economy, and 398 Economy class seats.

I spent most of my first days in the cabin of a Boeing 777-300ER. This aircraft was just delivered from Boeing a few weeks ago. It is now sitting outside on the tarmac at a maintenance facility in Mirabel, Canada, about 30 miles from the Montreal Airport. I was shadowing an Aircraft Program Manager while he was performing his duties of post delivery. The aircraft needs to be ready soon because it will enter fly its first revenue flight next week from Toronto to Vancouver.

Flight deck of the Boeing 777.

The manager has to make sure the aircraft gets ready before entry into service (EIS). Many tests had to be completed to ensure all the systems work perfectly. All oxygen masks should drop from the overhead panel. Most of the resting was related to the inflight entertainment system (IFE). We played movies as well as the safety video. All the functions of the business class seat such as reclining were tested.

My favorite features of this aircraft are the meal order and text messaging functionality. Passengers can order drinks and meals from their own seat. There is even an option to add ice and a lemon in your glass/cup. They can also buy duty-free products aboard the airplane. Customers are also able to message their friends and relatives or any other passenger on the flight.

Passengers can order refreshments, meals, and duty free items from their personal seat.

I had the chance to pretty much explore the whole aircraft! I saw a crew rest for the first time. On the Boeing 777 there are two beds and two seats at the front of the cabin on the second floor. For the flight attendants, there are eight beds at the rear of the aircraft on the second floor.

Door to enter the rear flight attendant rest area.

Rear flight attendant rest area.

I am really happy and blessed to have the opportunity to do this. What can an Embry-Riddle student ask more than spending entire afternoons aboard an aircraft!?

Until next time!

Nicolas

Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

Summer Plans

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Nicolas

Finals are now over for Embry-Riddle students! For some, it’s finally summer and it is time to rest and relax. For others, jobs and internships are starting in the following weeks.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I would be flying on Delta’s first Airbus A321 flight on May 2. However, the airline made a last minute equipment change and postponed the inaugural flight. I therefore cancelled my trip to Atlanta on that day.

Last week, my friend flew down from Canada and visited me in Daytona Beach. We enjoyed the beach and warm weather before leaving Florida on Saturday to drive my car up to Canada. The drive from Daytona to Montreal is about 1,400 miles and two days of driving. The first day, we drove close to 1,000 miles and stopped for the night close to Philadelphia. The second day, we drove about seven hours to see my brother in Boston. The next day, we drove the last five hours to Canada. I was exhausted after arriving home in the late afternoon!

Photo Credits: Air Canada

Now I barely have time to rest since I am starting a summer internship at Air Canada in Network Planning on Wednesday of this week. For the first two weeks of the internship, I will be working with the Aircraft Programs team. It is the department that buys and leases aircraft for Air Canada. After that, I will be spending the rest of my internship in Network Planning. Stay tuned all summer to learn more about my internship!

I hope everyone enjoys their summer!

Nicolas

Contact the author at berniern@y.erau.edu

A Day in a Full-Motion Flight Simulator Center

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Nicolas

Have you ever been on the flight deck of a full-motion flight simulator? You would probably see very little difference between the simulator and the real machine.

Flightdeck of the Bombardier Challenger 300

I had the opportunity to visit a full-motion flight simulator center in Dorval, QC. CAE, a Montreal-based flight simulator manufacturer, has one of their training facility near the Montreal -Trudeau International Airport. While I was on site, I toured the facility and flew on two different types of aircraft, the Challenger 300 and the Global Express.

My instructor of the Challenger aircraft was a retired fighter jet pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He explained to me how the simulator worked. Newer generations of simulators use electric motion while the older ones use hydraulic motion. The ancient simulators require more maintenance than the modern simulators. Some use software while others hardware (real part from an aircraft). For example, the main screens which are the primary-flight display (PFD) and the multi-function display (MFD) is usually replaced by a computer instead of the real part from the plane.

Bombardier Challenger 605

For the flight on the Challenger, we planned a trip from Montreal (YUL) to New York (JFK). On the second flight, I was assigned a different instructor. I did an IFR and a VFR traffic pattern on the Global Express. I logged 1.0 hour in the Challenger and 0.5 hour in the Global as flight training device.

When you land, the sensation in the cabin is the same as during a real landing. The sounds of the cabin shaking are realistic. You can feel the forces when you apply more pressure on the brakes. It is remarkable how it feels the same as the real business aircraft.

I also visited the facility which included various flight simulators, as well as conference rooms, and small oral rooms similar to what we have on campus. After being hired by an airline or a private company, pilots will start training on simulators before they can fly the aircraft for real. Even though they cost thousands of dollars to operate per hour, it is still cheaper than flying a real airplane.

Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

Tour of the Bombardier CSeries

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Nicolas

On December 18, I had the opportunity to tour the Bombardier Facility in Mirabel, Canada, where the CRJ and the CSeries is built. It was a huge day for the company as they announced the certification of their new aircraft, the CS100. I was invited to the event as a media with AirwaysNews.

Program leaders on the CSeries program, along with government representatives of Canada held a press conference in the morning to announce the new jet’s certification. The multinational also announced that the first CS100 will be delivered to launch customer, Swiss International Air Lines, in the first half of 2016. The larger variant, the CS300, is scheduled to get certificated in the next six months and deliveries will begin in the second half of the year.

The Bombardier CS300.

Following the press release, the media was allowed to tour the new aircraft. I first visited the CS300. As I entered by the main door of the aircraft, I thought the cabin was very long. Once in service, this aircraft will seat a maximum of 160 passengers. The plane did not have any seats in the cabin because it was one of the testing flight. It was filled with various equipment and computers to monitor different components during flights.

I then boarded the CS100, which looked like a usual aircraft with seats installed. I headed to the flight deck to see the new technology the plane had to offer. It included side sticks instead of the regular yokes found on other plane. It was very impressive!

Flight deck of the CS100 aircraft.

The CSeries is designed in a 3-2 configuration in economy class and 2-2 in first class. I particularly enjoy this configuration because only 20% of the seats in economy are middle seats. Everybody hates middle seats. I personally prefer a window seat because I like to enjoy the view! I think the cabin looks similar in size to Delta’s Boeing 717-200.

Inside the cabin of the CS100.

The aircraft offers large overhead bins to accommodate the large number of carry bags passengers board with them these days. The pivot bins enable passengers to store the bags sideways instead of flat in the overhead compartments. The CSeries has also a modern galley and modern restrooms to accommodate the passengers.

The pivot bins can support four carry-on bags.

I really enjoyed spending half a day at the Bombardier facility in Mirabel. I knew I was going to attend the press conference, but it I didn’t know the media would be allowed to tour the new aircraft! You can read my full story and see more pictures on AirwaysNews.com.

Until next time!

Nicolas

Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

It’s a Wrap!

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Nicolas

The 2015 Fall semester has just ended! After a stressful week and a half of studying and testing, you can now relax for more than a month until school starts again in mid-January! If you did not know, ERAU has added an extra week of break this year compared to the previous years.

My last final was on Tuesday and it had a speech. As I mentioned in a post in October, Speech is definitely not my easiest and favorite class since I am shy and dislike public speaking. My last final consisted of an impromptu speech. The professor makes you pick a few topics from a bag. You decide which topic you want to talk about and you have three minutes to prepare to present in front of the class. Trust me, it goes by very fast. The subject I selected was for communities to be more bicycles friendly. Can we find peace? I just had the time to write the few key points I wanted to talk about that it was already my turn to get up to the podium. About half way through my speech, I ran out of ideas and paused for about 25 seconds without knowing what to say. Then my professor suggested me that I could just sum up my speech. I felt so bad about my speech when I back to my seat. I got my grade a few days later and I did not do bad at all to my surprise! I was happy about it.

I was lucky to get to spend the rest of the week in warm Florida before heading back home in the cold for most of the break. Hey there is no snow yet at least! I will spend some time during Christmas Eve and Christmas to see my extended family, which I do not see often. A few days later, my family and I will board a plane bound to the Sunshine State to spend a week and a half in the West Palm Beach area. We rented a condo until March! I will definitely head there some time with my friends next semester. Just before the New Year, there is always a hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, FL. We bought ticket to watch the game. It is interesting to see that there are more fans cheering for Montreal than the local team. That is because many Canadians travel to Southern Florida to escape the cold winter.

After New Year, I have decided that I will go back to Canada for a few days since we will still have two weeks of vacation before school starts. When I come back to Daytona before classes start, I might go visit the Carolina Aviation Museum with my friend Jack. The Airbus A320 that safely landed in the Hudson River in January 2009 sits at the museum. Can’t wait to see it!

Sunset from above on my flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta.

Well I’m about to board my next flight to Montreal. Now, I would like you to sit back, relax, and enjoy this month of deserved vacation. Come back well rested to Daytona Beach in January and be ready to start the next semester!

Until next time!

Nicolas

Autumn Break – Part 2

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Nicolas

As I stated in Part 1, I spent Fall Break home in Canada. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of fall are the tree leaves changing colors. I spent many hours outside raking leaves on the grass and walking my dog even though it was very cold outside. To my surprise, it snowed a few times during my stay!

King George Park – Westmount, QC

First snow of the fall and it's only in mid-October!

First snow of the fall and it was only mid-October!

For the first day of my break, I went to my friend’s house to watch the first home hockey game of the Montreal Canadiens. In Daytona Beach, I don’t have many friends who are big fans of hockey, so it was great to watch a hockey game with friends back home. It is even better when your team wins! We won the game 3-0 that night for a streak of five wins. The last time the Canadiens won five straight wins at the beginning of the season was in 1977.

The next day, we celebrated my Dad’s aunt’s birthday. She turned 90 years old so it was a big event. More than 20 of my extended family members came to our house for dinner. There were people present that I haven’t seen in over 10 years, so it was great to catch up with everyone.

On Saturday, I attended the Montreal Canadiens against the Detroit Redwings at the Bell Centre in Montreal. It was my first time going this season. I am excited every time I go because I love the atmosphere over there. The fans are the best in the league and we have the largest arena in terms of seat capacity. We ended up winning the game 4-1, which improved the team’s record to six consecutive wins (as of today we have 9 straight wins!).

Face-off after the Montreal Canadiens scored their second of the game in the third period.

The weekend of the break marked the median of the fall semester, but it also marked the end of another legacy airline. On Saturday, October 17, 2015, the last branded US Airways flight landed at Philadelphia International Airport. Click here if you are interested on the full report of flight US1939. From now on, all future flights will be branded as American Airlines. For those who did not know, US Airways merged with American Airlines in December 2013 to form the largest air carrier in the world. As time goes, we will no longer see the US Airways livery as the airplanes are being repainted in the new American livery.

After I landed in Montreal, I made a detour to the departure levels and took a picture of one of the US Airways check-in kiosk. When check-in at the airport on my way back to Florida, the US Airways brand had already disappeared!

This wraps up my Fall Break. Next weekend, I will be heading to a destination in the Northeast of the United States. Check back in a week to see which destination it is!

Nicolas

Autumn Break – Part 1

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Nicolas

The Embry-Riddle autumn break marks the median of the fall semester. Some students use this time to go back home with their family that they haven’t seen since the end of August. Students sometimes spend the long weekend and try to catch up with the workload or even to get a little bit ahead. I always tell myself that I will catch up on everything during Fall Break and Thanksgiving but it never happens. I do get some work done, but not as much as I want!

Famous “Fly Delta Jets” sign at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int. Airport.

My break started on the afternoon of the last day of classes. My journey started at Daytona Beach International (Regional) Airport and was scheduled to end when I land in Montreal, my final destination. It was my first time using the TSA PreCheck lane at the Daytona airport (it was inaugurated at the end of September). It allows trusted travelers flying in the U.S. with expedited security screening. Passengers enrolled in the program do not need to remove shoes, laptops, liquids, belt, and light jackets. Something I like in small airports such as Daytona is that it only takes a few minutes to get seated at the gate from the time passengers enter the terminal.

My first leg to Atlanta was uneventful with the exception of a few bumps while approaching ATL. I think it was my first time connecting in Atlanta without having to take the Plane Train to get to my next flight in a different concourse. This time, my next flight was only five gates away! My next stop was New York LaGuardia, an outdated airport where the average taxi time before takeoff is about 45 minute. Thanks to the $4 billion plan, announced in July, to replace the airport completely. Although the airport has many negative aspects, I like the variety of restaurants they have for a domestic airport. They also have a small supermarket and a food court in concourse D offering many dining options for connecting passengers. The flight from LaGuardia to Montreal was only a short 52 minutes from wheels up to touchdown. As we approached the end of the flight, the captain made an announcement to the cabin: “Good evening from the flight deck ladies and gentlemen, we have started our initial descent in the Montreal area. The visibility in Montreal is great with gusty winds and a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit).” I was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt and did not have a coat. I felt the cold right when I got out of the aircraft!

Flying over Brooklyn a few moments before touching down on runway 31 at LGA.

Flying over Brooklyn a few moments before touching down on runway 31 at LaGuardia.

The reason I flew three legs instead of two is that I want to get more segments and miles to get Silver Medallion® status on Delta Air Lines. In Part 2, I will tell you a little bit about the exciting things I did back home.

Nicolas

Already Half of the Semester

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Nicolas

I can’t believe we have already been through half of the fall semester. First, let’s go back to the beginning of the semester back in August.

About a week before the beginning of classes, I left Montreal, Canada and drove all the way south to Florida. The 1,400 miles drive takes 20 hours without traffic (I wish it took us 20 hours). Trust me, there is a lot of traffic between the New York area and Baltimore.

This year, I am living in an apartment with one of my friends. I spent a good amount of the week getting settled in the apartment which is 10 minute away from campus. I also spent many hours building IKEA furnitures. I built my bed, my dresser, the kitchen table, four chairs, and the sofa. Thanks to my mom for packing a small drill in my luggages.

I like living in an apartment off campus because I can have my own room and I am able to cook whenever I want. One thing I miss living on campus is the proximity. If I had a question on an assignment, I could just walk a few steps and knock on my friend’s door. The College of Business computer lab and the library were also a close reach.

For the fall semester, I have decided to take 18 credit hours. I am taking Speech, Western Humanities II (Renaissance to Postmodern), Airline Management, Business Law, Transportation Principles, and International Business.

Speech is definitely not my favorite class even though I know it will help me to develop skills to become a better public speaker. As of today, we have done four speeches.

The humanities class is also not in my top classes. Some of the material we are going over in class is the same than my history class from my sophomore year of high school. This class should be easy, but I already forgot the material from high school.

Airline Management is certainly my favorite class because it is an area I want to work for after I graduate from Embry-Riddle. So far, we learned about network structures (point-to-point and hub-and-spoke system), time banks, and important measures such as available seat-miles (ASMs) and revenue passenger-miles (RPMs). Now, we have just started talking about revenue management.

My longest class is Business Law with a duration of 3 hours, and we only have a break of five minute during the class. The good thing about this class is that we only meet once a week on every Monday.

In Transportation Principles, we have learned about the railroads and ports. I hope the aviation part comes soon because this is what I like the most.

My last class on my schedule is International Business. We are doing a project where we act as a U.S. based company selling a video game system trying to sell our product in foreign countries. I decided to pick Mexico since it borders the United States.

Well, this is all about my classes. I am enjoying my semester so far but I look forward to Fall Break so I can rest for a few days.

Until next time!

Nicolas

The End of Summer

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Nicolas

Once I completed my internship at Aéroports de Montréal at the end of July, I had about two weeks of vacation left before heading to Daytona Beach. My brother and I welcomed some of our friends from Texas that came to visit us for the weekend.

During their visit, we went to the Osheaga Art and Music Festival in Montreal. The festival takes place over a period of three days where more than 100 artists performed. We were there on the last day of the show and saw The Black Keys, ALT-J, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Charli XCX, and Tove Lo. It is not possible to see all of the artists because they perform on six different scenes simultaneously. It is fun because you don’t have to stay at one scene and watch the whole show; you can walk around and see different things.

Group picture in front of the Osheaga splatter paint wall!

After a great weekend filled with music, we all headed to the airport at 4:30AM to catch early morning flights. Some of the friends were heading back home in the Lone Star State while another was flying back to school in Boston. My family and I were flying to Jacksonville (JAX) with a connection in Atlanta (I don’t think I can count how many times I have been through ATL!).

When we landed in JAX, I almost felt like it was home since Daytona was only 100 miles south. We drove for about an hour north following the East Coast of Florida and Georgia. Our final destination was Sea Island, GA. We decided to make this trip because the area was reputed for its golf courses. There are also many other activities to do there since the ocean is a few steps away. Other than playing a few rounds of golf, we went paddle boarding, and skeet shooting.

Sea Island, GA

The few days spent in Sea Island went by so fast, as we were already seated in the plane on our way back to Canada. My brother and I spent the last the week home so we could prepare and pack all the baggage we had to bring for our upcoming Sophomore year of college.

View from the Delta SkyClub Sky Deck in Concourse F. Hartsfield-Jackson has the largest control tower in North America, and 4th in the world.

Next week, I will go over my arrival in the Daytona Beach area before classes started! Enjoy the extra pictures of Osheaga below.

Nicolas

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Tag Archives: Canada

Summer Internship: What is Network Planning?

Aircraft Programs: Post-Delivery of a B777

Summer Plans

A Day in a Full-Motion Flight Simulator Center

Tour of the Bombardier CSeries

It’s a Wrap!

Autumn Break – Part 2

Autumn Break – Part 1

Already Half of the Semester

The End of Summer