AvTech: from digital enablement to operational control

Aviation is shifting from managing assets to managing decisions.

Disruption is now frequent, unpredictable and harder to absorb, leaving minimal margin for error across the system. As a result, performance increasingly depends on how quickly and effectively operators can respond as situations unfold.

For airlines, airports, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and ground handlers, this creates a common challenge: how do you maintain performance when disruption is constant, and make decisions with incomplete information? AvTech solutions are closing the gap in decision-making; enabling faster, more coordinated responses.

This is most visible at operational interfaces like turnarounds, handovers and recovery situations where coordination between multiple stakeholders determines outcomes. Delays, missed connections, and inefficiencies are no isolated issues; they quickly affect network performance, customer experience and cost across the entire ecosystem. In this environment, aviation technology is evolving from support systems to decision infrastructure, helping teams prioritise actions, manage trade-offs and keep the network moving under pressure.

Christopher Brown

Partner, Head of Strategy

KPMG in Ireland

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The operating challenge has changed

For aviation, disruption is no longer episodic. It is a standing operating condition. Weather events, airspace constraints, labour pressures and supply chain issues all affect performance, often simultaneously. Small disruptions escalate quickly. A delayed arrival can trigger knock-on effects across crew, stands, baggage and onward connections within minutes, quickly becoming a system-wide problem.

Historically, these issues could often be absorbed through buffers such as spare aircraft, schedule slack or excess resource. Today, those buffers are much thinner. High utilisation and tighter operating models mean that decision speed, not just capacity, has become the binding constraint on performance.

This is most acute at the points where organisations come together. For ground handlers in particular, turnarounds, coordination with airlines and airports, and recovery from disruption are all heavily dependent on how effectively decisions are made and executed in the moment.

Why the traditional model is no longer enough

Aviation systems were traditionally built around functions: flight planning, crew, maintenance, baggage and reporting. These systems worked well in more stable conditions, where issues could be contained within functions.

That model is under strain.

Operational challenges cut across functions, and decisions must account for network-wide consequences. Systems designed for functional optimisation struggle when decisions must be made across the network in real time. At the same time, tools that explain what has already happened provide limited value when teams need to decide what to do next.

As a result, the focus is shifting from reporting to action, from systems that describe operations to systems that help run them.

This is not a shift to full automation. Aviation remains a safety-critical industry. Instead, the value lies in supporting people to make better decisions faster, helping operators prioritise actions, assess trade-offs and act with greater confidence in high-pressure situations.

A shift towards real-time decision-making

In practice, this means operations are becoming more integrated, with technology supporting the flow of decisions across day-to-day processes.

Decision support is moving directly into operational workflows, helping teams decide in the moment how to reassign stands, adjust turnaround sequencing, redeploy staff or prioritise flights during disruption. Rather than sitting alongside operations, technology is becoming part of how those operations are executed.

There is also a stronger focus on understanding the impact of decisions across the network.

Tools increasingly reflect the downstream impact on rotations, connections, crew, capacity and customers.

Finally, operators are increasingly factoring changing conditions into decisions as they happen – responding to delays, constraints and risks in real time, rather than reviewing them after the fact.

How this is already changing operations

This shift is already visible in how operations are managed across the industry.

One example is the increasing use of real-time replanning and recovery tools. As disruption occurs, operators are moving away from static schedules and instead continuously adjusting flight timing, stand allocation and resource deployment to minimise knock-on delay, maintain turnaround performance and avoid missed connections. Platforms are increasingly used to support these decisions in real time, with solutions such as Optifly enabling dynamic optimisation of flight schedules and turnaround performance as conditions evolve.

Many delays still occur at handover points between airlines, airports and ground handlers. In response, operators are investing in shared visibility and coordination platforms, with airport collaboration models such as Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and enabling platforms including SITA improving turnaround performance and real-time coordination across stakeholders.

There is also a growing emphasis on operational resilience. Systems are expected to remain available during disruption, and teams must be able to operate even when conditions are degraded. This is being supported through tools focused on real-time operational risk, disruption management and routing, including risk intelligence platforms such as Osprey Flight Solutions, which help operators anticipate and respond to emerging threats.

For ground handlers, areas such as baggage management and workforce planning remain key pressure points. Better tracking, planning and coordination, for example improving baggage reconciliation between aircraft and terminal or ensuring the right crews and equipment are available at the right time, supported by optimisation and operational platforms such as INFORM and IBS Software, can deliver immediate cost and service improvements.

In parallel, new factors are starting to influence day-to-day decisions more directly. Sustainability is beginning to shape operational trade-offs, for example in fuel use, routing or turnaround efficiency, while maintenance and parts availability are increasingly visible drivers of delay. At the same time, digital tools are giving both operators and lessors better visibility of asset utilisation and condition.

What this means for the industry

The implications are consistent across the aviation ecosystem, but particularly visible in operational roles.

For ground handlers

Performance is now driven as much by decision speed under pressure as by execution itself. The ability to respond quickly to changes during peaks and delays is becoming a key differentiator.
For airlines

The focus is on managing network performance in real time while balancing disruption, customer impact and cost across increasingly complex operations.
For ANSPs and infrastructure providers

This reinforces the importance of coordination, data sharing and ensuring the system can continue to function under pressure.
Across all stakeholders

Many of the biggest improvements sit at the interfaces between organisations. Investments that improve visibility and coordination across these interfaces often deliver more value than optimising individual processes in isolation.

At the same time, there is increasing pressure to demonstrate reliability under stress. Contracts, service levels and commercial outcomes are all shaped by how well operations perform during disruption.

Conclusion

Aviation is becoming less about managing assets and more about managing decisions.

For ground handlers, this means focusing on coordination, real-time response and operational reliability. Technology, used well, is what will separate those who can manage disruption from those who cannot.

The challenge is not simply to digitise operations, but to ensure that the right information, tools and support are available in the moments that matter most.

AvTech: From digital enablement to operational control

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