Swoop Airline

Integrating Deicing Manager to streamline the deicing ops

Project Improve the visibility over deicing operations across several stations for more accuracy, productivity and efficiency.

SOLUTION Development and integration of the Deicing Manager Azure cloud-based deicing management software to streamline deicing operations.

Client

Swoop Airline
Ultra-Low Fare Airline

A digital transformation to have more control over the deicing ops

Logo_Swoop_4C

Westjet

Swoop is a great recent example of digital transformation. Since its first flight in 1996, WestJet sought to enrich the lives of everyone in the world by providing safe, friendly and affordable air travel. Right from the start, the company put their guests and their people first; in doing so, they’ve become one of Canada’s most admired and respected corporate cultures.
They’ve also had a lot of fun along the way.

Today, flying to more than 100 destinations, WestJet stays true to their principles and continue to strive for the highest standards of service and success. In April 2017, WestJet announced that it was planning to launch a new airline to enter the growing ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC) market and compete against NewLeaf (now Flair Airlines).

A deicing software to get
more visibility on deicing ops

Swoop began to think about implementing a solution that enables their digital transformation with the objectives of efficiency, cost control, security, visibility over operations, and sustainable development. Integrating this digital revolution in an effective manner in the daily lives of people proved to be an unquestionable strategic asset for the company. Their goal? Streamlined processes and practices for ground operations. Their motivation? Operational efficiencies, cost control, security, visibility over the operations and sustainable development.

Striving for more control and visibility with the service providers they were working with, Swoop decided to approach this digital shift by streamlining their deicing operations management with Deicing Manager, our deicing management software, a digital platform aimed at centralizing all winter operations data into a single platform to the benefit of the business’ organization on many levels.

mock-up-deicing-aviation-software

The objective of this transition was to gain better visibility across the deicing stations dispatched all over North America, improve the effectiveness between the winter operations management, the deicing teams and service providers on the ground, and easily gather all relevant information related to deicing operations to make key operational decisions.

Following an in-depth study of the primary role of a deicing management software and the benefits of using it daily, Swoop sought a solution that would meet its strict criteria for efficiency and integration between the different deicing teams. The choice to implement Deicing Manager was made without hesitation, due to the many benefits that the solution provides on several fronts.

“We were looking for something that allows us to improve our visibility over our deicing operations across our stations, so that we could benefit from more accuracy, productivity and efficiency. It was for these reasons that we needed a software that could combine simplicity of use, mobility and personalization, while allowing us to have more control over the deicing process. The way we used to collect data involved a lot of tedious manual work from our end as well as from our service providers. Having a clear view of all details coming from our deicing operations was inefficient. This resulted in not having the relevant data to make key operational decisions. Having these challenges in mind, adopting a deicing management software was a logical decision.”

Zac Hulse Regional Manager, Domestic Affairs

A deicing software to increase efficiency

Externalize the deicing process implies that the airline is mostly dependant on the service to gather and provide accurate deice data. In order to gain better oversight on the deicing process and be able to effectively plan the costs related to deicing operations, it was indisputable for Swoop to adopt a deicing management software. It is also a good opportunity for airlines to make their transition from pen and paper to paperless practices and improve their tracking of spray logs over all stations.

The main criteria that supported this decision were its ease of use, the simple integration of the platform, and most importantly the level of customization and flexibility our software offered. The Deicing Manager platform was implemented according to the deicing processes and practices of Swoop and the transition was assisted by an ongoing training program, as well as technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All supported by a team based in Montreal.

The deployment and quick implementation of Deicing Manager within Swoop has helped to improve the effectiveness of the different teams in their duty of aircraft deicing. With the intuitive functionality of the platform, Deicing Manager allowed the airline to benefit from increased efficiency in the deicing process.

''After an assessment of our practices and processes, one of the most important things for us, as a startup airline, was to be able to have complete traceability of the cost of our deicing operations season over season by having our deicing data at a glance. Last year, we managed more than 2000 deice events with Deicing Manager, and ground operations managers can have a direct access to data and can efficiently plan their deicing activities. Since integrating the Deicing Manager platform, we are also able to forecast our cost dedicated to deicing, but also reconcile invoices based on contract rates to be more cost and time efficient.
I strongly recommend this software solution to all airlines.''

Zac Hulse Regional Manager, Domestic Affairs

Want to know more
about Deicing Manager?

Streamline the capture, storage, and analysis of all the information
you need to manage aircraft deicing operations.