British Airways says it has slashed delays by using AI
British Airways said the punctuality of its flights from Heathrow airport is more than two times better than in 2023 because of artificial intelligence and other digital tools.
The airline said two-thirds of its departures from its base in west London left ahead of schedule in April.
That is more than double the proportion that achieved this during the same month in 2023, and an improvement of nearly 20% from April 2024, according to the carrier.
British Airways attributed the enhanced performance to its use of 'artificial intelligence, forecasting, optimisation and machine learning'.
The airline said it has invested £100 million in improving its operational resilience.
This has funded the development of a range of digital tools and apps.
One system enables staff to allocate aircraft landing at Heathrow to stands based on a live analysis of passengers' onward travel plans, reducing the likelihood of missed connections.
This is estimated to have saved 160,000 minutes of delays.
Another system proactively reroutes aircraft to avoid areas of poor weather, preventing some 243,000 minutes of delays.
During the first three months of this year some 86% of British Airways flights from Heathrow departed on time, according to the airline.
That was its best performance on record and is up from 46% in 2008, the carrier added.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle told an innovation summit in Pittsburgh in the US: 'Improving operational performance is a key part of our investment programme because we know the impact delays and disruption can have on our customers.
'Whilst disruption to our flights is often outside of our control, our focus has been on improving the factors we can directly influence and putting in place the best possible solutions for our customers when it does happen.
'That's why we've invested £100 million in our own operational resilience, putting funding into technology and tools, and devising a better way of working on the ground at Heathrow as well as creating an additional 600 operational roles into the airport.
'The tech (our) colleagues have at their fingertips has been a real gamechanger for performance, giving them the confidence to make informed decisions for our customers based on a rapid assessment of vast amounts of data.
'It's exciting that our industry is able to harness this capability, which will develop even further in the months and years to come.'
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