For the exclusive use of K$.$ Takagi, $2024.$

Air Canada: Flying High with Information Technology

IT Operations

IT Operations was in charge of all the systems pertaining to the airline's operations, such as flight operations and aircraft maintenance. In $2010,$ the unit employed $70$ people ${?}^1($i$.$e$.,$ business analysts$),$ including both full$-$time employees and part$-$time contractors.

At the time, the unit had just finished transforming the operational systems $($i$.$e$.,$ flight planning, the weight and balance of the aircraft, and two systems that allowed pilots and attendants to choose their flights$).$ The main challenge of the transformation was to keep the airline alive during its "heart transplant":

In the industry, it's pretty much one of the few projects of that magnitude that have been undertaken, and the main challenge of such a project, it's as if I am performing your heart transplant, so the complexity is in the planning around it and all the interfaces with your system. In this case, there were over $250$ interfaces with the other system, and obviously what I$\text{'}$m doing in a heart transplant is keeping you alive at the same time; the airline has to continue to run. And this in a sense was probably one of the main challenges. $($Senior Director, IT Operations$)$

Also, in $2010,$ the unit was in the middle of changing the aircraft maintenance system, which was $25$ years old. This system maintained all the data about all the parts of an aircraft. For example, it had data on the age of thousands of parts in each aircraft and the scheduled times for changing each part. As for the introduction of the Boeing $787-$ a "computer with wings" $-$ IT Operations along with business departments and IT units were working on its strategic impacts:

The aircraft has wireless connections. There's going to be more than $500$ different pieces of software in the aircraft. So when it arrives at the gate, there's wireless LAN, a wireless connection, a Wi$-$Fi and upload software patches, too.

What are we going to do with this aircraft? We need to have a very good understanding of its maintenance, the flight operation aspect, the technology, understanding what Boeing is going to do with it$,$ understanding what the market, meaning the other carriers, is going to do$,$ and be able to integrate all that to develop a good roadmap. So I would say it $[$IT Operations$]$ needs a broad understanding of the business in general, of the industry. $($Senior Director, IT Operations$)$

IT Operations worked closely with Transformation IT because all the new systems needed to be supported by the airline's IT infrastructure and to fit into the current architecture. IT Operations and Transformation IT worked closely together to ensure that the best available platform was chosen for each system and that each system complied with corporate standards and policies. When the projects moved out of the implementation$/$testing mode and into the steady mode, IT Sourcing helped to implement the right SLA with each of the vendors involved and managed the contracts for the remaining contract time.

The IT Operations unit $($the newly added unit$)$ was in charge of systems relating to airline and aircraft operations $($e$.$g$.,$ the flight planning system and the maintenance system$).$ In contrast, the

The number of employees was relatively high because the unit was in the midst of changing the aircrafts' maintenance system. Also, Air Canada was going to use a new aircraft $($i$.$e$.,$ the Boeing $787)$ in the years to come, which would affect operations and the systems that support operations. The employees of IT Operations were in charge of analyzing these impacts.

HEC Montr$$al

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This document is authorized for use only by Koichi Takagi in ISM$6021$ Spring $2024$ taught by Heriberto Payan, Florida International University from Dec $2023$ to Jun $2024$