This article is published in Aviation Week & Space Technology and is free to read until Apr 27, 2025. If you want to read more articles from this publication, please click the link to subscribe.
The 2025 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference is being held this week in New Orleans.
Schedulers for Part 91 and Part 135 operations work across internal and external networks to coordinate flight details. While some aspects of their jobs are clear cut, many best practices are learned through best practices and tips from other schedulers.
Below are some practices shared at the 2025 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference. They focus on the four Ps: people, procedures, places and planes.
People
• Understand a company’s structure and how you support it, including hierarchies. Internal stakeholders can include the flight department, board members, accounting, legal, IT and administrative.
• Get to know executive assistants and understand their communication style. Given the numerous communication forms—from Teams to text, phone and WhatsApp—you don’t want to miss an important message.
• Identify internal and external partners and grow relationships with colleagues. This is key to your success. Schedulers collaborate and are good networkers.
• Consider regular meetings with maintenance teams to understand the fleet’s status.
• Create an organized list of passenger and crew preferences by location.
Procedures
• Understand aircraft usage: Who has access to the aircraft? How many people can fly on it? Can it be used for personal use?
• Create clear conflict resolution: What happens when multiple stakeholders want to use the aircraft at the same time? This can be included in aircraft usage policies.
• Trip feasibility: know what constitutes a reasonable trip request, including airports.
• Trip planning: substantial time goes into this, including planning airports, weather, FBOs, legality of crew time and aircraft usage, flight risk assessment, reservations and logistics, crew briefings. Make a checklist to help document the trip status with these details and distribute a trip sheet or itinerary.
• Actively monitor the flight and communicate any changes.
• After the flight, it’s a good idea to conduct a debrief with the crew and seek trip feedback.
• Reconcile the flight with operations and finance, ensure any maintenance squawks are resolved, and the aircraft is clean and restocked.
Places
• Consider the services needed, such as ground handling and deicing, from an FBO or private terminal.
• Does the FBO have noise restrictions or hours that won’t work for your flight?
• Are there any special dynamics at a particular destination, such as a big special event with Prior Permission Required (PPR) slotting? Are hotels and ground transportation sold out in an area because of a special event, such as a high school soccer tournament?
Planes
• When evaluating the mission, consider whether short-, mid- or long-range aircraft are best suited. A smaller aircraft might be less expensive, but if you have to refuel several times, a longer-range aircraft might be better for the destination.
• Consider the number and size of the passengers. A person who is 6’ 5” might not fit in a small aircraft.
• Also consider the passenger’s luggage or equipment. For instance, medical personnel carry more equipment.
• Is the aircraft suited for the destination’s runway?
Related Content
