Name: 斥資 1.35 億美元為班機準時起飛做準備 | WSJ Booked (The $135M Mission to Prep Your Flight to Depart on Time | WSJ Booked)
Uploaded: 2025-06-05T23:03:14.000Z
Duration: 8 min 13 s

These airline staff have just two minutes to get this jetty attached and the doors of this plane open in order to stay on schedule.

這些航空公司的工作人員只有兩分鐘的時間來連接這個棧橋和打開這架飛機的艙門，以保證按時起飛。

情態助動詞 B1

See, while the passenger's flight may have just ended, for British Airways a complex race is just beginning.

旅客的班機可能剛剛結束，但對英國航空公司來說，一場複雜的競賽才剛剛開始。

程度副詞

One it has to perform over 300 times every single day at just one airport alone.

僅在一個機場，它每天就要執行 300 多次任務。

It's the race to turn a plane around ready for the next wave of passengers, and get up to 35 aircraft an hour airborne as efficiently as possible.

這是一場將飛機調頭準備迎接下一波乘客的競賽，並儘可能高效地將每小時多達 35 架飛機送上飛機。

If it isn't done correctly, it could cause a domino effect of delays.

如果操作不當，可能會造成多米諾骨牌效應，導致延誤。

That's why BA has spent over $130 million on improving punctuality, taking it from a time when more than half of its flights were delayed to reaching 86% punctuality.

正因如此，BA 在提高準點率方面花費了超過 1.3 億美元，使其班機準點率從過去的一半以上延誤提高到 86%。

Behind the shift lies AI and high-tech operations centres.

這一轉變的背後是人工智能和高科技營運中心。

This is largely like a big game of Tetris, but not one where you clean the lines and it disappears.

這在很大程度上就像一個大型俄羅斯方塊遊戲，但並不是你把線擦乾淨，它就消失了。

So what does it take to get a flight to leave on time?

那麼，怎樣才能讓班機準時起飛呢？

This is the logistics behind the aircraft turnaround.

這就是飛機轉場背後的後勤工作。

British Airways' playbook for turning around an aircraft is called the Precision Time Schedule, or PTS.

英國航空公司的飛機調頭手冊被稱為 "精確時間計劃"（PTS）。

For short-haul flights, it takes about 50 minutes, and it begins by assigning teams the moment a plane lands.

短途班機大約需要 50 分鐘，從飛機著陸的那一刻起就開始分配小組。

Which would be our loading team, our baggage logistics drivers and our aircraft dispatch manager.

其中包括我們的裝載團隊、行李物流司機和飛機調度經理。

For BA, it's especially important that their short-haul aircraft are turned around on time here at London Heathrow.

對於 BA 來說，在倫敦希思羅機場準時調度短途飛機尤為重要。

It's not only the company's hub airport, but it's also one of the busiest airports in the world, with one runway for departures and one for arrivals.

它不僅是公司的樞紐機場，也是世界上最繁忙的機場之一，一條跑道用於起飛，一條跑道用於到達。

We have circa about almost 80 flights departing before 9.30 in the morning, and the domino effect that we can have in terms of not getting the first wave right, we'll see that for the rest of the day.

在我們的電路中，大約有 80 個班機在早上 9 點 30 分之前起飛，如果第一波班機沒有做好，就會產生多米諾骨牌效應。

As the plane arrives on the stand, this aircraft guidance system guides the plane to the exact right position.

當飛機抵達停機坪時，飛機引導系統會將飛機引導到準確的位置。

We'll come to a complete stop, engines off.

When it's safe to do so, our teams will then engage their aircraft.

在安全的情況下，我們的團隊將與他們的飛機交戰。

So that's everything from trucking the aircraft, putting cones around it, and attaching the jetty onto the aircraft.

是以，從用卡車運送飛機、在飛機周圍放置錐形筒，到將棧橋安裝到飛機上，一切工作都要做。

So getting that door open within two minutes is incredibly important.

是以，在兩分鐘內把門打開是非常重要的。

But even at this stage, there's the potential for delays to occur.

但即使在這個階段，也有可能出現延誤。

For this flight, the jet bridge suffered a mechanical fault, which took a few minutes for BA to fix before they could disembark passengers.

在這次飛行中，噴氣橋出現了機械故障，BA 花了幾分鐘時間才修好，然後才能讓乘客下機。

You can feel the pressure already building when you can't get the customer door open.

當你無法打開客戶的門時，你就會感覺到壓力已經在增加。

But we have plans and mitigations in place.

但我們已經制定了計劃和緩解措施。

Can we get the jetty back up, talking to the airport operator, can we get an engineer out to fix the jetty?

我們能讓棧橋恢復運行嗎？與機場運營商商談後，我們能請一位工程師來修復棧橋嗎？

Meanwhile, cargo and baggage, which is stored in these containers to increase efficiency, is being offloaded.

與此同時，為提高效率而存放在這些貨櫃中的貨物和行李正在卸載。

And at the rear of the plane, a cleaning crew arrives, which on this size of aircraft will have up to nine minutes to completely clean the plane.

在飛機尾部，清潔人員會到達，在這種大小的飛機上，清潔人員最多需要 9 分鐘來完全清潔飛機。

So they begin while passengers are still disembarking.

是以，他們在乘客還在下船時就開始了。

Once all the passengers are off, a fuel truck arrives under the wing.

所有乘客下車後，一輛加油車來到機翼下。

But this truck isn't actually carrying any fuel itself.

但實際上，這輛卡車本身並沒有裝載任何燃料。

At Heathrow, fuel is piped through these hydrants and connected to the plane via pipes on the truck, saving time as the fuel truck doesn't have to go back and refuel.

在希思羅機場，燃料通過這些消防栓輸送，並通過卡車上的管道連接到飛機上，這樣就節省了時間，因為燃料卡車不必返回加油。

As the fuel makes its way onto the aircraft, so does the catering crew.

當燃料被送上飛機時，餐飲服務人員也會隨之而來。

It's their job to remove the used food trays and restock the plane with fresh, pre-ordered meals, starting with the front.

他們的工作就是把用過的餐盤移走，重新裝上預先訂好的新鮮餐食，從機頭開始。

By doing the forward door first, we could then start our boarding of our customers.

先做好前門，我們就可以開始登門拜訪客戶了。

And it's not just empty food trays and trash that has to be removed.

需要清除的不僅僅是空食物盤和垃圾。

At this point, there are no fewer than six teams, some of which are third parties, all working around the aircraft to the precision time schedule.

目前，有不少於六個小組，其中一些是第三方，都在按照精確的時間計劃圍繞飛機開展工作。

Everyone's got clear guidance on what needs to happen at what sequence.

每個人都有明確的指導，知道在什麼順序下需要做什麼。

As soon as you go outside of that sequence, you know at what point where you're running behind and what you can try and do to catch up.

一旦你超出了這個序列，你就會知道你在哪個點上落後了，你可以嘗試做些什麼來追趕。

If they do fall behind, the aircraft dispatch managers try and get the aircraft back on track.

如果確實落後了，飛機調度管理人員會設法讓飛機回到正軌。

Can we get the cleaners to work a bit quicker?

Do what we need to do to actually make up the time.

做我們需要做的事，真正把時間補回來。

So although we have a time that we work to, so 50, 55 minutes as an example, actually we could do this in 45 minutes.

是以，雖然我們有一個工作時間，比如 50 或 55 分鐘，但實際上我們可以在 45 分鐘內完成。

Other carriers are doing this even quicker.

Budget airline Ryanair tries to turn its flights around in as little as 25 minutes.

廉價航空公司瑞安航空（Ryanair）嘗試在 25 分鐘內完成班機調頭。

And when South West was struggling to turn a profit in the 1970s, the company even pushed for a 10 minute turnaround, with cabin crew and even pilots helping to clean up trash.

20 世紀 70 年代，當西南航空公司還在為盈利而苦苦掙扎時，該公司甚至力推 10 分鐘週轉時間，讓機艙乘務員甚至飛行員幫助清理垃圾。

Meanwhile, back at Heathrow, a new crew has arrived.

與此同時，在希思羅機場，新的機組人員已經抵達。

The first officer conducts an inspection of the aircraft, checking for any damage and defects, while the pilot and cabin crew carry out checks on board.

大副對飛機進行檢查，檢查是否有任何損壞和缺陷，飛行員和機艙乘務員則在機上進行檢查。

New baggage and cargo is loaded onto the plane, with each container being placed in a pre-determined order to ensure the plane stays balanced in air.

新的行李和貨物被裝上飛機，每個貨櫃都按照預先確定的順序放置，以確保飛機在空中保持平衡。

And at the airport gate, passengers are already waiting to board the flight.

而在機場登機口，乘客們已經在等待登機了。

We've got them ready behind the gate area, ready to board.

我們已經讓他們在登機口後面準備好了，隨時可以登機。

Any pushchairs, hand baggage, we make sure they're tagged up and ready as well.

任何嬰兒車、手提行李，我們都會確保它們都貼好標籤，準備就緒。

Back in the cockpit, the crew are kept up to date with the boarding process via this sign, which tells them how many passengers and bags they're waiting for and how long until departure.

回到駕駛艙後，機組人員可以通過這個指示牌瞭解登機過程的最新情況，指示牌會告訴他們有多少乘客和行李正在等待，離起飛還有多長時間。

With around 15 minutes to go, the fuel truck and catering truck depart the stand and the baggage handling team finish loading the plane.

還剩 15 分鐘左右，加油車和餐飲車離開機位，行李處理小組完成飛機裝載。

At the front, a ground operations lead is connecting this remote controlled electric tug to the front wheels, ready to push the plane back from the stand.

在前方，一名地面操作負責人正在將這架遙控電動拖船連接到前輪上，準備將飛機從支架上推回來。

Finally, with the last few passengers boarded and seated, the cabin crew closes the door, the jetty is pulled back and the tug pushes the aircraft back out onto the taxiway, ready for departure.

最後，隨著最後幾名乘客登機就座，機艙乘務員關上艙門，棧橋被拉回，拖船將飛機推回滑行道，準備起飛。

But that's just one flight out of BA's fleet of 275 planes.

但這只是 BA 機隊 275 架飛機中的一個班機。

So to manage their aircraft, BA has two new operations centres, one for all flights departing from Heathrow and another that manages the over 200 other airports that BA serves.

是以，為了管理飛機，BA 設立了兩個新的營運中心，一個負責管理從希思羅機場起飛的所有班機，另一個負責管理 BA 服務的其他 200 多個機場。

Here teams work around the clock to monitor anything that could cause a delay, from mechanical issues to weather patterns and from shifting geopolitical tensions to airspace restrictions.

這裡的團隊日以繼夜地監控一切可能導致延誤的因素，從機械故障到天氣模式，從地緣政治緊張局勢的變化到空域限制。

Both facilities opened recently as part of a multi-billion dollar investment by BA to try and improve customer experience and reduce delays.

這兩處設施都是最近啟用的，是巴航投資數十億美元改善客戶體驗和減少延誤的一部分。

See, back in 2008, less than half of the company's flights were leaving on time.

你看，早在 2008 年，該公司準點起飛的班機還不到一半。

BA had moved into the newly opened Heathrow Terminal 5 building and immediately ran into headwinds as baggage problems caused delays and cancellations.

BA 搬進新啟用的希思羅機場 5 號航站樓後，立即遇到了行李問題導致班機延誤和取消的困難。

We once again apologise to customers for the problems.

我們再次就出現的問題向客戶致歉。

Do you accept that the airline has gone from the world's favourite airline to the world's shambolic airline?

您是否承認該航空公司已經從世界上最受歡迎的航空公司變成了世界上最糟糕的航空公司？

The company needed to rebuild its punctuality and its reputation.

公司需要重建其準時性和聲譽。

A decade later, by 2018, punctuality had improved to around 75%, but that still meant that one in every four flights would be delayed.

十年後，到 2018 年，準點率已提高到約 75%，但這仍意味著每四個班機中就有一個會延誤。

But fast forward to today and BA has hit new punctuality records for the first quarter of 2025, powered, it says, by its investment into digital and AI tools, including screens like these.

但時至今日，BA 在 2025 年第一季度創下了新的準點率記錄，BA 表示，這得益於其對數字和人工智能工具的投資，包括像這樣的螢幕。

It gives the situation awareness of everything that's going on across our terminals, everything from CCTV to weather radar systems, our mission control screen that gives us visibility of all of our aircraft on the airfield.

它可以讓我們瞭解整個航站樓的所有情況，從閉路電視到天氣雷達系統，再到我們的任務控制螢幕，讓我們可以看到機場上的所有飛機。

The company is using AI tools for everything, from a weather modelling system that suggests preferable flight routes, to a stand allocation tool that factors in passengers connecting flights when allocating stands, essentially trying to ensure nobody misses a connection.

該公司正在使用人工智能工具來處理一切事務，從建議最佳班機路線的天氣建模系統，到在分配看臺時將轉機乘客因素考慮在內的看臺分配工具，基本上都是為了確保沒有人會錯過轉機。

Another tool called Runway can even suggest the least disruptive course of action if a flight does have an issue, whether to cancel it, delay it or try and bring in a spare aircraft.

另一款名為 "跑道 "的工具甚至可以在班機出現問題時建議最不具破壞性的行動方案，無論是取消班機、延後班機還是嘗試調入備用飛機。

But these systems are only effective if an aircraft is on time to begin with, and it's Ben's job to allocate planes to make sure that happens.

但這些系統只有在飛機一開始就準時的情況下才會有效，而本的工作就是分配飛機以確保準時。

We inherit the schedule 10 days before departure, and we are constantly chopping and changing that schedule.

我們在出發前 10 天就繼承了日程安排，並不斷對其進行刪減和更改。

And as you can see, over the 10 day window, each aircraft here will do around six flights a day.

正如你所看到的，在 10 天的時間裡，這裡的每架飛機每天將飛行約 6 次。

So that'll come in and out of Heathrow three to four times per day.

是以，每天將有三到四次班機進出希思羅機場。

If delays occur, this can leave an aircraft out of position and unable to make its next scheduled flight.

如果發生延誤，飛機就會失去位置，無法按計劃進行下一次飛行。

But an AI tool called Pathfinder can help manage that.

不過，一款名為 "探路者 "的人工智能工具可以幫助解決這個問題。

So it looks at historical punctuality and operational performance, and essentially predicts the probability of a service being delayed.

是以，它可以查看歷史準點率和營運表現，基本上可以預測服務延誤的概率。

And the delay prediction model allows us to put the buffer and the right points in the schedule to absorb those delays.

通過延遲預測模型，我們可以在計劃中設置緩衝區和正確的節點，以吸收這些延遲。

Being able to nip and tuck, gaining five minutes here or there, and minimise delays, helps to prevent that domino effect.

能夠掐頭去尾，在這裡或那裡節省五分鐘時間，儘量減少延誤，有助於防止多米諾骨牌效應。

But even if AI can help suggest efficient ways through setbacks, it won't always be able to prevent them from happening in the first place.

但是，即使人工智能可以幫助提出有效的方法來應對挫折，它也不一定能從一開始就防止挫折的發生。

Life is complicated and our operation is incredibly complex.

生活是複雜的，我們的工作也是極其複雜的。

There's just so many variables in our operation and so much of that is external factors that we just can't control.

我們的營運中存在著太多的變數，其中很多都是我們無法控制的外部因素。