Jettime achieves significant savings by optimizing workforce planning

Jettime, a leading Danish charter airline and aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) company, has nearly two decades of experience helping travelers reach their destinations comfortably and on time.

In an industry where profit margins are slim, operational efficiency is critical, especially for smaller airlines such as Jettime. Inaccuracies in long-term crew planning can significantly impact both costs and service quality. And for third-party carriers, fluctuating flight volumes make workforce forecasting difficult.

As Carsten Stenhøj Schiøtz, Senior Business Controller at Jettime, recalls, “We are famous for our friendly and service-minded cabin crew and pilots, but we struggled to get them to the right place at the right time in the most efficient way.” Unlike hub-based airlines, Jettime’s crews might start in Finland, fly to Greece and end up in Sweden. Managing this complexity—while complying with labor laws and air traffic regulations—requires precise coordination.

For years, the crew planning team relied on a massive Excel spreadsheet—one that could only handle a limited number of rules and often produced unreliable results. As flight schedules grew more complex, it became clear that this manual approach could no longer keep pace with Jettime’s operational demands.

Jettime partnered with IBM Gold Business Partner CogniTech after watching the IBM® Planning Analytics solution in action.

Theis Hartvig Poulsen, Client Manager at CogniTech, adds, “Many think of IBM Planning Analytics as just a budgeting tool, but with some creativity it can solve the hardest planning challenges.”

After a successful proof-of-concept, Jettime and CogniTech spent six months deploying the solution, implementing it with crew and data systems and configuring rules to optimize crew utilization.

Stenhøj Schiøtz reflects on the transformation, “Not many people believed that we would succeed. We couldn’t have done it without the open-mindedness and willingness to learn that we saw from CogniTech.”

The crew planning solution provides Jettime with a comprehensive overview of their fleet and flights, calculating crew needs based on availability, location and production type.  

With the go-live for IBM Planning Analytics completed, Jettime has achieved greater accuracy, transparency and efficiency in their crew forecasting process. This has enabled the company to make high six-figure savings.

Stenhøj Schiøtz says, “We have just had our first crew planning meeting for the year ahead, and IBM Planning Analytics worked perfectly. We’re already seeing a lot more trust in the numbers compared to our previous model, and with the rules and logic embedded into the solution, it should become more accurate the more we use it.”

Jettime has reduced the time required to forecast crew pairings from six days to just three hours. This has improved efficiency, and helps the airline plan up to five years into the future, supporting financial and HR budgets.

Building on the success of the crew planning model, Jettime is exploring other use cases, including fleet planning, price simulation, maintenance and financial forecasting.

Stenhøj Schiøtz concludes by stating, “We have already had interest from other airlines in how to use IBM Planning Analytics to create such a comprehensive planning solution. To our knowledge, no one has ever created an airline solution like this before. I am proud of bringing this innovation to Jettime, supported by IBM and CogniTech.”

Jettime A/S (link resides outside of ibm.com) is an independent, privately owned Danish airline established in June 2020. The airline transports travelers to and from their destinations on behalf of leading tour operators in the Nordic region, including TUI, Bravo Tours, Apollo, Ving and Club La Santa, among others. The company also operates flights on behalf of other airlines such as Air Greenland, SAS and Finnair. With approximately 540 employees across bases in Copenhagen, Billund, Helsinki and Stockholm, Jettime operates 14 Boeing 737 NG passenger aircraft. The company’s own technical department at Copenhagen Airport maintains these aircraft.

Founded in 2019, CogniTech (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a leading IBM Business Partner in Denmark, IBM Planning Analytics and IBM Business Analytics Enterprise. With a team of over 25 employees, CogniTech aims to build long-term partnerships and help their clients make data-driven decisions.