Aircraft turnaround management that catches a slipping task early and puts the fix in front of the controller to approve
Turns leave on time: a slipping task is caught early, with a fix the controller approves.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Aircraft turnaround management is the work of getting an aircraft from on-block to off-block on time: every turn task — deboarding, cleaning, catering, fueling, bags, boarding, the push — tracked against its plan, and every slip fixed before it delays the departure. Aircraft Turnaround Management is a turnaround management system run by seven agents that watch every turn in a bank, forecast each off-block time with its reasons, propose recovery plans checked by a second agent, and dispatch them once the station controller approves.
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Aircraft turnaround management today means a station controller watching 20 to 40 turns in a departure bank across the operations system, the fuel and catering boards, the crew app, phone calls and the radio. A slipping task — a fuel truck held on another flight's top-up, a tug still on a late push at another gate, a cleaning team short two people — shows up in some system 20 to 40 minutes before it hits the off-block time, and almost never in the one the controller is looking at. By the time the truck is late, the call around for a spare tug or a second team is already on the critical path.
Each minute costs money and travels. A slipped turn becomes the next flight's late-arriving aircraft, the largest single cause of delays in the US. After the push, someone types the IATA delay code and the DOT cause from memory, and the review is a spreadsheet the next day — so the same catering slip on the same widebodies comes back the next evening. From October 19, 2026, the Section 511(b) rule changes how ten kinds of event are reported, and the codes have to change with it.
Estimated split of one station controller's time across a 38-turn evening bank, by hand and with the solution, in minutes.
Seven agents watch, forecast, plan and check every turn; the station controller decides, and only then are crews dispatched.
Friday, October 16, 2026, Corvane Airways' evening bank at Chicago O'Hare: 38 turns in two hours. CV 118 to London Heathrow, a Boeing 787-9 at gate C14 with 268 passengers booked and 41 connecting, is scheduled off-block at 18:40. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Renata's Today screen reads: 38 turns in Bank 4, 3 at risk, 4 recoveries waiting for her decision, 87% on time (D15) so far today. Needs you puts CV 118 first — forecast 18:49, 9 minutes late, with a plan ready that brings it back to 18:40. Beside it, what the agents found: fuel truck FT-12 held on a top-up at C10 again, 4 of the last 10 evenings.
“Fuel truck +7 and tug T-41 still at C8 · R1 brings it back to 18:40”
Ramp turn monitoring happens on the turn Gantt: it shows all 13 tasks of Corvane's 102-minute 787-9 long-haul standard (GOM 4.3.2), each actual or forecast bar over its planned ghost bar, with a now line at 17:52. Fueling is +7, boarding +9, tug connected +11. In the lane beside the Gantt, the turn watch agent says it in sentences: FT-12 reached C14 at 17:42, and tug T-41 is still at C8 on CV 1187, whose push slipped to 18:41.
Renata clicks the fueling bar, then its source. Apron camera C14-2 caught fuel truck FT-12 at the stand at 17:42:10, against a plan of 17:35 — 7 minutes late. The fuel dispatch log shows why: FT-12 was released from CV 1452's top-up at C10 at 17:36, 15 minutes over.
“Highlighted: what the agents relied on. A read-only copy is kept in the turn's evidence pack.”
The forecast chip opens the reasons: range 18:47–18:52, 82% confident, from camera, telematics and dispatch and 61 turns of 787-9 history at C14. The tug sets the critical path — T-41 reaches C14 from C8 at 18:47, tug connected and off-block at 18:49. Fuel and boarding run 3 minutes behind it.
“The critical path is the tug; fixing fuel alone saves nothing until the tug is fixed.”
The recovery planner proposes four plans. R1 boards economy through the rear bridge at door L2 in parallel with L1 under Corvane's fueling-with-passengers procedure, FOM 8.2.6, and sends spare tug T-57 from the C20 pool: off-block 18:40, 9 minutes saved. R2, the tug alone, saves 3. R3 would save 7 by moving fuel dispenser H-27 from C16 — but the constraint checker fails it, because H-27 is booked for CV 902 to Tokyo, which would leave 4 minutes late.
“Nothing is dispatched until you decide.”
Renata types “Why is fuel late?”. The turn watch agent answers with its two sources: FT-12 was assigned to CV 118 at 17:20, the CV 1452 top-up ran 15 minutes over, and the truck reached C14 at 17:42. It adds that the same truck was held on a top-up on 4 of the last 10 evenings, and that this one has joined the pattern.
Renata approves R1 with the reason “Cheapest recovery”. Only then does the dispatch agent send five tasks: gate agent Kim Albright to the L2 bridge, purser Hannah Ward to arm boarding during fueling, Lakefront Fuel's FT-12 operator to post the fire watch, T-57's driver Dez Morgan to C14 by 18:30, and T-41's driver Ana Pruitt to stay on CV 1187. Every crew acknowledges by 17:56, and the bars snap back.
“New forecast: off-block 18:40 — on time. The fuel truck's 7 minutes are absorbed; nothing to report.”
Tyrell's Crews & equipment screen lists each dispatched task with its acknowledgment: 7 of 8 acknowledged. One is not — Northline Catering's truck NC-8 for CV 902's top-up gave no acknowledgment in 2 minutes, so it was escalated to Tyrell at 17:48. The equipment pool shows every tug's job and when it is free, and T-70 out of service for a hydraulic check until 21:00.
Delay code assignment starts from the evidence: each late departure gets an IATA AHM 730 code and a 14 CFR 234.4 cause with the events behind it and a confidence. CV 1729's 16 minutes are code 83, an FAA ground delay program at DCA — National Aviation System, 95%. CV 1520's sorter outage, run by the airport, is marked to report under the new Section 511(b) category from Monday. CV 233 has two possible causes at 64%, so the agent asks Renata to choose.
“From Monday, October 19, 2026, ten kinds of event move out of ‘Air carrier’ into the new Section 511(b) category.”
The turn review agent has drafted the 19:00 handover from Renata to the night controller, Jonah Reyes: six turns at risk or to watch, four decisions waiting, the lost C16 camera, the out-of-service tug, the delayed catering feed, tonight's two patterns and the delay codes still to confirm. Renata edits it, signs and sends; Jonah accepts, and the note stays with every turn's record.
The same departure bank, seen by five of the people who carry it — what their evening looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven agents watch, forecast, plan and check every turn; the station controller decides, and only then are crews dispatched.
Tracks every task of every turn against its plan from apron camera events, crew app check-ins, tug telematics, fuel and catering dispatch and departure control.
Forecasts the off-block time every 60 seconds with a range and a confidence, from task progress, equipment positions and 90 days of history for the fleet and gate; breaks it into the critical path and ties each minute to its event.
When a turn is forecast late, proposes up to four recovery plans built from approved actions — spare equipment, extra staff, procedure options such as FOM 8.2.6, or accepting the delay — with the minutes each saves and what each costs.
A second reader: checks every plan against the procedures, the turn standard, equipment and crew availability, and the knock-on to every other turn in the bank, and shows the failing condition with its source.
After a person approves, sends each task to the right crew or supplier with who, where and by when, waits for acknowledgment, escalates silence after 2 minutes and proposes the off-block update to the FAA surface system.
Proposes the IATA AHM 730 delay code and the 14 CFR 234.4 cause for each late departure, with the events behind it, and applies the Section 511(b) category from October 19, 2026.
Writes each late turn's review the morning after — plan against actual, what slipped and why, with sources — finds repeat slips over 30 evenings with a fix and an owner, and drafts the shift handover.
Decides every recovery. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any turn, gate, tug, truck, delay code or rule — or tell the agents what to do. Every answer points to its source, and nothing moves until you confirm.
Why is CV 118's fuel late?
Fuel truck FT-12 was still topping up CV 1452 at C10; the top-up ran 15 minutes over and FT-12 reached C14 at 17:42, 7 minutes late. It is the 4th time in 10 evenings.
What if we wait?
Off-block 18:49, arriving LHR about 08:44 instead of 08:35. At least $907 in block cost (9 × $100.76) and 14 passengers with LHR connections under 75 minutes. The new off-block time would have to be shared with the FAA surface system (plan R4).
Why did R3 fail?
R3 moves dispenser H-27 from C16. H-27 is booked for CV 902 from 18:00 to 18:30; without it CV 902 finishes fueling at 18:36 and leaves at 18:49, 4 minutes late. It saves us 7 minutes and costs Tokyo 4, so it was removed from the recommendation.
Hold T-57 for CV 74 after us
Understood: after CV 118 pushes at 18:40, T-57 goes to C18 for CV 74 (push 19:05) instead of returning to the C20 pool; CV 33 at 19:25 takes T-63, free at C16 from 18:47. The checker passed it. It is added to the dispatch when you approve R1.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Turn time management starts from your own standards. The plan every turn is measured against, and the moments the agents speak up, are settings — applied to every turn at the station and recorded on the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Warn the controller when the forecast is late by | 3 min | Step up or down, one minute at a time |
| Propose a recovery when the forecast is late by | 3 min | Step up or down, one minute at a time |
| Escalate to the duty manager when late by, or when a plan touches another flight | 15 min | Step up or down, one minute at a time |
| Escalate a dispatch not acknowledged within | 2 min | Step up or down, one minute at a time |
| Minimum confidence to mark a plan “recommended” | 75% | Step up or down |
| Agents never dispatch without a person's approval | On — locked by airline policy | Shown for the record; cannot be turned off |
| Reason codes for reject and edit | 6 codes | Safety concern · Resource needed elsewhere · Forecast disputed · Cost not justified · Crew or contract constraint · Other |
| Turn standards, per fleet | 787-9 long-haul · 102 min, 13 tasks | 777-300ER 115 · 787-8 95 · A350-900 110 · 737-9 55 · A321neo 50 · E175 40 min |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the pilot · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (Airlines for America, U.S. passenger carrier delay costs — $100.76 per block minute, 2024; Bureau of Transportation Statistics — late-arriving aircraft about 40% of delayed arrivals, 2010–2019). Regulations named: 14 CFR 234.4; the DOT final rule under Section 511(b) of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, effective October 19, 2026; IATA Airport Handling Manual AHM 730 delay codes. Corvane Airways and the people, suppliers, flights and aircraft named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Aircraft turnaround management is the work of getting an aircraft from on-block to off-block on time: every turn task — deboarding, cleaning, catering, fueling, bags, boarding, the push — tracked against its plan, and every slip fixed before it delays the departure. Aircraft Turnaround Management is a turnaround management system run by seven agents that watch every turn in a bank, forecast each off-block time with its reasons, propose recovery plans checked by a second agent, and dispatch them once the station controller approves.
The off-block forecaster re-forecasts every turn every 60 seconds from task progress, equipment positions and 90 days of history for the fleet and gate. It gives a range and a confidence, breaks the forecast into the critical path, and ties each minute to the camera event, telematics reading or dispatch log behind it. Below 70% confidence it says so first. It is the time A-CDM airports track as the target off-block time (TOBT); a new off-block time is shared with the FAA surface system only as part of a plan a person approves.
The recovery planner proposes up to four plans built from approved actions, each with the minutes it saves. The constraint checker then reads each plan against the procedures, the turn standard, equipment and crew availability and every other turn in the bank. In the demo it failed a plan that would have saved 7 minutes but made the Tokyo flight 4 minutes late.
No. The agents never dispatch a crew, move equipment, change the published off-block time or file a delay code on their own. The station controller approves, edits or rejects every recovery with a reason code; only then does the dispatch agent send each task and wait for every crew to acknowledge. Plans that touch another flight go to the duty manager.
For each late departure, the delay coding agent proposes the IATA AHM 730 delay code and the 14 CFR 234.4 cause with the events that justify it and a confidence. The controller confirms or changes each code, or confirms those at 90% or more together; below 85%, or with two possible causes, the agent asks. It never files the monthly report.
From that date, ten kinds of event — among them a bag system outage the carrier does not control and unscheduled maintenance that cannot be deferred — move out of “Air carrier” into a new Section 511(b) category. The delay coding agent applies it from October 19 and marks today's codes that would report differently.
The turn watch agent falls back to the crew app and dispatch logs and lowers its confidence, and the forecast says so. In the demo, the camera at gate C16 is lost at 17:31 and the Tokyo turn is tracked from crew check-ins at 64% confidence; the lost feed also goes into the shift handover.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your turn standards, ground and flight operations manual procedures, and the systems you already run — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. Setup ends with a test turn: a recorded 787-9 turn replayed through every agent.
Every handler line tied to its turn, its rate and its approval before a dollar is paid.
1-min demoGround Handling SLA ManagementPenalties collected, not waived: every SLA line backed by the flights behind it.
1-min demoMishandled Baggage ClaimsBag claims settled in two days, within the right limit, with every figure cited.
1-min demoWe'll run Aircraft Turnaround Management on your own turn standards, procedures and a recorded evening bank.