Faxes and Briefs

The airline’s other departments write to ops control by fax. The Fax tab (Alt+X, or type FAX) runs Paperless Fax, from Kittiwake Software, which files each fax as it arrives, so nothing is printed. It takes a moment to start the first time it’s opened.

The filing

Every fax goes in the Inbox, newest first, and in the folder of the department that sent it, beneath the Inbox. Faxes not read yet are in bold with a dot, and each folder counts them, as does the tab. Click a fax, or use ↑ and ↓, to read it below the list as it came off the line; reading it marks it read, and Unread marks it unread again. The Outbox holds faxes waiting to go: sending them isn’t built yet.

Each department has an extension on the company’s own exchange, so its fax number is four digits, with no country or area code:

Firms outside the airline fax ops control on the public network, so their numbers have a country and area code. Each has a folder of its own beneath the departments’.

Licences and subscriptions

On the day a company starts, CATS, the publisher of Flight Dispatch 98, confirms by fax what it’s licensed for: the system itself, the weather services from Skerryvore Meteorological Services, the integrated licence for Paperless Fax, and the CATS Industry Report, with the company’s customer number. For anything about the licence, fax CATS Customer Licensing on the number it gives.

Weather advisories

The airline’s meteorological provider, Skerryvore Meteorological Services, faxes an aviation weather advisory ahead of weather severe enough, over enough airports, to disrupt an operation: a tropical cyclone (about three days ahead), a winter storm or severe gale (a day and a half), prolonged fog (half a day) or severe thunderstorms (some hours). It gives the phenomenon, when it was issued, the period, the area, what’s forecast and the aerodromes affected, largest first; for a tropical cyclone, its number, its position and its forecast position each day. Advisories are numbered through the year. They cover the whole world, whether or not the airline flies there, and the provider sends only the most significant, a few a year. The Alerts report each as it arrives. For the detail at an airport, see its TAF; for the picture, the Weather Map.

Briefs

Network Planning, in Commercial, sends ops control a brief: the network the airline wants flown. How to fly it, with which aircraft, at what times and with which slots, is up to the duty manager. Every new company starts with the same brief, a launch network, waiting in the Inbox:

Two airports

Airports sized Medium, Large or Major. Opening a route, / finds airports, and its Size filter shows which they are.

Short-haul

Under 1,500 km from the base as the crow flies, as Eurocontrol counts short-haul.

Daily

A flight out from the base and one back on every day of the week. Several services count together, so one on weekdays and another at weekends make a daily one.

Narrow-body

An aircraft with one aisle.

The brief names a few airports that fit, by their IATA and ICAO codes, spread from 300 to 700 nm from the base. Any airport that fits counts, not only those.

The Brief line of the operating report shows how many of the airports the timetable serves as asked, and when it first served them all. Network Planning watch the timetable too, and fax as soon as a brief’s flights are in it and loaded for sale. A brief met stays met if its flights later come off, though the report then counts fewer airports served.

More briefs, and briefs that change with the seasons, are on the way.