AIMS

Closing the Gaps in Airline Operations

Glen Bethanis, AIMS | Aerospace Defense Review | Top Aviation Crew Management ServiceGlen Bethanis, MD, Strategic Planning
AIMS has long worked at the center of airline operations, where complexity steadily increases as networks expand, fleets evolve, and regulatory demands grow. Across the industry, airlines need to balance crew, aircraft, and schedules using a mix of specialized tools and manual processes. While these approaches have supported growth over time, they can make real-time coordination demanding when legality, availability, and passenger commitments must remain closely aligned.

Established in 1983, the company has supported airline operations for more than four decades and has been deployed across 230 airlines worldwide, reflecting sustained relevance in live operating environments.

“We have endured because AIMS functions as core operational infrastructure, proven in live airline environments where reliability, compliance and speed are not optional,” says Glen Bethanis, MD, Strategic Planning.

AIMS operates as a fully integrated operational system built on a single shared database and flight schedule, serving as one source of truth across the airline. Crew planning and tracking, training, vacation management, aircraft scheduling, maintenance planning, aircraft movement control, and commercial planning all operate from the same real-time data foundation.

With no duplication, data transfer, or reconciliation required, updates and decisions propagate instantly across departments. This unified approach enables operations teams to act faster, stay aligned, and make confident decisions based on consistent, accurate information throughout the operation.

"That level of integration changes how airlines make decisions,” explains Bethanis. “When every department is working from the same operational reality, optimization becomes practical.”

AIMS uses high-speed optimizers as the primary engine for efficiency, with AI and ML applied where practically appropriate. Schedules are constructed so all flights are covered, spare capacity remains available, and additional crew or aircraft are not required to absorb growth.

In airlines with experienced flight operations teams, these optimizers deliver operating cost reductions of around three percent and savings of up to 15 percent in less automated environments. These efficiencies come from tighter utilization, faster planning cycles, and less structural inefficiencies without compressing crew margins.

Crew lifestyle is treated as an operational parameter rather than a soft benefit. AIMS allows crew members to bid for vacations, training duties, preferred flights, and time off during planning, while day-of-operation exchanges and pickup of uncovered flights provide flexibility during disruptions. All requests are evaluated automatically against flight time, rest, and fatigue limitations, and approved only when productivity is preserved. Flexibility remains governed, supporting morale while maintaining the legal and structural discipline required for safe, repeatable operations.

  • We have endured because AIMS functions as core operational infrastructure, proven in live airline environments where reliability, compliance and speed are not optional.

The impact is best illustrated in practice. Along-standing AIMS customer, operating with a semi-automated system supplemented by extensive Excel workflows required large scheduling teams and multi-day planning cycles. After transitioning to AIMS, planning timelines shortened, staffing requirements declined, and schedule quality improved. The airline recorded approximately five percent reduction in operating costs, driven by disciplined efficiency rather than service reduction.

That same discipline extends into regulatory compliance and system reliability, which are embedded into how the platform is designed and maintained. AIMS is approved by more than 50 National Civil Aviation Authorities, including the FAA and EASA. Regulatory changes are monitored proactively, and software updates are delivered well ahead of enforcement deadlines, without additional charges that could disrupt airline planning.

The platform operates under ISO 9001 quality standards and ISO 27001 security standards. Code quality checking tools and automated testing are applied throughout development and prior to every release to minimize defects and downtime. Security is reinforced through continuous monitoring, code security tools, and 24/7 cyberattack prevention, ensuring uninterrupted airline operations even under hostile conditions. Infrastructure is hosted on AWS, with a primary site in Frankfurt and a remote disaster recovery environment to ensure uninterrupted operations.

Today, AIMS continues to lead because it reflects how airlines actually operate. By unifying integration, optimization, compliance, and crew welfare into a single operational reality, AIMS delivers the operational backbone airlines need for navigating rising complexity with little margin for error.

Deep Dive

Advancing Precision In Aviation Crew Management

Airline economics are shaped as much by crew deployment as by fuel or fleet decisions. Irregular operations, fragmented planning tools and manual workarounds compound cost pressures in ways that are often hidden until performance begins to drift. Executives evaluating aviation crew management platforms are not simply comparing software features. They are weighing how data architecture, planning logic and automation discipline will influence schedule reliability, staffing levels and overall cost control. A persistent weakness in many airline environments is structural fragmentation. Crew planning, crew tracking, aircraft scheduling and movement control frequently operate on separate databases. Flight schedules may exist in parallel systems that require synchronization and data transfer. Each interface introduces latency, duplication and avoidable risk. Manual reconciliation, often supported by spreadsheets, becomes part of the daily workflow. That approach may function at smaller scale, but it limits growth and invites error. A stronger model places every functional area on a single shared data foundation. When crew planning, tracking, aircraft scheduling and related functions draw from one flight schedule database, inconsistencies disappear at source. There is no need to reconcile versions or manage file transfers between systems. Decision-makers gain a unified view of the schedule, and changes propagate instantly across modules. For airline executives, this architecture translates into reduced administrative burden and a lower probability of planning discrepancies that can escalate into disruption. Performance under real planning constraints is equally decisive. Traditional programming approaches can struggle with the combinatorial complexity of crew pairing, legality rules and aircraft utilization. Modern optimization engines address this challenge through speed and mathematical rigor. Rapid processing enables planners to test scenarios and generate results in timeframes that support day-to-day operations rather than retrospective analysis. In practice, that distinction affects cost. Efficient crew schedules ensure all flights are covered while minimizing unnecessary buffers and excess staffing. When schedules are constructed to fit flights to crew assignments precisely, airlines avoid the need for additional crew or aircraft to support the same timetable. In environments where experienced flight operations teams already exist, improvements of several percentage points in operating cost can be realized. In less mature planning organizations, gains can be significantly higher. For executives, the implication is clear: optimization quality directly influences resource intensity. The transition from semi-automated or spreadsheetdriven processes to an integrated and optimized platform also alters organizational structure. Airlines relying on partial automation often require multiple schedulers to complete tasks that span several days. A consolidated and optimized environment reduces manual intervention and compresses planning cycles. The experience of carriers that have conducted formal gap analyses and benchmarking exercises reinforces this trajectory. Airlines moving from mixed systems and Excel-based workflows to fully automated platforms have reported measurable reductions in manpower requirements alongside improved schedule efficiency. Cost decreases in the range of five percent have been observed following full adoption, reflecting both labor savings and better utilization of crew and aircraft. These outcomes illustrate how architecture and optimization capability converge to shape financial performance. Against this backdrop, AIMS stands out as a compelling choice for airlines modernizing crew management. It delivers a fully integrated environment in which crew planning, tracking, aircraft scheduling, maintenance planning and movement control operate on a single shared database. Its optimization engines generate efficient schedules that cover all flights while preserving flexibility for additional demand, contributing to documented operating cost reductions. For executives prioritizing data integrity, planning speed and measurable cost improvement, it presents a disciplined and proven path forward. ...Read more
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AIMS

Company
AIMS

Management
Glen Bethanis, MD, Strategic Planning

Description
AIMS is a global airline operations software provider delivering fully integrated systems for crew, aircraft, scheduling, maintenance, and compliance. Used by hundreds of airlines worldwide, its platform enables real-time coordination, regulatory assurance, and cost-efficient operations across complex, live environments.