Fligence Planning facilitates flight schedule creation through two methods: file importation or system extraction.
File Import
For importing, you can upload a schedule file in the SSIM format through the Planning > Schedule Importer menu. The importer window is illustrated in Figure 2 below. You simply have to click the Choose button, pick the file from your local computer, set the necessary options, and then initiate the upload. The system is compatible with a variety of file extensions including .txt, .csv, .dat, and even .zip for compressed files. Following the import, you will be redirected to the Host Schedule table (Figure 1), allowing you to see and manage the newly imported schedule data.
On the Host Schedule screen within Fligence Planning, you have the option to import a schedule via a CSV file. This file must be structured with specific fields in the following sequence:
- MKT_AL: IATA code for the marketing airline.
- OPT_AL: IATA code for the operating airline.
- Mkt_Flight_No: Marketing flight number.
- Opt_Flight_No: Operating flight number.
- Org: IATA code for the origin airport.
- Dst: IATA code for the destination airport.
- Via: IATA code for the stopover point.
- Effective_From: Effective date.
- Effective_To: Dismissal date.
- Opt_Days: Operating days, 1 for Monday, 2 for Tuesday, …, and 7 for Sunday.
- Local_Dept_Time: Local departure time in the HHMM format.
- Local_Arr_Time: Local arrival time in the HHMM format.
- Arr_Offset: arrival day offset with the following values:
- ‘1’: indicates arrival on the following day,
- ”: a blank entry denotes arrival on the same day as departure,
- ‘P’: signifies arrival on the preceding day,
- ‘2’: reflects an arrival two days after departure.
- Flying_Mins: Number of minutes of the flight duration.
- Aircraft: Aircraft type code.
- Seats: Seat count of the aircraft.
- Restrictions: Traffic restriction tags.
- Airline_Type: Mainline carrier (M) or Low cost carrier (L).
- Time_Eval: Check this to enable flight time evaluation for the flight.
System Extraction
System Extraction in Fligence Planning enables retrieval of specific flight data from its comprehensive global airline schedule database. By choosing relevant criteria and clicking Extract Schedule, you can compile targeted records for any chosen airline directly into the Host Schedule table.
For both importing and extracting schedules, you’re presented with a variety of selectable options to refine your data set:
- Travel Month: Restricts the data to flights operational in the chosen month.
- Airline: Filters the data based on the entered IATA codes of one or multiple airlines.
- Origin: Allows selection of flights based on their departure airports.
- Destination: Narrows the data to flights arriving at selected airports.
- Equipment: Filters flights by the aircraft used.
- Services: Enables selection from a range of flight services for granular data extraction.
- Merge Operation Days: Select this to consolidate records for the same flight across different operating days into a single entry. For example, if flight123 from ABC to XYZ at 8 am arrives at 10 am on days 3 and 4, and another entry has it on days 1 and 7, merging will create a single record for flight123 operating on days 1347.
- Exclude Surface Equipment: Opting for this excludes records for ground transportation such as buses and trains.
- Exclude Same Orig/Dest: This option omits any records where the flight’s origin and destination are the same.
- Exclude Marketing Flights: Choose this to filter out codeshare flights, retaining only those operated by the host airline.
- Append to Existing Table: Check this to add new records to the current table; if unchecked, the existing records will be cleared before adding new data.
Please be aware that the Extract Schedule function becomes inactive once a local file is selected for import. To re-enable the system extraction option, simply click the Cancel button, which will clear the current file selection.