Much has changed in the aviation industry since OAG began gathering, validating and distributing airline schedules almost 80 years ago. In fact, back then, the word “database” was still decades away from being coined!

The first Official Aviation Guide of the Airways, published in 1929, included only 300 flights from 35 airlines.

Fast forward to 2008 and OAG is now managing more than 28 million flights from over 900 carriers, transmitting the very latest schedules data directly into the supply chain every day to meet the operational and commercial needs of the aviation community.

Ahead of the game in data processing

As the industry has evolved, so has the way OAG processes and validates airline schedules: harnessing the latest technology and investing more than $20 million in the last four years to deliver the speediest and most accurate service for its customers.

Many of the schedule changes received directly from the airlines are fully automated — meaning any changes, additions or deletions that the carrier has made are automatically reflected in OAG’s systems.

Data Integrity

Perhaps surprisingly, around 650 airlines still submit their schedules “manually” — by email, over the telephone and even occasionally by post. That’s why in addition to employing a sophisticated automated validation system and rigorous audit procedures, OAG also employs a team of more than 25 detail-oriented people to manually input data and maintain the underlying integrity of the database.

Team members are responsible for input checks, intuitive checks and quality-control validation, to ensure we have a robust and totally reliable supply of schedules data to meet your needs.

OAG operations are active around the clock and around the world, 24 x 7 x 365. Our advanced data management capabilities mean that automated SSM updates (Standard Schedule Messages for any change to a schedule) are processed continuously, and schedule changes arriving on a rolling basis are guaranteed to be ready for distribution within just a few hours of receipt.

Helping our customers stand out from the crowd

Each file we distribute is unique and reflects the specific needs of the individual customer. Every month we send more than 870 individual feeds of data directly from our own databases to customers’ systems, including SSIM files. SSIM (Standard Schedule Information Manual) is the industry standard format for a full file overwrite. Typically we create an average of 20 SSIM files per night — 365 days a year — plus we run a variety of productions for different data formats, carrier- and airport-specific timetables and other requirements.

Airline Profiling

We created a customized airline “profiling” procedure to prevent the chance of data errors. Each airline is assigned its own profile, which contains regularly updated program codes that are unique to the data received by that airline. As the airline’s data is fed into the OAG system, the codes detect when the information received does not conform to the carrier’s specifications. A warning message is automatically generated for investigation by our Operations staff. They then review and resolve issues to ensure the airline’s data integrity is maintained to the highest standard.

OAG’s Operations and IT teams are committed to providing the best possible service to ensure every airline’s schedules are validated, processed and distributed into the marketplace as quickly and efficiently as possible, where they can be seen and sold.

OAG SCHEDULES DISTRIBUTION SERVICE
OAG sits right at the heart of the air transport industry; an integral part of the supply chain. Its Schedules Distribution Service (SDS) feeds the world’s GDS (Global Distribution Systems) and travel portals with aggregated schedules data, and drives the internal systems of airlines, air traffic control systems, aircraft manufacturers, airport planners and government agencies.