In December 2015 a contract was signed for the implementation of GroundStar at LATAM Airlines Group’s passenger and ramp services operations in Brazil and Chile, where around 11,000 agents would be planned and rostered with the help of GroundStar. The system is a fully integrated software suite for optimised aviation processes by the Germany-based company INFORM.

Although the systems are the same for both pilot stations, the set-up is different in each case. "For us, the flexibility and adaptability of the GroundStar system has been an important criteria in our decision to implement it," says Federico Dos Reis, LATAM Senior Manager Capacity Planning. LATAM’s operations in Chile and Brazil differ in critical parameters, such as union regulations and labour laws.

In some cases, they are even different within one country. In addition, whereas resource planning takes place centrally in São Paulo and Santiago for the respective country, rostering is a decentralised function in various business units, yet coordinated with a central Capacity Planning team working jointly with each unit or station.

INFORM carried out the implementation at São Paulo and Santiago, which was then followed by a self-driven rollout by the LATAM competence team to take the solutions to additional stations of the Chilean and Brazilian networks, and to stations abroad.

"We have been able to accomplish our profitability goals in the planning area, and we are confident that we will profit from the roll out of the rostering part, due to the promising results we are experiencing in the already implemented stations," says Dos Reis. "One rostering system and two divergent set ups: this was the challenge in the implementation process for LATAM at São Paulo and Santiago Airports. Our work with the team has led to successful cooperation based on mutual trust," concludes Oliver Tiedt, INFORM project manager.