Case Study: Heathrow Airport achieves 85% on-time departures with Pegasystems

Heathrow Airport Improving Real-Time Operations

Heathrow Airport faced the challenge of replacing aging, custom-built systems to achieve true real-time, end-to-end oversight of airport operations while meeting EU SESAR requirements. The operator needed an intelligent automation platform to coordinate complex turnaround activities and improve passenger satisfaction and operational control.

Heathrow selected Pegasystems for its Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) initiative and completed the first phase in nine weeks. Pega’s solution dynamically coordinates every element of flight turnaround—from landing minute and gate allocation to baggage, refuelling and boarding—helping on-time departures jump from 68% to 85%, improving terminal throughput and resource planning. The programme continues to expand into kerb-to-gate and transfer processes.

Heathrow Airport

Eamonn Cheverton

Enterprise Architect