Inside Delta’s nerve center: How an OCC Duty Director and the team prepare for winter

Operations

Inside Delta's nerve center: How an OCC Duty Director and the team prepare for winter

Delta's Operations & Customer Center is gearing up for winter, and we talked to Pete Sansom, one of six OCC Duty Directors, about how the team ensures the airline is prepared to run a smooth operation this season.

Staff Writer

Dec 17, 2024 11:30am

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If Delta's frontline employees - those who are the most customer-facing - are the players on the field, then the Operations & Customer Center (OCC) is the coaching staff. And if the OCC is the coaching staff, then the OCC Duty Director is like the head coach, ensuring the team is working together and equipping everyone with what they need to make the right calls.

We spoke with Pete Sansom, one of six OCC Duty Directors, about the responsibilities that come with overseeing operations within the OCC, which includes providing oversight and direction as well as offering guidance and working with experts across 36 departments to make key decisions every day.

"Working in the OCC can be like solving a big puzzle; just when you think you have it figured out, a piece is missing. The challenge is replacing that missing piece," Sansom said. "You have to figure out how to get people to their destination while keeping our customers and employees safe and protecting the Delta brand."

Right now, the OCC is gearing up for winter - one of Delta's busiest travel seasons - and while not everything can be planned for, the team does everything in its power to ensure the airline is prepared to run a smooth operation.

Deicing

Every year, the Operations Management team meets with stations at local airports and Delta's hubs in the northern U.S. for a pre-winter deicing summit. There, the teams decide how many planes can be deiced per hour based on different levels of freezing precipitation as well as scope out the ramp to see where planes can be parked for deicing.

"During winter weather events, we refer back to the numbers each station gives us for how many planes they can handle per hour, and then based on what our meteorology team forecasts, we will adjust our schedule to meet what those stations can handle," said Sansom. "It's not always perfect, but it's pretty close."

Making Plans and Calling Audibles

While some irregular operations (IROP) can be planned for, like hurricanes or a deicing event, thunderstorms present a unique set of problems that require the OCC to prepare as much as they can and think on their feet.

For thunderstorms associated with a front, the team can anticipate when that's going to impact a station, but thunderstorms that are 'airmass' or 'pop up' are unpredictable. The OCC has a general idea of when - however, where and the level of intensity is not known, so they plan for the event by anticipating holding at a destination and making sure surrounding alternate airports are aware of possible diversions.

A meteorologist works within Delta's Operations & Customer Center

"When conditions make it unsafe to land at the scheduled destination, a diversion is our biggest safety lever we can pull," Sansom said. "We do it for the protection of our customers, employees and aircraft. Diversion is not a failure - it's almost like a punt in football. You can't always dive for the touchdown; sometimes, you refuel and regroup for the next attempt."

For each IROP there is a different plan, and this requires the team to package together changes to the flight schedule to manage different scenarios. For example, a package may be built based on taking out a certain number of flights during a deicing event where a station can only handle 30 flights per hour, and depending on the intensity of the situation, that package will be fine-tuned.

The challenge lies in the fact that each region presents its own unique set of obstacles, making each IROP plan dynamic and always changing.

"At the OCC, we come up with what we think will happen and then when something else occurs, we have to adapt to it very much like a football team," said Sansom. "Defense plays one way, so you have to run the ball instead of pass it."

One of the OCC's not-so-secret weapons for running a smooth operation during winter travel is their in-house meteorology team, who continuously monitors the weather and sends forecasts across the OCC, dispatchers and to flight crew on each aircraft to make informed decisions about the route for every Delta flight.

When winter weather hits a city, the OCC's main goal is to isolate that weather event as much as possible, working with teams at the affected station(s) while keeping the rest of the airline going. For example, if the airports in New York City are experiencing an IROP, the team is still going to try to run every flight they can across the rest of the system. This requires quick thinking and decisive action from the Duty Director and the rest of the OCC, particularly when things don't go according to plan.

"Just know that when you're airborne sitting in seat 28A, there is a team of professionals doing all we can to get you to your destination as quickly and safely as possible," said Sansom.

• Irregular Operations, OCC, Behind the Scenes at Delta

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