In the Nerve Center

After 35 years with Continental Airlines, Air Traffic Control Coordinator Craig Podzielinski – coworkers call him “Podge” – knows almost instinctively how busy his day in the airline’s nerve center will be when thunderstorms threaten.

Podge’s job is to keep the airline running efficiently and reduce delays. He works in the Houston System Operations Coordination Center (SOCC), where command decisions are made. Our work is routine until something goes wrong,” he says, “like a weather system or a diversion.”

Podge logs in via iPhone on his way to work (“I want to know what’s coming,” he says), and at his desk he surveys aircraft and weather patterns in the United States on four monitors simultaneously. One of his tools is the Aerobahn, which tracks aircraft movements on the ground at the Houston and Newark hubs. Another tool helps him allocate landing slots when weather reduces the arrival rate. On another screen Podge views ground delay programs, checks the customer service team’s list of passengers connecting to international flights, and reduces their delays so they’ll make their connections. There may be a group of customers, for example, connecting from Houston, to Newark, to points all over Europe. If he delays another flight for an hour from Jacksonville to Newark, it can preserve the group’s international itinerary.

With the push of a button, Podge reduces a 45-minute delay to just 20 minutes. Then a message goes out to the FAA and the airport, which passes it on to relieved passengers and crew.

“I want customers to know we’re doing the best we can to get them where they want to go, on time and safely,” Podge says. There’s always someone behind the scenes who’s thinking about how to keep them moving.”

(Adapted from − Hemisphere magazine, July 2011, p. 12)