CASE STUDY: CITILINK

Driving fuel efficiency at Citilink

Arief Rachman, Manager Flight Dispatch, Citilink explains how its Fuel
Efficiency Program benefits operations in a number of ways

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 CASE STUDY: CITILINK

I
n this article I want to share with readers what Citilink has achieved with its
fuel efficiency program. First, though, it will be useful to explain a little about
the airline. Citilink is a low cost carrier in Indonesia operating a fleet of 50
Airbus A320 aircraft. We are particularly proud of the awards that the airline
has gained including a ‘Best Transportation Safety Management Award’ in 2017
from the Indonesian Ministry of Air Transportation; a four star rating from Skytrax
as ‘Best Low Cost Airline in Asia’; and ‘Best Low Cost Carrier in Asia‘ from Trip
2018 ROUTE NETWORK
Advisor. Citilink is also the airline with the best on-time record in Indonesia and
theSCHEDULE
secondFLIGHT
best for on-time performance in Asia. Our scheduled route network
(figure 1) focuses very strongly on the domestic market in Indonesia.
New Route : Additional Frequency :
• CGKBWX • CGKBDJ
• CGKLBJ • CGKJOG
• DJJWMX • SUBBDJ
• CGKPEN • CGKSOC
BANGKOK
• CGKPKY • CGKDPS
• CGKSOC • CGKPLM
BANDA ACEH PENANG
• CGKDMK • CGKKNO
MEDAN
• SUBSRG • CGKPKU
• CGKLOP • CGKPDG
SILANGIT

MANADO
• UPGDPS 2018 ROUTE NETWORK
PEKANBARU BATAM GORONTALO CHARTER FLIGHT
PADANG PONTIANAK

JAMBI
PANGKAL PINANG
PALANGKARAYA
BALIKPAPAN

JAYAPURA
When looking at our fuel
management program, we have made a
TANJUNG PANDAN
BANJARMASIN
PALEMBANG KENDARI
BENGKULU
WAMENA

number of assumptions including that

AMBON
MAKASSAR

JAKARTA
SEMARANG
SURABAYA our fleet of 50 A320s completes
100,800 sectors each year with 180,000
BANDUNG SOLO
BANYUWANGI
LABUAN BAJO
YOGYAKARTA
DILI
MALANG DENPASAR

flying hours each year. We also assume

LOMBOK

KUPANG
Adding freq 2018
New Route 2018
New Route B735 2018 that every 100 liters of fuel burned
Figure 1: 2018 ROUTE NETWORK — SCHEDULE FLIGHT 21 26 > 500 produces 233kg of CO2, 219g of CH4
Cities Routes Flights
As a result, most of Citilink’s scheduled flights are two to three hours but we also and 23g of NOX.
China : Kunming, Wuxi, Guiyang, Nanjing,
operate charter flights to China, Japan, Malaysia, UAE and within Indonesia Wenzhou, Hon g Kong, Shantou,
In sharing how we have managed to
(figure 2). Changsa, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, achieve our fuel efficiency targets in
Chengdu, Nantong, Ningbo,
Changzhou, Dhongsheng Citilink, I’m aware that readers will
Japan : Fukuoka already know how to be efficient but
Malaysia : Kuala Lumpur might well face the same problem that
UAE : Jeddah we faced in Citilink: how to implement
Indonesia : Batam, Manado
efficiency initiatives in the daily
“We have approached that challenge by focusing on how Figure 2: 2018 ROUTE NETWORK — CHARTER operation of the airline and across the
FLIGHTS different areas in the business. We have
cost and efficiency can be driven across four divisions: As far as cost per available seat approached that challenge by focusing
Ground Operations, Maintenance, Flight Operations and kilometer (CASK) goes, Citilink is on how cost and efficiency can be
number two in Asia, a very important driven across four divisions: Ground
Finance.” statistic for me as my job is to Operations, Maintenance, Flight
manage costs. Operations and Finance. (figure 3)

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 CASE STUDY: CITILINK

“We try to recalculate the Cost

Index weekly using big data with
analytics about the weather, levels
of traffic and fuel charges — in
Indonesia, fuel charges are
changed every week according to
the $US exchange rate.”
KEY INITIATIVES DIVISION
GROUND OPERATION
AND DISPATCH
MAINTENANCE FLIGHT OPERATIONS FINANCE Flight Operations accuracy and properness of the computerized flight
As readers know, with flight operations it is the pilot plan. This would include using the most efficient
who is best placed to improve fuel efficiency but routes. At Citilink, we only give the pilot that one
sometimes they don’t do that from concerns about most efficient route in the database: so, how have
safety and other issues. That is a challenge: to talk we managed that? In my experience, Dispatch won’t
Support efficiency on Ensure all fuel cost
preparation flight and
Develop maintenance
plan and discipline
Develop a system that always update and give with pilots about their perceived barriers to have sufficient confidence to discuss the efficiency
ensure quick handling can help to manage update information
on each flight to reduce
time for maintenance
schedule
fuel usage. related fuel cost to all efficiency. of various route choices with the pilot so we remove
using APU department
any choice of routes. Each dispatcher can decide
Figure 3 — KEY INITIATIVES DIVISION Finance whether that route makes sense or not and can
Ground Operations Ensure that everybody and all departments who make changes, if need be, but have to record the
This division focuses on supporting efficiency in the need them are supplied with up-to-date fuel costs reasons for any changes they make. Also, the head
preparations for the flight, ensuring quick handling information. of the department should monitor any deviations
for each flight to reduce APU usage. We have each day and should be coaching their staff when
created training, procedures and policies recorded in MAKING THE EFFICIENCY PROGRAM there are deviations from the SOP (Standard
the Operations Manual and have pushed the COME TRUE Operating Procedures).
personnel in the division to optimize efficiency. Let’s now look at the steps that we have identified Our next consideration is to use the most optimum
and taken to be able to realize the efficiencies we flight level, which is usually generated by the system,
Maintenance want. and then we also ensure the accuracy of the Cost
We have developed a maintenance plan and worked Index. We try to recalculate the Cost Index weekly
to improve the time discipline for the maintenance Ground Operation and Dispatch — using big data with analytics about the weather, levels
schedule. Also we minimize the amount of fuel in the preparation of traffic and fuel charges — in Indonesia, fuel charges
tank during maintenance. The first consideration for fuel efficiency is the are changed every week according to the $US

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 CASE STUDY: CITILINK

exchange rate. This is not led by the fuel efficiency project manager but by the INTERACTIVE Click here for full product details
appropriate department heads who work with their staff to make it happen.
We also endeavor to achieve an accurate estimate of zero fuel weight (ZFW)
while computing the flight plan. As readers will know, deviation from the zero fuel
weight can add 35 kg of fuel use per hour of flight for every 1 ton of extra weight.
We use big data analytics and the characteristics of Citilink’s routes which has
achieved a big saving of fuel.
One big fuel saver is fuel tankerage policy which is used to optimize the
difference of fuel price between Citilink Indonesia’s stations. The calculation is
made every two weeks with the updated fuel price and already taken with the
factor from the fuel burn per extra weight (1 ton fuel ‘cost’ of 35 kg burn of fuel).
Every airline has a fuel tankerage policy but we know that the tankerage policy is
opposite to the company’s commercial policy because we always have to take into
account the needs of cargo department as to the load. One thing to implement
about fuel tankerage is we have a base calculation for the company plus we
incorporate understanding about our route characteristics. Each place we fly to is
different with different characteristics for passengers and different cargo revenues.
So for every route we can decrease or increase the weighting for the fuel tankerage.
On our busiest routes we are confident to increase the fuel tankerage but on the
routes to smaller cities, we are not confident to increase fuel tankerage.

Flight Operation — Engine Start and Taxi

Actions taken to improve fuel efficiency in this section are actions that the pilot
can take but the company can develop a policy with guidance on how to make it
happen, and we can share experience.
Citilink has a policy of single engine taxi but not for all flights and it can cause
other problems such as not being good for the engines and sometimes increasing
the noise levels for passengers. So we implement this policy if the estimated
take-off weight is less than 65,000kg and if the aircraft is going to China. In fact,
one minute of single engine taxi out per sector saves 430,000 liters of fuel per
annum. We have identified five areas on which Flight Operations should focus in
the SOPs. One is limiting weight, then limiting thrust, checklists, engine start
sequence and stabilization times. This is our responsibility and we incorporate
advice from pilot management especially as regards the flight standard; also we
collaborate with the flight operations department to create the SOP

Flight Operation — Take off

Looking now at ‘Flex Thrust’ Normal Operating Procedure; Citilink does not have
a procedure for reduced take-off but only for flexible take off. Our system can
compute the most accurate flexible thrust take off. We have built the system to
do this because, when we checked in line operations, we saw that pilots
sometimes forgot to make the necessary corrections. Flexible thrust aims to

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 CASE STUDY: CITILINK

Flight Operations — Approach

We also got what we wanted regarding SID or STAR
(Standard Terminal Arrival Route). And we
collaborated with other airlines to make it happen so
that, at some airports, where they didn’t use RNAV
(Area Navigation) arrivals, we suggested they
change to RNAV arrivals, reducing IFR arrival
distance by 4 miles and saving 50 liters of fuel.
We use decelerated approaches as normal SOP for
the Airbus A320 but maintain the speed profile of the
aircraft using flap/gear selection according to altitudes
which, again used on one thirds of arrivals, saves 4.5
million liters of fuel each year.
meet several objectives. It reduces noise, it reduces is still cool so both the crew and passengers will still
overall sector fuel consumption, it reduces engine be comfortable. However, reducing APU use by just Flight Operations — Landing
wear and reduces maintenance costs. Currently 85% two minutes per sector saves 780,000 liters of fuel We have implemented reduced flap landing as
of A320 family departures are ‘Flex Thrust’. annually. Also, we delay starting the APU when normal SOP if the runway length is more than
The next contributor to fuel efficiency is to depart arriving until when the aircraft reaches the parking 2,500m, this is mandatory. It delivers quieter
in the direction of flight. We communicated with the stand. The APU uses six times as much fuel as mobile approaches and, if used on one third of landings,
other parties like the ATC (Air Traffic Control) ground support equipment so, on some routes, we saves 3m liters of fuel each year. Idle reverse is
controller to try to get a direct route for departure and replace the APU with ground support equipment but normal SOP for our pilots thus avoiding using
tried to get a new SID (Standard Instrument not on all routes because there is limited ground reverse thrust if we’re landing on a runway longer
Departure). The ATC also likes this if we can give them support in some stations. than 2,500m. This policy means quieter landings and
information to reduce traffic levels in the sky. So there reduced carbon brake wear as well as reduced
is the opportunity to give the information and to Flight Operation — Climb engine wear and maintenance costs and, as before,
advise ATC how to reduce air traffic during approach Citilink will reduce the climb profile. A default has if used on one third of landings saves 1.2m liters of
or landing. These are important bearing in mind that been set-up in the MCDU (Maintenance Control and fuel per year.
airborne fuel flow is six times more than for ground Display Unit) to be 800 and 1,000 and 1,500 feet. Notwithstanding all of the above, we still will rely
idle so that the fuel burned in 18 minutes of taxi will be Take off fuel burn is three times that during taxi (see heavily for our fuel efficiency strategy on maintenance
equivalent to only three minutes when airborne. above). Climb profile has been tailored to the and reducing the weight of the aircraft. We have
Next, we use ‘pack off — take off’. This is more direction of flight for turns limited by altitude due to identified a number of changes that will help to
extreme for me because, to implement this, I removed noise abatement requirements. We use V2 + 10 to achieve weight reduction. First, the removal of one
the ‘pack on’ connection on the performance chart 3,000 ft. AGL (above ground level) for altitude oven because we’re a low cost carrier so we don’t
leaving only ‘pack off — take off’ with no option for restricted SIDs when the departure runway is more need two ovens and can save 20kg of weight by that
‘pack on’. than 90° from the direction of flight. Used on one removal or save 40kg by removing both ovens. We’ve
And, like many readers, no doubt, we also have a third of departures, this saves 3.2m liters of fuel each also removed the life rafts which are only for ETOPS
policy to minimize APU use. The APU on the Airbus year. A challenge in Indonesia is that airports are not (Extended Twin Engine Operations) and have reduced
A320 uses 110kg of fuel per hour. At Citilink we aim always as they are in other countries — there are the quantity of water on board during a flight
for 30 minutes ground time so we were using almost often mountains in the proximity. So we decided on according to the flight duration; if it’s less than one
65kg of fuel for the APU on each sector. Now, we the new departure procedure that Flight Operations hour, we halve the quantity of water carried and on a
stop the APU ten minutes before the scheduled Control (FOC) uses and we collaborated with the one to two hour flight, we only carry half the quantity
departure time for morning flights when the weather ATC controllers to get what we wanted. of water for each lavatory.

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 CASE STUDY: CITILINK

The achievement responsibility of each department and division not the achievements of each individual in the business and
Up to September 2018, we were just ahead of our project manager. If any problem arises, the each department. You cannot improve what you
fuel saving target which is a saving of 14,000 tons of department can call the staff for training or coaching. don’t measure. Plus the system also helps to engage
fuel for the year and, by September, we had reached Everybody should understand that cost is our enemy. with flight dispatch and pilots as to where they can
12,700 tons with three months still to go. help to reduce fuel consumption, and this has the
Distribution channel balancing potential to drastically improve best practice
KEY STRATEGIES We maintain good and active communications with application rates and increase savings.
These are the five strategies (figure 4) that we have third parties: ground handling, Air Traffic Control and
pursued in order to implement our fuel management other carriers. ARIEF RACHMAN
program and realize our fuel efficiency targets.
KEY SUCCESS Arief joined Citilink Indonesia in 2008 as a
5 STRATEGIES System optimized flight operation specialist. His main role was
1 EXTENSIVE NETWORK 01 SYSTEM
In Citilink, staff income is in two parts, one is salary to set up and develop Ops Control. From
OPTIMIZATION
4 and one is based on performance. So we have 2013 he moved to the new position of
Increase Number Or Frequency
Of Flight On Each Station To 02 Manager Flight Dispatch and was also
Reduce Fuel Price And Optimize
Utilize Data Flight Operation
Quality Assurance (FOQA), established KPIs for employees, including pilots,
Flight Efficient.
03
Manage Fuel Management
which includes elements from the efficiency involved with the project team charged with driving cost
Information Database (CFP).
2 DISCIPLINE SOP efficiency, with the target to develop, initiate and enhance
program and safety related measures. We also utilize
Establish Sop Procedure On Operational 04 an efficiency program and ensure all employees have the
Manual, Checking To Reinforce The Sop, BRAND CULTURE
5 Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) data knowledge, initiative and culture to drive cost
Top Down Management Support. RECOGNITION
05 Brand Identity, Efficiency Based
and manage the fuel management information effectiveness and efficiencies.
3 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL database.
Airline – Cost Is Our Enemy, Every
Point Is About Cost, Efficiency Is
BALANCING
Active Communication With Third Party
E.A Ground Handling, Air Traffic
Important Think For Lcc
CITILINK
Controller and Other Carrier Brand Culture recognition Established in 2001, Citilink is a
Figure 4 — Key success, 5 strategies Our brand identity is as an efficiency-based airline low-cost airline based in
Jakarta, Indonesia. The carrier
Extensive network THE SKYBREATHE SYSTEM is a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia and was set up to
operate shuttle services between Indonesian cities. The
To increase the number and frequency of flights to I’ll close by explaining why we decided we needed to
airline operates a fleet of 50 Airbus A320 aircraft.
each station to reduce the fuel price and optimize have the SkyBreathe system by OpenAirlines. We
the flight efficiency. had already done the things listed above but we still OPENAIRLINES AND SKYBREATHE
had a problem about how to measure the OpenAirlines was founded in
Discipline SOP achievement of each individual member of staff and Toulouse, France, in 2006 to
We make sure that all personnel exercise the department and engage them which is something meet the needs of airlines to
discipline to work according to the SOP. This is the that SkyBreathe can deliver, i.e. we can see the optimize their flight operations and reduce their costs.
Leveraging a team of airline specialists and data
scientists, it offers innovative software solutions.
Capitalizing on its participation in the European Research
Program, Clean Sky, from 2009 to 2014, the company
developed SkyBreathe®, an innovative eco-flying solution
to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions.

“We have implemented reduced flap landing as normal SOP if the runway
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