Sentry - The digital transformation of KLM at work

At its core, Sentry is a tool that combines data from multiple digital systems within KLM. It applies Machine Learning, advanced optimisation techniques and decides what schedule is best for our passengers and our crew members.

To offer an alternative schedule that helps KLM to recover from a disruption, there are multiple data points to consider. Sentry works for instance with the flight schedule availability, crew rosters, delay predictions and a variety of cost information regarding our passenger and operations.

With all this data, Sentry provides an optimized flight schedule on the day of departure, supporting our Operation Control Team. The tool is created in a close partnership with Boston Consulting Group. The jointly developed technology drives growth, accelerates innovation, and streamlines operations to meet the growing demands of today’s travellers.

Why was this innovation necessary?

When you work in aviation, there’s always something unexpected right around the corner that can disrupt the journey of our passengers and our crew. With so many flight movements at any givenday and a more complex operational environment, it is impossible for one person or even a team to take everything into account and make robust decisions within a reasonable timeframe.

KLM Sentry helps to create fewer delays and inconveniences for customers and save on expenses and time. It does so in a short amount of time and considering so many datapoints that it becomes an indispensable support tool for KLM and our experts at the Operations Control Center. They are the ones who ultimately decide for the best solution.

What is the impact of Sentry?

Because of the global growth of air traffic, our Operations Control Team sees a growing number of possible disruptions daily. A team of Operations, industry experts, engineers, data scientists and software developers decided to face this challenge. Within a small team and an agile way of working, they brought a digital transformation to the Operation Control Center.

The results of Sentry are impressive. There is a decreasing number of delays, cancellations and missed connections and customer satisfaction increases. Our non-performance costs go down and we can recover from disruptions faster.

Is Sentry only for KLM?

With Sentry, we challenge the old way of working with disruptions and really bring an innovative solution to the table. We know this is of value to other airlines as well. That’s why KLM and Boston Consulting Group have made Sentry available to the aviation industry and implemented a similar tool at several major carriers across the world. This enables a truly new way of working with disruptions for every airline companies worldwide.