Airline Disruption Management: A Naturalistic Decision-Making Perspective in an Operational Control Centre

Operations Control Centres (OCCs) are critical structures used by airlines to oversee the execution of all planned flights, managing punctuality, regularity and customer support. In this study, we investigated decision-making during flight disruptions inside an OCC from naturalistic perspective. We conducted a mini-ethnography case study in major South American airline, focussing on how functions disruption management cope with variability. Data collection included document analyses, field notes, direct observations interviews. The functional description work-as-done revealed constantly actively looks for signs while monitoring normal operation rebalancing resources. process is distributed decentralised across multiple functions, where experts each function rely repertoire strategies deploy innovative solutions dynamic scenarios. Five different mechanisms were identified that converge disarm potential before they compromise network, continuously create reinforce system buffers.