By Francesca Street, CNN
(CNN) — Every time you board a flight, you’re stepping into a matrix — a web of choices that have been made for you weeks, sometimes months, before departure.
Most travelers won’t think about these behind-the-scenes machinations as they squeeze their carry-on into the overhead, slump into their seat and gaze out of the window at the long line of other planes waiting on the taxiway.
But the time you’ll take off, the plane you’ll fly on and even the route you’re taking all come down to decisions often managed by one person, aided by a team of experts.
And in a time of turmoil, when spiking jet fuel prices are prompting many airlines to drastically reduce services, that person’s role becomes even more significant.
Behind the scenes, the chief planning officer — as they’re often known — is a key figure at most major commercial airlines, overseeing teams tasked with managing some of the most intricate aspects of air travel.
“It is an incredibly difficult role, and probably one of the most important roles in an airline,” aviation expert Tony Stanton of Australian consultancy Strategic Air tells CNN Travel.
At British Airways, that person is Neil Chernoff.
“Running an airline is like a very complicated jigsaw,” Chernoff, who oversees network and schedule planning at the UK flag carrier, tells CNN Travel. “You have to make tradeoffs to make sure that this whole jigsaw puzzle comes together and fits.”
Assembling the jigsaw
Months before you board your flight, Chernoff and his team will meet to determine the logistics of your journey — right down to how many, and which class of, seats will be available for you to choose from.
Every few months, they’ll return to these decisions. They reassess which routes are working, which are in decline and — as has been the case for many airlines in the wake of the Iran conflict — which to scrap.
At the heart of these decisions is money. Operating an aircraft is expensive, and unless it’s being put to the best use, a plane will become a drain on profit. For passengers, flying on a near-empty flight is a dream. For airlines, it’s a nightmare.
“It’s my team’s responsibility to make sure that we’re making money off that aircraft or maximizing profits,” says Chernoff, who worked in investment banking before moving into the aviation world 15 years ago.
When there’s a surge in demand, Chernoff’s team reacts quickly. British Airways recently doubled daily flights between London and San Diego and Austin after both routes overperformed.
When routes underperform — perhaps because a flight’s arrival time doesn’t work for travelers connecting to other flights, or a destination falls out of favor — it gets more complicated. The team will examine customer habits and flight data to assess what’s going wrong.
“It really is a complex jigsaw game,” says aviation consultant Stanton. “What works on paper in theory doesn’t necessarily work in the real world.”
Airline chief planning officers will typically liaise with sales teams to keep across vacation trends, which ebb and flow as different destinations light up travelers’ Instagram feeds.
Sometimes a destination or region’s popularity is a flash in the pan, other times it’s more enduring. Post-Covid, says Chernoff, the Caribbean experienced heightened interest among British travelers, and continues to be popular.
The key is trying to get ahead of these trends.
“We’ve definitely seen that leisure travelers want new destinations and want to be able to do something different and explore new markets,” he says. New BA routes between London, Bangkok and Colombo were recently brought on in anticipation of such a wave.
The team will change up aircraft to better accommodate demand.
“If it’s much f