Departure Control system

(DCS)

Contents
1. Purpose of DCS................................................................................................................................ 2
2. Context diagram.............................................................................................................................. 2
3. Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 3
1. Purpose of DCS
Departure Control System is used by an airline at the time of flight departure to check-in passengers
and board passengers into the flight. Manually performing the different activities of DCS, is difficult
and slow considering the volume of flights & passengers at the airport. DCS thus helps an airline to
manage their flight departures in an efficient manner.

2. Context diagram

The input for DCS is list of booked passengers received from Reservation system. After the departure
of the flight, DCS sends information to the Reservation system & the Airport system about the actual
names of passengers who boarded the flight. The Reservation system uses this information to
calculate the loyalty points and for other purposes. The Airport system uses this information to
calculate the fees to be collected from the airline for using the airport facilities.
3. Overview
High level process flow diagram of DCS

Categories of Users of DCS:

The different types of users in DCS are:

a. Self-check-in passengers
b. Check-in staff
c. Boarding-gate staff
d. Ground operations Officer

Functions of DCS

DCS supports the following functions:

1. Check-in: This function is used to assign seats, collect payment for excess baggage, if any,
print baggage tag, and issue boarding pass. Payments can be made using cash or card.
Apart from airline staff, passengers can also do self-check-in using a kiosk. In case of self-
check-in, the system only assigns seat and prints boarding pass.
2. Boarding: This function is used by staff at boarding gate to board passengers into the flight
and keep track of who has boarded and who has not boarded.
3. Admin: This function is used to Block & Unblock seats when certain VIPs are expected or
when the flight load needs to be balanced.
4. Ground operations: This function is used to assign departure gate to the flight and to
Close flight for any further booking
5. Pre-check-in functions
a. Get Passenger Name List (PNL) from Reservation system: Before Check-in starts, the
DCS needs to get the list of passengers who are booked on the flight from the
Reservation system. This list is called Passenger Name List (PNL)
 b. Get ‘No-fly’ passenger list from Transportation Security Admin: The Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) uses two lists to screen airline passengers for links to
terrorism, prior to boarding an aircraft—the ‘No-fly’ list and the ‘Selectee’ list. These
lists need to be obtained from TSA system for use during Check-in.
6. Post boarding functions
c. Send passenger manifest to Reservation system & Airport system: After the boarding
is completed, DCS needs to export to the Reservation system and the Airport system,
the list of boarded passengers & list of passengers who checked in but did not board.
Based on this, the Airport system calculates the fee to be charged to the airline for
using the airport facilities

Some key expectations of stakeholders

1. No fly passenger data should be highly secure

– No one should be able to view the list
– Only the software can check if the check-in passenger exists in list or not
– Data transfer from the security system should be secure
2. Luggage rules may change and this should have minimum impact on code
3. Check-in should be possible from web, mobile or at airport

ER Diagram

Tasks
1. Identify the business goal
2. Identify the architecturally significant requirements (ASR)
3. Prioritize the ASRs based on business value and impact on architecture (Create a utility tree).
4. Design the architecture for DCS addressing the ASRs
5. What software components come into play when Ground operations staff ‘Close flight for
booking’?
6. How does the system export data to relevant systems when flight has taken off?