Departure Control system

(DCS)

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. Performing the different activities & processes of DCS
manually, 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 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 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 Export
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 Travel 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