Loganair Accelerates Cash-Flow Forecasts From Days to Hours
In an intensely competitive industry where multiple external factors, from weather to fuel costs, can impact profitability and cash flow, the Loganair team constantly looks to review and streamline its operations. Tired of spending too much time on manual data collection with Excel spreadsheets, the Loganair forecasting team looked for better ways to deliver essential cash-flow and balance‐sheet insights.
Details
Company Name: Loganair
Website: www.loganair.co.uk
Loganair is the UK’s largest regional airline by passenger numbers and fleet size, operating from its main base at Glasgow, and from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Newcastle airports. The company’s 40 aircraft carry over one million passengers and almost 500 tonnes of cargo each year, with destinations throughout the UK and in Denmark, Ireland, and Norway. Loganair employs around 850 people and achieves more than £160 million in yearly sales. With safety always at the top of the agenda, Loganair flies thousands of passengers on hundreds of flights every day.
spreadsheet tabs automated into IBM Planning Analytics
employees now benefit from streamlined reporting
passengers impacted by enhanced operations annually
GBP in annual revenue supported by accurate data
tonnes of cargo included in operational data each year
The Challenge
Rapid, accurate cash-flow, P&L, and balance-sheet forecasts are essential for Loganair. But with a complex information infrastructure involving separate business systems for finance, planning, engineering, operations, reservations, and more, the financial planning and analysis team found it difficult to gain a consistent view of key metrics.
At the time, Loganair used IBM Planning Analytics to collate its financial data and generate Excel reports. Specialists would then add further data to these spreadsheets to provide a final analysis. While the process had worked tolerably well prior to COVID, the company’s work-from-home regime during the pandemic exposed weaknesses, both technically and from an operational perspective. For example, remote connections via VPNs to on-premises systems proved to be frustratingly laggy and slow, and even with synchronisation technologies, it was all too easy to work on out-of-date files.
“The planning and analysis team had to spend far too much time collecting and curating the data, which didn’t leave enough time for the analysis itself. We found ourselves arbitrating between ‘I’ve got this number’ and ‘I’ve got that number.’ If we could move more of our data into IBM Planning Analytics, we could eliminate spreadsheets and provide a unified, standard budgeting and forecasting data source for all departments.”
The Solution
The team started to explore the latest cloud-based release of IBM Planning Analytics. This route would bring Loganair onto the most current software version, eliminate tedious hardware and software administration, and remove the laggy VPN connections to on-premises servers.
“Ultimately, moving to the cloud would be just one step in a longer journey towards integrated information management,” says Kean. “The aim was to automate wherever possible to enable us to deliver cash-flow, P&L, and balance-sheet data rapidly and easily. This would allow us to focus on forecasts and models to help drive the business forward.”
Finding the right navigator
With a clear flight plan in mind, Loganair reached out to Budgeting Solutions, and moved 20 team members to the latest version of IBM Planning Analytics.
“We had a very good standalone Excel cash-flow model, but it relied on manual collection and correction of data,” explains Kean. “For example, aircraft lease finance is critical to the cash-flow forecast, but it is held in a separate system. Budgeting Solutions did a great job in bringing lease and related data into the cash-flow modelling within Planning Analytics.
The Results
Jamie Kean, Planning & Reporting Business Partner at Loganair:
“In the past, creating cash-flow forecasts took a day or two. We had to populate a spreadsheet with more than 30 tabs, even though half of the information was probably already in IBM Planning Analytics. Budgeting Solutions helped us build the feeds and automations that mean we can now deliver monthly, weekly and daily cash-flow forecasts inside the new platform within just a few hours. Automation gives us time that we now spend productively to review the numbers and see what they are actually saying.”
Next Steps
Data warehouse strategy
As Loganair establishes IBM Planning Analytics as its primary information source for planning and forecasting, the strategic aim is to replace its static reporting and Excel sheets with interactive dashboards. The executive leadership team are keen to see daily data and to be able to drill down for greater detail.
“If we can provide daily interactive reports on a web page, then instead of coming to us for more data, our executives will be able to answer their questions immediately,” says Kean.
Alongside the business benefits, inside the company, there is a shift from the psychology of silos and spreadsheets to an open way of working. Kean explains: “In aviation, things can change quickly. We need to be able to react, and our executives are already asking for reports every morning. Budgeting Solutions knows how to get the best out of Planning Analytics, helping Loganair streamline operations as we enter our next phase of growth.”
Key Takeaways
- Migrated to the latest cloud-based IBM Planning Analytics to replace manual Excel processes.
- 30+ spreadsheet tabs automated into IBM Planning Analytics.
- Reduced cash-flow forecast preparation time from 1–2 days to just a few hours.
- 850 employees now benefit from streamlined reporting
- Enabled daily, weekly, and monthly cash-flow forecasts within the new platform.
- £160 million in annual revenue supported by accurate data.
- Improved data consistency, eliminating discrepancies between departments.
- Freed up time for analysis and decision-making instead of manual reconciliation.
