Test how a schedule change affects passenger connections before you publish it.
Connection Designer calculates which origin-and-destination markets a flight schedule connects, how alternative schedules differ, and which flight times perform best within defined operating constraints.
For airline and airport network planning, schedule planning, partnership teams, and aviation consultancies.
One calculation path from schedule input to a reviewable result.
Every result is produced the same way: a composed sample week plus explicit connection rules, evaluated by one calculation, traceable down to individual flight rows.
Connect published schedules.
A configured global feed supplies a seven-day sample of the wider network — including flights operated by other airlines.
Load your schedule.
As an SSIM file, over a recurring SFTP feed, or through an agreed integration. Keep, remove, or replace carriers and services before the sample is created.
Attach market sizes and fares.
Weekly demand and representative fares add a passenger pool and a revenue pool to each OD market. Schedule data alone is enough for connection and market counts.
Self-service — or connected for you.
Each source can be configured by your own team. Or Leitmotif sets up and operates the connections — the published feed, the SSIM or SFTP delivery, and the market-data link — monitored and kept current, so the sample week is simply there when you need it.
Compose the sample week.
One composed sample plus explicit connection rules: MCT source, connection windows, airline and region filters, and circuity limits. Every tool reads from this same state.
Analyse.
Test proposed flights against the sample and read the valid OD connections — grouped by flight, down to the inbound and outbound combination behind each one.
Compare.
Two to five options against one baseline: markets gained, lost, improved, and declined, with the flights responsible for each difference.
Partnership.
One trunk schedule between two hubs, each side with independent connection rules and its own market result.
Your scenarios — or the optimizer's.
Analyse, Compare, and Partnership run on schedules you enter by hand, or on schedules the optimizer generates: new rotations, retimes, or trunk timings, searched against a stated objective within explicit operating constraints. Always returned for review — never a silent overwrite.
Same sample, same rules, traceable results.
Three tools and one optimizer over a single calculation. A total can always be traced back to individual flight rows.
Explore each stage.
Click a stage of the pipeline to see how it works in detail.
Load data, compose the sample week.
Schedule data alone is enough for connection and market counts. Market sizes and fares are optional and add passenger and revenue pools to the same results.
Published schedules
A configured global feed supplies the wider network, including other airlines’ flights.
Your schedule
SSIM, SFTP, or an agreed integration — composed with the published feed, with carrier filters.
Market sizes and fares
Optional. Attaches a passenger pool and revenue pool to each OD market.
Sources can be self-service, or set up and operated by Leitmotif — configured, monitored, and kept current.
Calculate what a proposed flight connects to.
Select flights from the loaded schedule or enter them manually. Set the hub, connection windows, MCT source, airline and region filters, and circuity limits — the result is the set of valid OD connections.
- OD markets grouped by the proposed flight or rotation
- The inbound and outbound combination behind each connection
- Connection time, weekly frequency, and operating-day coverage
- A parameter record, with detailed rows exported to Excel
If an arrival moves by 40 minutes, which markets become valid and which no longer connect?
OptimizationGenerate a new rotation, retime a rotation, or retime one leg — then recalculate.
Compare two to five options against one baseline.
Option 1 is the baseline. Alternatives can be edited schedules, different frequencies or operating days, partnership variants, or optimizer output.
- Markets and connections gained or lost relative to Option 1
- Connections that remain but improve or decline in timing or frequency
- Weekly totals, day coverage, and average connection time per option
- The flight combinations behind each market-level difference
How does a proposed bank retime compare with the current published schedule?
OptimizationCreate an optimized option beside the baseline, judged by the same measures.
Test a trunk schedule across both ends of a partnership.
Two hubs joined by trunk rotations, each side with its own schedule version and connection rules. Every variant shows what it connects on both sides.
- Independent windows, MCT source, filters, and circuity per hub
- Several named trunk variants for the same case
- Markets, weekly connections, and day coverage at each hub
- The feeder and onward flights behind each trunk connection
Does a change that benefits one hub reduce connectivity at the other?
OptimizationGenerate trunk timings favoring one hub, the other, or a balanced result.
Bring one schedule question.
A useful first session starts with one sample week and one concrete case: a new route, a bank retime, an added frequency, or a trunk partnership. We will use the connection rules your team already applies and show the result down to the market and flight combination.