How to analyse your company's travel history to find corridors, seasonality and real needs
Start with the records you already have: expense reports, travel-agency exports, calendar entries and past flight requests. Normalise them into one trip log, group trips by origin–destination pair, then measure frequency, seasonality, door-to-door time and who travels.
- Export 12–24 months if you can; seasonality needs at least one full year.
- A corridor is an origin–destination pair in either direction, for example head office to a plant, or a hub airport to a resort.
- Plot trips per month for each corridor.
- Before deciding a faster mode is the answer, check why trips take long: | Symptom in the data | Likely cause type | Check first | |---|---|---| | Long waits at the start of trips | Process | Booking lead time, approvals
Start with the records you already have: expense reports, travel-agency exports, calendar entries and past flight requests. Normalise them into one trip log, group trips by origin–destination pair, then measure frequency, seasonality, door-to-door time and who travels. The corridors that repeat, cost the most time and carry senior or time-critical travellers are the ones worth a helicopter feasibility check. Availability, price, permissions, landing sites, aircraft and mission capability are checked for every request. Nothing in this guide is a commitment.
What data you need (and where it usually lives)
You do not need new software. Most companies already hold enough to build a first baseline.
| Data | Typical source | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date, origin, destination | Expense system, travel-agency export | Defines the corridor and frequency |
| Departure and arrival times | Calendar entries, ground-transport receipts | Gives real door-to-door time |
| Travellers and roles | Booking records, HR cost centre | Shows who is affected by delays |
| Ground mode and transfers | Car service, rail, ferry receipts | Shows how many hand-offs a trip has |
| Disruptions and cancellations | Email threads, incident notes | Reveals reliability problems |
| Past helicopter or charter requests | Your own request history | Shows where needs already existed |
If you only have part of this, start with date, origin and destination. Everything else can be added later and marked as an estimate.
Step 1: Build one clean trip log
- Export 12–24 months if you can; seasonality needs at least one full year.
- Use one row per traveller per leg, with a trip ID linking legs of the same journey.
- Standardise place names (airport code, city, site name) so the same place is not counted three ways.
- Add a column "data quality": measured, from receipts, or estimated. Keep estimates, but never mix them silently with measured times.
- Remove duplicates (the same trip in the expense system and in the agency export).
Step 2: Group trips into corridors
A corridor is an origin–destination pair in either direction, for example head office to a plant, or a hub airport to a resort. For each corridor calculate:
| Measure | Formula |
|---|---|
| Trips per month | count of trips ÷ months in the data |
| Traveller-trips per month | count of traveller rows ÷ months |
| Median door-to-door time | middle value of (arrival time − leaving time) |
| Worst 10% time | the time that only one trip in ten exceeds |
| Hand-offs per trip | number of mode changes (car → rail → car = 2) |
Use the median, not the average: one very long trip can distort an average.
Step 3: Find seasonality and peaks
Plot trips per month for each corridor. Look for:
- Event peaks (trade fairs, board meetings, harvest or shutdown periods).
- Weather seasons that change ground time or flying conditions.
- Weekday patterns, for example Monday out and Thursday back.
A corridor with a clear peak may suit a planned series for those weeks only, rather than year-round planning. See when a recurring programme makes sense.
Step 4: Separate process, equipment and management causes
Before deciding a faster mode is the answer, check why trips take long:
| Symptom in the data | Likely cause type | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Long waits at the start of trips | Process | Booking lead time, approvals |
| Repeated vehicle or connection failures | Equipment / supplier | Ground-transport reliability |
| Trips planned at the last minute | Management | Meeting scheduling, decision rights |
| Long ground legs with no alternative | Geography | Whether a helicopter leg is feasible at all |
Only the last row is something a helicopter request can change. Fixing the first three is often cheaper and should be done first.
Step 5: Score corridors for a feasibility check
Give each corridor a score from 1 to 5 on four criteria, multiply by the weight, and add up:
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 30% |
| Door-to-door time lost | 30% |
| Traveller time-criticality | 25% |
| Reliability problems | 15% |
Hypothetical example (assumptions: 12 months of data, figures invented for illustration): Corridor A scores 4, 5, 4, 3 → 4×0.30 + 5×0.30 + 4×0.25 + 3×0.15 = 4.15. Corridor B scores 2, 3, 5, 2 → 3.05. Corridor A goes first to a feasibility check; B may suit on-demand requests.
Then compare ground time with a helicopter estimate in the time-savings calculator. Treat the result as an estimate: real times depend on the aircraft, routing, weather and landing sites confirmed for each request.
What to do when data is missing
- No times, only dates: use mapping-tool drive times for the same weekday and hour, and label them "estimated".
- No traveller roles: group by cost centre instead.
- Less than 12 months: say so in the report and avoid conclusions about seasons.
- No disruption records: send a short survey to frequent travellers and keep answers separate from measured data.
Never fill gaps with invented figures; an honest "unknown" is more useful when you send a mission brief.
Checklist: travel-history baseline
- 12–24 months exported and de-duplicated
- Place names standardised
- Each row marked measured / receipts / estimated
- Corridors grouped with trips per month and median door-to-door time
- Seasonal peaks noted
- Causes split into process, equipment, management, geography
- Top corridors scored and sent for a feasibility check
How SkyMatch uses your baseline
When you share corridor data, SkyMatch reviews each request and arranges the flight where it is feasible. Your baseline helps answer the right questions early: passengers and baggage, preferred times, landing sites and seasonal peaks. Availability, price, permissions, landing sites, aircraft and mission capability are checked for every request and are never assumed from historical data. You can start with the trip planner or go straight to the request form.
Sources
- EASA — Air operations regulations (rules for commercial air transport in Europe)
- US eCFR — 14 CFR Part 135 (rules for on-demand commercial flights in the US)
Guide: helicopter landing permission and approved sites →
FAQ
How much travel history do I need?
Twelve months is the minimum to see seasons; 24 months is better. With less, you can still rank corridors by frequency, but say clearly that seasonal conclusions are not possible yet.
Should I use average or median travel time?
Use the median for the typical trip and the slowest 10% for reliability. Averages are pulled up by a few very long trips.
Does a high-scoring corridor mean a helicopter is available?
No. A score only says the corridor is worth checking. Availability, price, permissions, landing sites and aircraft suitability are checked for each request.
Can I share anonymised data?
Yes. Corridors, dates, times and passenger counts are enough. Names are not needed for a feasibility review.
What if most delays come from late bookings?
Then the first fix is a process change, such as earlier approvals. A faster mode does not solve a booking problem.
Conclusion
Your existing records are enough to find the corridors that matter. Clean them, group them, look at seasons and causes, then send the top corridors for a feasibility check. Every result is reviewed per request; nothing is promised from history alone.
Planning this flight?
SkyMatch is an independent broker. Every request is reviewed by our team before any operator is approached.
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