Aer Lingus · Project Manager · 2026
OCC Decision-Support Proof of Concept
Winning the vendor RFP was the easy part. Onboarding that vendor into a live operations environment, and proving the platform actually works, was 2026's work.
Challenge
Following December 2025's vendor decision, the vendor still had to be onboarded into a live, safety-relevant operations environment before anyone could find out whether the platform actually worked for Aer Lingus. That meant governance and procurement red tape, an InfoSec review, and negotiating the vendor's access to internal systems, all before the real test could start: feeding it live data and seeing whether its model held up against actual disruption scenarios.
Live Ops Access & InfoSec
Securing read-only integration to core operational flight data while meeting stringent corporate IT and security policies.
Operational Model Tuning
Fine-tuning the vendor's decision models against Aer Lingus's specific operating rules rather than standard generic templates.
Approach
Governance and procurement
Led roughly three months of governance and procurement work in Q1 2026 to onboard the winning vendor, right after the December 2025 decision.
Read-only access, agreed and secured
Agreed the connectivity approach for the vendor's read-only access to Aer Lingus's core operational data, progressed an InfoSec agreement, and reviewed the governance needed for the vendor's access to internal systems.
Live data, real tuning
Once access was in place, kicked off the proof of concept itself: feeding real operational data into the vendor's platform and fine-tuning its model to reflect how Aer Lingus's OCC actually operates, not a generic reference case.
Critical Decision Point
Don't call it done before it's validated
With a clear business-user pick already in hand and pressure to show a finished win, the honest call was to keep the proof of concept open rather than declare victory. The platform's value was recognized early, but the recommendation held that additional validation was still required before any final adoption decision: a harder thing to report than a clean "success," yet the more accurate one.
Outcomes
- Governance and procurement completed in roughly three months, onboarding the vendor without a security or compliance shortcut.
- Read-only data connectivity, InfoSec agreement, and internal-systems governance all in place to support the proof of concept.
- The proof of concept is live, feeding real data and tuning the platform's model against real Aer Lingus operations.
- Honest status as of writing: the platform's value is recognized, but a final adoption decision is still pending further validation. This isn't a closed win yet.