When the Day Breaks, Recover It Legally
IRROPS / OCC Recovery Board & Cargo + ULD Management is part of AviationAlley. A cancellation, a slipped leg, or a tail going AOG mid-day turns an operations control center into a scramble: someone has to re-crew the affected legs and maybe swap a tail, and every move has to be legal under FAR 117 for pilots and FAR 121.467 for flight attendants the moment it's made. AviationAlley is airline IRROPS recovery and operations control software built to give the OCC a ranked, explainable list of legal recovery options instead of a whiteboard and a phone — paired with the cargo and ULD management a freight operation needs on the same platform. The recovery engine is deterministic, not AI: it runs the same legality math the booking path uses, so a candidate it ranks as legal is one the system will actually accept. AviationAlley is pre-launch, opening to a founding cohort of Part 121 and Part 135 operators; this is the recovery and cargo layer being built with that cohort, not a tool in production today.
The problem: a broken trip is a legality puzzle under a clock
When a flight cancels, a leg slips, or an aircraft goes AOG mid-day, the operations control center has to rebuild the day in real time. Each affected seat needs a replacement crew member, and that person has to be legal under FAR 117 (pilots) or FAR 121.467 (flight attendants) the instant they're assigned — duty and rest don't pause because the schedule broke.
Do it on a whiteboard and a phone, and a dispatcher is checking duty limits in their head while the next leg waits.
The tail side is just as hard. Swapping an aircraft onto a disrupted leg means the replacement is operational, the right type, and not already committed somewhere else in the window.
Miss any one of those and the swap unravels into a second disruption. Under deadline, the OCC ends up making the least-wrong call it can defend rather than the best legal one — and can't always show why a given crew member or tail was passed over.
- Every re-crew has to clear FAR 117 or FAR 121.467 duty and rest the moment it's made — checked by hand, under pressure
- A tail swap has to be operational, the right type, and free in the window, or it just creates the next problem
- Reserve crew, line crew, and timed-out crew all blur together when the decision is made on a whiteboard
- No record of who was considered and why each option was rejected — hard to defend the call later
- CBA terms that tighten the FAR floors add another layer the dispatcher has to remember per crew group
- Freight operations layer cargo and ULD decisions on top, with no single place tying them to the disrupted leg
How AviationAlley's recovery board is built to work
AviationAlley is built around a deterministic recovery engine — not an AI guesser. When a disruption is logged (cancel, delay, or AOG), the engine is designed to produce, per affected seat, a ranked list of legal re-crew candidates.
Crucially, it doesn't reinvent legality: it runs the same FAR 117 and FAR 121.467 evaluators the normal booking path uses, over each candidate's existing duty. So a candidate the board ranks as legal is a candidate the system will actually let you assign — the ranking can't disagree with the enforcement gate.
Every suggestion is built to be explainable. Each legal candidate is designed to carry plain-language reasons it qualifies and how much duty headroom it has left at the tightest window; reserve crew rank highest because calling someone already on call is the least-disruptive recovery.
Just as important, every candidate that was screened out carries the exact rule that excluded them — wrong crew type, the member being recovered, or the specific FAR violation. The OCC sees "we considered these, here's why those were rejected," not a black box.
Tail swaps run through the same explainable screen. For an AOG or re-route, the board is designed to surface legal swap options — operational, type-matched, and free in the window — and show why each rejected tail doesn't qualify (grounded, wrong type, already committed).
Where a collective-bargaining agreement tightens the FAR floors, those tighter limits are folded into the legality check per crew group, so the recovery is built to respect the contract, not just the regulation.
- Per-seat ranked re-crew candidates for a cancel, delay, or AOG — deterministic and repeatable, not AI
- Legality delegated to the same FAR 117 / FAR 121.467 evaluators the booking path enforces, so a "legal" suggestion is one the system will accept
- Reserve crew preferred as the least-disruptive recovery, with duty headroom shown at the tightest window
- Every rejected candidate carries the exact excluding rule — wrong crew type, the member being recovered, or the specific FAR bust
- Tail-swap options screened for operational status, type match, and window conflicts, each with a plain-language reason
- CBA terms that tighten the FAR floors composed into the legality screen per crew group
- Designed so the board can't suggest a re-crew the duty-and-rest rules would reject when you assign it
What's included: cargo and ULD management on the same platform
Freight operations under Part 121 and Part 135 get cargo and ULD management built into the same workspace as the recovery board.
The ULD inventory is designed to track each unit-load device by IATA type — AKE, AKH, AAY, PMC, PAG, P1P, P9P, or a custom type — with tare and max-gross weights, current location, and an AC 120-85 inspection clock that surfaces units coming due so a serviceability check never lapses unnoticed.
Cargo manifests pull it together at the shipment level. Each manifest is built to capture its air waybills, shipper and consignee, piece counts and weights, ULD and position assignments, and hazmat tagging with the dangerous-goods class — totaling weight as line items are added and moving the load through a clear status lifecycle from booked to staged, loaded, flown, and offloaded, with damaged and missing states for exceptions.
A dashboard summary counts where every manifest stands.
Because cargo, ULDs, and the recovery board are designed to live on one platform, the freight side and the day-of-ops disruption side aren't two disconnected tools.
AviationAlley is opening to a founding cohort of Part 121 and Part 135 operators whose real OCC and freight workflows shape this layer before public launch — what's described here is what the platform is being built to do for that cohort, not adoption claimed as in production today.
- ULD inventory by IATA type — AKE, AKH, AAY, PMC, PAG, P1P, P9P, or custom — with tare and max-gross weights and current location
- AC 120-85 inspection clock per ULD, surfacing units coming due before a serviceability check lapses
- Cargo manifests capturing air waybills, shipper and consignee, piece counts, and weights per line item
- ULD and position assignments plus hazmat tagging with the dangerous-goods class on the manifest
- Weight totaled as line items are added, with a booked → staged → loaded → flown → offloaded lifecycle plus damaged and missing states
- A dashboard summary counting where every manifest stands across the operation
- Freight ops in the same platform as the recovery board, not a separate cargo tool to reconcile by hand
Frequently asked questions
Is AviationAlley's IRROPS / OCC recovery board available to use today?
AviationAlley is a pre-launch product. The IRROPS recovery board — ranked, explainable, legal re-crew and tail-swap suggestions for a cancel, delay, or AOG — is being built with a founding cohort of Part 121 and Part 135 operators ahead of public launch, not sold as a tool you run in production today. Operators can request early access through the AviationAlley contact page to join that cohort and help shape the recovery and cargo layer.
Does the recovery board use AI to pick crew and tails?
No. The recovery engine is deterministic, not AI — the same inputs always produce the same ranked options. It doesn't guess: it runs the same FAR 117 (pilots) and FAR 121.467 (flight attendants) legality evaluators the normal booking path uses over each candidate's existing duty, so a candidate the board ranks as legal is one the system will actually let you assign. Reserve crew rank highest as the least-disruptive recovery, every legal candidate carries why it qualifies and its remaining duty headroom, and every rejected one carries the exact rule that excluded it — wrong crew type, the member being recovered, or the specific FAR bust. Where a CBA tightens the FAR floors, those tighter limits are folded into the same screen per crew group.
What cargo and ULD management is included for a Part 121 or Part 135 freight operation?
On the same platform as the recovery board, ULDs are tracked by IATA type (AKE, AKH, AAY, PMC, PAG, P1P, P9P, or custom) with tare and max-gross weights, current location, and an AC 120-85 inspection clock that surfaces units coming due. Cargo manifests capture air waybills, shipper and consignee, piece counts and weights, ULD and position assignments, and hazmat tags with the dangerous-goods class — totaling weight as line items are added and moving the load through a booked-to-offloaded status lifecycle with damaged and missing states. These are the capabilities the product is being built to deliver for its founding cohort; request early access through the AviationAlley contact page to see them as they develop.