Process Delay: From Check-In to Boarding

Think a flight delay is just about the weather? Think again.

In this episode of the Trust the Process Podcast, we dive into the high-stakes world of airport operations to explore the four forces that can make - or break - your journey.

From last-minute aircraft changes to overloaded baggage systems, we unpack how Munich Airport and Lufthansa use Process Intelligence to keep passengers and bags moving smoothly - even when chaos strikes.

The following is a transcript of the podcast, edited and organized for readability.

Angela’s near-miss flight story

I’ll admit it — I have a bit of a reputation for running late. Friends joke that you can always count on me showing up about 15 minutes after everyone else. But this time, it wasn’t my fault.

It was June 2024, and I was flying to Scotland for a long-awaited hiking trip. Just my friends, a backpack, a tent — and the promise of fresh air and breathtaking views.

The only problem? The airport was a mess — and for good reason. The night before, Germany had just beaten Scotland 5–1 in the Euro 2024 football tournament. The terminal was packed. Dejected Scottish fans heading home. Ecstatic Germans still celebrating. Everything was behind schedule.

By the time I got to security, the line was insane. My flight was boarding, and I wasn’t even close to the scanners. So yeah, I did what any desperate traveler would do — I begged my way to the front. Some rolled their eyes. Some let me through.

And then, after what felt like the longest baggage scan of my life... I sprinted to my gate. Like, Olympic-level sprinting.

Did I make it? Just. Barely.

And that got me thinking — airports operate on really thin margins of error. It’s a dance of timing, coordination, and precision. But when one thing goes wrong, everything falls apart.

The world behind the gate

Welcome to Trust the Process, the podcast that demystifies the world of Process Mining and Intelligence.

Today, we’re diving into one of the most complex, high-stakes logistical operations in the world — what happens behind the scenes at Munich Airport and Lufthansa to keep flights running smoothly… and what happens when they don’t.

Let’s introduce today’s guests:

Julian Rott, Head of Data & Processes at Munich Airport

Maximilian Hoffmann, Celonis Centre of Excellence Lead at Lufthansa

Between them, they’ve seen it all — smooth takeoffs, unexpected delays, and full-blown disruptions.

Why are processes a challenge at airports?

Airports are some of the most highly coordinated operational environments on the planet. But that coordination comes with a unique set of challenges.

Maximilian Hoffmann: “Think about the airline. Think about you as a guest. So, what do you do when you travel by plane? The first thing you do is you book a flight. For you, that’s just going to the website. You book the flight, and it’s done. On our side, a whole bunch of different things happen before we even operate the flight. We have your booking. We need to make sure you have all the data and information to travel to certain countries. We schedule how big the plane has to be depending on the booking size. Sometimes we take bigger aircraft, sometimes smaller. And we need to schedule the crew. We need to make sure we have the aircraft ready. A lot of things happen in planning beforehand.”

Let’s break it down.

There are four major constraints that define how airports and airlines operate — and how they fail when something goes wrong.

1. Interdependencies between stakeholders

Julian Rott: “Airport business is teamwork. These processes are executed by different companies. You don’t just have the airport — you have the airline, the ground handling companies, and the passenger themselves can influence the process. That’s the big challenge — these processes are quite interdependent. For example, when a passenger doesn’t make it to the flight but the bag was already loaded… okay, do we now need to unload the bag?”

One small disruption can trigger a chain reaction — affecting flights, staff, security, and even baggage loading.

2. Tight time windows

Maximilian Hoffmann: “From an airline perspective, we’re only making money if the plane is flying. The goal is to have the aircraft on ground as little as possible, and in the air as much as possible. That’s how you sell tickets. So the entire system is built to handle everything in very little time. Think about a short flight from Munich to Budapest — you only have 40 to 45 minutes on the ground. You need to get the crew in, passengers off, new passengers on, clean the plane, refuel — and all this is happening in parallel. Not just for one flight, but across the entire airport.”

3. Unpredictable events and weather

Julian Rott: “You have things like weather — storms, snowfall — that no one can control.”

A single snowstorm in Munich can delay flights in New York. A major event — like a football match — can flood terminals and back up security for hours. Even the best plans are vulnerable to unpredictability.

4. Safety and security constraints

Maximilian Hoffmann: “In aviation, there’s zero tolerance for failure. You always need to make sure we have a safe and reliable aircraft. Otherwise, it’s not going into service. These machines — they have millions of parts. Eventually something’s going to break. And you always need to be prepared for that.”

So how do airports and airlines manage all of this? And what happens when the system breaks down?

After this break, we’ll follow two parallel journeys at Munich Airport: you — and your bag.

Two journeys, one outcome: You and your bag

You arrive at Munich Airport for your flight to New York. You check in, hand over your passport and suitcase. The airline agent prints your boarding pass, tags your luggage, and places it on the conveyor belt.

As you head to security, your suitcase is already on a separate journey.

Julian Rott: “At the airport, we look at processes from three main perspectives: the passenger process, the baggage process, and airside operations. Each must run smoothly to ensure an efficient journey. You can distinguish three main processes from an airport’s perspective. First, the passenger process. In parallel, there’s the baggage process. And the third: airside operations — all the infrastructure. That’s terminal construction, runways, facilities.”

Security & sorting — diverging paths

You queue for security. Meanwhile, your suitcase is rolling underground to baggage screening.

Maximilian Hoffmann: “We have a baggage handling system, of course, that’s fully automated. But there are people loading containers, people loading aircraft, people cleaning aircraft. It’s all happening at once.”

Boarding & loading — back together again

While you sip a coffee at the gate, ground crews are busy below. Your suitcase arrives at the aircraft’s loading area. It’s scanned, matched to your passenger record, and loaded into the hold.

Maximilian Hoffmann: “The variety of processes is just too much for one podcast. There are hundreds. Roughly 15 to 20 processes happen in parallel just to make the aircraft ready for departure — and that’s just on the day of operations.”

Arrival & the final mile

You land. As you head through immigration, your suitcase is offloaded and sent to baggage claim.

Julian Rott: “You check in, go through security, maybe shop, eat, and board the flight. Meanwhile, your baggage is going through its own journey. And the goal is for both to arrive at the same time.”

But sometimes, they don’t.

Julian Rott: “You depart from Munich Airport and make the flight… but your bag doesn’t. That’s obviously something we want to avoid.”

How OCPM keeps it all connected

At its core, the airline industry is a dance of interconnected processes.

Julian Rott: “That’s where OCPM comes in. In the past, you had to build a new event log for every use case. Now, you can start with a few objects — like baggage, passengers, aircraft — and build out from there.”

Object-Centric Process Mining gives a connected view of airport operations — showing how everything interacts.

Maximilian Hoffmann: “You have one passenger. One passenger could have zero or many bags. There’s one aircraft, but it could hold 580 passengers. Bags go into containers. Containers into aircraft. So you have relationships between all those objects — one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many. We call them subway lines. You see the passenger check in. The luggage gets dropped off. The passenger boards. But at departure time, if the bag isn’t linked to the aircraft — it’s missing. You immediately know the bag didn’t make it.”

Instead of digging through data logs, airports can see at a glance where something went wrong.

The airport of the future

So what does the future look like?

Maximilian Hoffmann: “For me? There are no barriers. The whole system is a symbiosis. One party can’t live without the other. So we tear down silos and work together. We stop thinking in company lines and start thinking in systems.”

Imagine predictive AI that reroutes passengers when flights change. Smart luggage that tracks itself. Real-time data that alerts ground staff to problems before they happen.

Julian Rott: “It’s the first time we can build these discussions on a fact-based ground. That’s a big shift — and a really positive one.”

Airports may be chaotic. But they don’t have to be.

By connecting processes, breaking silos, and using real-time intelligence, the future of air travel looks much smoother.

Listen to Trust the Process Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode of Trust the Process, share it with someone who’s spent too much time stuck at the airport.

In our next episode, we explore The Ethics of Process Intelligence — and the tough question: how do we get maximum insight from a minimum of data?

Because when processes work, everything works.