Schedule maintenance over member bookings

Book maintenance on an asset without cancelling member bookings first. The bookings that overlap the maintenance window are suspended automatically for the duration of the window and restored automatically when you remove, shorten, or move it.

This is the intended flow for unscheduled maintenance on an asset that already has bookings in the diary. You do not need to ring round and ask members to cancel.

Before you start

You must be an admin of the syndicate.
The asset does not need to be grounded. If it is grounded (from a confirmed grounding squawk), maintenance can still be scheduled; suspended bookings then stay suspended until the last active cause clears.
You no longer need to cancel member bookings before booking maintenance. Doing so would lose the automatic restore if you later reschedule.

Steps

Open the calendar: Syndicate → Calendar (or the Calendar tab on the syndicate detail screen).
Select the asset from the asset filter, then pick the window on the calendar the way you would for any booking (click-and-drag on web, long-press-and-drag on mobile).
In the Create Booking dialog, tap Official, then select Maintenance from the sub-selector that appears. (Some entry points pre-select it.)
Enter the Maintenance Description: what the work is. This is the label on the calendar slot.
Tap Create. A window that overlaps no member booking is scheduled straight away.
If member bookings overlap the window, the dialog does not submit yet. It replaces the form with a Bookings Will Be Suspended view. It warns that the maintenance will suspend the overlapping bookings, that the affected members will be notified, and that the bookings are restored automatically if the maintenance is cancelled, then lists the affected members and their bookings. Each booking shows its start date and time and its end time, and its end date too when it ends on a later day. Syndik8 also requires a Reason for maintenance in this case: why members’ bookings are affected. It is kept apart from the description and is what members see on their suspension notice, so keep it plain. (“Annual out of phase inspection”, “Oil leak found on the walk-round”.)
Tap Schedule Maintenance to confirm. Go back returns you to the form with nothing sent. Both buttons stay in view while the keyboard is open for the reason.

You see a success snackbar. The maintenance appears on the calendar as a confirmed maintenance booking; the overlapping member bookings change to a suspended status. Opening the maintenance booking shows a Maintenance card with your description, and the reason you gave below it, in place of a member booking’s status steps; a ferry flight or ground run during the window is recorded with Log Usage (see Log a ground run or ferry flight).

What members see

Each member whose booking was suspended receives a Booking Suspended for Maintenance notification (in-app and, if enabled in their preferences, by email). The notification includes:

The asset name.
Which booking it is: its date and times, in the member’s own time zone, so a member with several bookings caught can tell them apart.
When the maintenance is: its own dates and times.
The reason you entered, verbatim.
A line indicating the booking will restore automatically if the maintenance is rescheduled or cancelled.

The suspended booking stays on the calendar in a muted style (it is not deleted), and the member can view it in their Bookings list under the All or Upcoming filter.

Every other member of the syndicate receives a Maintenance Booked notification giving the asset, the maintenance’s dates and times in their own time zone, and your description. A member whose booking it suspended is not sent this as well: their suspension notice already says all of it. You don’t receive one for maintenance you booked yourself, and maintenance entered for a time that has already passed sends nothing.

If the maintenance is later moved, members receive a Maintenance Moved notification with the old and new dates and times, and the new reason when you changed the reason in the same edit; if it is cancelled, a Maintenance Cancelled notification. The admin who made the change is not sent one, and neither is a member whose own booking the change suspends or reinstates, since that notice covers it. Completing the maintenance sends nothing.

Adding a maintenance item (a check Syndik8 tracks, such as a 50-hour oil change) does not notify members. Only booking the aircraft in for maintenance does.

Move, shorten or extend the window

Open the maintenance booking from the calendar and tap Edit. Any admin can edit maintenance, not only the admin who booked it; someone who is no longer an admin is not offered Edit. You can change the start and end, the Maintenance Description, and the Reason for maintenance, which shows the current reason so you can add to it or rewrite it. There is one current reason: a new one replaces the old. Members see the reason in their suspension notice.

Once the maintenance has started its start is locked, but you can still move the end. To finish early, set the end to a few minutes from now; it can’t be set to a time that has already passed. Bookings the shorter window no longer covers are restored, as below.

If the new window covers confirmed member bookings that the old one did not, the confirmation step shows the same Bookings Will Be Suspended card as when you created it, listing the members and bookings the change will suspend, and asks for a Reason for maintenance, filled in with the current one. Keep it or rewrite it to explain the change, then tap Confirm Update. The reason is saved on its own, apart from the description, and the members whose bookings are newly caught receive a Booking Suspended for Maintenance notification quoting it. Bookings the window already covered are not listed again: they are already suspended and have been told.

Restoring bookings

You don’t need to restore anything manually. Bookings restore automatically whenever the cause is removed, provided no other cause is still active. The rules:

Delete the maintenance booking: every suspended booking that previously overlapped it restores to confirmed, unless it is still overlapped by another maintenance window or by an open grounding squawk.
Set the maintenance to cancelled, completed, or rejected: same behaviour.
Shorten the window: bookings that fall outside the new, narrower window restore; bookings that are still inside it stay suspended.
Move the window: bookings outside the new window restore; bookings now inside the new window suspend.

Each affected member receives a Booking Reinstated notification, naming the booking’s date and times, when their booking restores.

Limits and edge cases

In-progress bookings are protected. If the maintenance window would overlap a booking that has started but not yet ended, the booking dialog refuses with “Another booking is currently in progress during this window. Choose a later start time.” Wait for the booking to end, ask the member to end it early by editing its end time, or shift the maintenance start to after its end time.
Two maintenance windows cannot overlap. The service prevents you from scheduling one maintenance booking on top of another on the same asset. Edit the existing one instead.
Pending and tentative member bookings are not suspended by the maintenance trigger. They stay on the calendar but cannot be promoted to confirmed while the maintenance overlaps them. Once the maintenance is cleared, a pending booking can be approved normally.
Grounding squawk plus maintenance. If an asset is grounded by a squawk and has active maintenance, a booking stays suspended until both are cleared. Resolving the squawk alone does not restore bookings that are still inside the maintenance window.

If it goes wrong

“Only admins can schedule maintenance bookings”: you’re signed in as a member, or as an admin of a different syndicate. Switch to the correct account or ask an admin to book.
“Please give a reason: members will see it in their suspension notice”: the Reason for maintenance field is mandatory whenever the dialog shows a suspension section, whether you are creating the window or moving it over new bookings. Fill it in.
“Another booking is currently in progress during this window. Choose a later start time”: see Limits and edge cases above.
Member reports their booking didn’t restore when I cancelled the maintenance: check whether the asset has an open grounding squawk (open the aircraft, then Squawks on its Activity card) or a second maintenance window covering the same slot. Either will keep the booking suspended. Clear the remaining cause and the booking restores.

Schedule maintenance over member bookings

Schedule maintenance over member bookings

Before you start

Steps

What members see

Move, shorten or extend the window

Restoring bookings

Limits and edge cases

If it goes wrong

See also