Optimal assignment for check-in counters based on passenger arrival behaviour at an airport

Establishing how to utilize check-in counters at airport passenger terminals efficiently is a major concern facing airport operators and airlines. Inadequate terminal capacity and the inefficient utilization of facilities such as check-in counters are major factors causing congestion and delays at airport passenger terminals. However, such delays and congestion can be reduced by increasing the efficiency of check-in counter operations, based on an understanding of passengers' airport access behaviour. This paper presents an assignment model for check-in counter operations, based on passengers' airport arrival patterns. In setting up the model, passenger surveys are used to determine when passengers arrive at the airport terminals relative to their flight departure times. The model then uses passenger arrival distribution patterns to calculate the most appropriate number of check-in counters and the duration of time that each counter should be operated. This assignment model has been applied at the Seoul Gimpo International Airport in Korea. The model provides not only a practical system for the efficient operations of time-to-time check-in counter assignments, but also a valuable means of developing effective longer-term solutions to the problem of passenger terminal congestion and delays. It also offers airlines a means of operating check-in counters with greater cost effectiveness, thus leading to enhanced customer service.     

Serving vs. settling: What drives the establishment of low-cost carriers’ foreign bases?

This paper uses a probit model on a cross-sectional dataset of 202 airports and 29 airlines to assess the drivers for the establishment of foreign bases by European low-cost carriers (LCCs). We find that managerial, organizational, and environmental factors impact on foreign base establishment. In particular, there is evidence that the presence of a growth-oriented firm leader and the strategic importance of an airport for an airline significantly increase the probability of the presence of bases, while national unit labor costs, the volatility of flight operations and the membership of an LCC in an airline group significantly decrease this probability.     

On the relationship between airport pricing models

Airport pricing papers can be divided into two approaches. In the traditional approach the demand for airport services depends on airport charges and on congestion costs of both passengers and airlines; the airline market is not formally modeled. In the vertical-structure approach instead, airports provide an input for an airline oligopoly and it is the equilibrium of this downstream market which determines the airports’ demand. We prove, analytically, that the traditional approach to airport pricing is valid if air carriers have no market power, i.e. airlines are atomistic or they behave as price takers (perfect competition) and have constant marginal operational costs. When carriers have market power, this approach may result in a surplus measure that falls short of giving a true measure of social surplus. Furthermore, its use prescribes a traffic level that is, for given capacity, smaller than the socially optimal level. When carriers have market power and consequently both airports and airlines behave strategically, a vertical-structure approach appears a more reasonable approach to airport pricing issues.     

How could the collaboration between airport and high speed rail affect the market?

This paper discusses the possibility of collaboration between airport and high speed rail (HSR) to improve the airport’s gateway function. We apply the model which consists of three players, carriers, passengers, and the airport. In order to estimate the impact of the collaboration, we carry out some numerical computations with the model under the twin hub three zones network. Our results show that the collaboration between HSR and the smaller demand airport can reduce the congestion at the bigger demand airport, which suggests the collaboration can be preferable for carriers and passengers; it would improve the social welfare.     

Low cost carrier competition and route entry in an emerging but regulated aviation market – The case of China

Although China lags behind other liberalized aviation markets in low cost carrier (LCC) development, its largest LCC, Spring Airlines, has achieved rapid growth in traffic volume and revenue, as well as consistent profitability, since its inauguration in 2005. Our empirical study on the Chinese domestic market suggests that Spring adopts a “cream skimming” strategy to enter high-priced routes, allowing the carrier to achieve both a very high load factor and considerable profitability. Spring’s capacity and market share on individual routes are constrained to low levels, likely due to government regulation and/or a “puppy dog” strategy adopted by the carrier. As a result, Spring is able to achieve fast growth without triggering price wars. To incumbent full service carriers, high speed rail (HSR) services impose much more significant competitive pressure than low cost carriers. Similar to LCCs in developed markets, Spring prefers to serve markets with high traffic volumes out of its operational base in Shanghai. Overall, Spring’s entry decision is not significantly affected by competition, either from full service airlines or HSR services. Our investigation suggests that LCCs have potential to introduce more competition but are yet to be a “game changer” in China. Further deregulation of the domestic market is needed.     

A Heuristic Algorithm for the Allocation of Airport Runway System Capacity

Abstract

This paper develops a heuristic algorithm for the allocation of airport runway capacity to minimise the cost of arrival and departure aircraft/flight delays. The algorithm is developed as a potential alternative to optimisation models based on linear and integer programming. The algorithm is based on heuristic (‘greedy’) criteria that closely reflect the ‘rules of thumb’ used by air traffic controllers. Using inputs such as arrival and departure demand, airport runway system capacity envelopes and cost of aircraft/flight delays, the main output minimises the cost of arrival and departure delays as well as the corresponding interdependent airport runway system arrival and departure capacity allocation. The algorithm is applied to traffic scenarios at three busy US airports. The results are used to validate the performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm against results from selected benchmarking optimisation models.     

Flight and passenger delay assignment optimization strategies

This paper compares different optimization strategies for the minimization of flight and passenger delays at two levels: pre-tactical, with on-ground delay at origin, and tactical, with airborne delay close to the destination airport. The optimization model is based on the ground holding problem and uses various cost functions. The scenario considered takes place in a busy European airport and includes realistic values of traffic. A passenger assignment with connections at the hub is modeled. Statistical models are used for passenger and connecting passenger allocation, minimum time required for turnaround and tactical noise; whereas uncertainty is also introduced in the model for tactical noise. Performance of the various optimization processes is presented and compared to ration by schedule results.     

Effect of slot trading on route-level competition: Evidence from experience in the UK

This paper examines the effect of airport slot trading on route-level competition using data on slot trades in the UK. The estimation results suggest that the slot trades among partner carriers contributed to slightly increased competition measured in terms of the number of competitors per route, whereas the slot trades between rival carriers had a negative effect on the number of competitors at the route level. The results suggest that carriers seem to have used the slots obtained from their rivals not to compete with each other but to strengthen their dominance on their existing routes. This behavior is considered to be derived from the bilateral nature of slot trading, which facilitates mutual forbearance among competitors. To cope with the potential anticompetitive effect of mutual forbearance, it would be worthwhile to explore slot-trading schemes that make it harder for carriers to take advantage of multimarket contact as well as alternative methods of primary slot allocation.     

A simulation framework for evaluating airport gate assignments

There are many factors that affect gate assignments in an airport's operations. These factors include static gate assignments, stochastic flight delays and real-time gate assignments. Most research on gate assignments in the past has laid stress on improving the performance of static gate assignments. None has analyzed the interrelationship between static gate assignments and real-time gate assignments as affected by the stochastic flight delays that occur in real operations. In addition, none has designed flexible buffer times for static gate assignments to effectively absorb stochastic delays in real-time gate assignments. This research proposes a simulation framework, that is not only able to analyze the effects of stochastic flight delays on static gate assignments, but can also evaluate flexible buffer times and real-time gate assignment rules. Finally, a simulation based on Chiang Kai-Shek airport operations is performed to evaluate the simulation framework.     

Airline’s choice of aircraft size – Explanations and implications

When facing a growth in demand, airlines tend to respond more by means of increasing frequencies than by increasing aircraft size. At many of the world’s largest airports there are fewer than 100 passengers per air transport movement, although congestion and delays are growing. Furthermore, demand for air transport is predicted to continue growing but aircraft size is not. This paper aims to investigate and explain this phenomenon, the choice of relatively small aircraft. It seems that this choice is associated mainly with the benefits of high frequency service, the competitive environment in which airlines operate and the way airport capacity is allocated and priced. Regression analysis of over 500 routes in the US, Europe and Asia provides empirical evidence that the choice of aircraft size is mainly influenced by route characteristics (e.g. distance, level of demand and level of competition) and almost not at all by airport characteristics (e.g. number of runways and whether the airport is a hub or slot coordinated). We discuss the implications of this choice of aircraft size and suggest that some market imperfections exist in the airline industry leading airlines to offer excessive frequency on some routes and too low frequency on others.     

Slot misuse phenomena in capacity-constrained airports with seasonal demand: the Greek experience

Abstract

Airport slot misuse disturbs the efficient and continuous operation of capacity-constrained airports, leading to congestion and delay problems. Deviations from the coordinated schedule in regional airport systems that feature seasonal demand and delays in certain peak periods are studied in this article. The Greek airport system is considered as a case study. Deviations are quantified by computing the difference between scheduled and actual aircraft arrival times as well as the hourly slot capacity utilization ratio. Two collective indicators for airport benchmarking are proposed. An in-depth analysis of slot allocation deviations and the delays they cause is carried out for a representative sample of airports that are classified according to the proposed indicators. A brief discussion on potential measures to mitigate slot misuse is also presented.     

Airport demand management: The operations research and economics perspectives and potential synergies

Airport demand management aims to mitigate air traffic congestion by limiting the imbalances between demand and capacity at busy airports through administrative measures (e.g., slot controls) or economic incentives (e.g., congestion pricing, slot auctions). This paper provides an integrated synthesis of the contributions of the fields of operations research/management science (OR/MS) and economics on the subject matter. From an operating standpoint, assessing the benefits of demand management requires estimates of airport capacity and models of airport on-time performance. From a managerial standpoint, the design of demand management mechanisms can be supported by decision-making models of flight scheduling. From an economic standpoint, the welfare impact of congestion pricing, slot controls and slot auctions depends on the market structure at the airport. This paper proposes an integrated framework that underscores the interdependencies between these operating, managerial and economic aspects to foster cross-disciplinary approaches toward more effective demand management policies at busy airports worldwide.     

The punctuality performance of aircraft rotations in a network of airports

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of aircraft turnaround performance at airports on the schedule punctuality of aircraft rotations in a network of airports. A mathematical model is applied, composed of two sub-models, namely the aircraft turnaround model (turnaround simulations) and the enroute model (enroute flight time simulations). A Markovian type model is featured in the aircraft turnaround model to simulate the operation of aircraft turnarounds at an airport by considering operational uncertainties and schedule punctuality variance. In addition, stochastic Monte Carlo simulations are employed to carry out stochastic sampling and simulations in both the aircraft turnaround model and the enroute model. Results of simulations show the robustness of the aircraft rotation model in capturing uncertainties from aircraft rotations. The propagation of knock-on delays in aircraft rotations is found to be significant when the short-connection-time policy is used by an airline at its hub airport. It is also found that the proper inclusion of schedule buffer time in the aircraft rotation schedule helps control the propagation of knock-on delays and, therefore, stabilize the punctuality performance of aircraft rotations.     

Heuristic search for the coupled runway sequencing and taxiway routing problem

This paper presents the first local search heuristic for the coupled runway sequencing (arrival & departure) and taxiway routing problems, based on the receding horizon (RH) scheme that takes into account the dynamic nature of the problem. As test case, we use Manchester Airport, the third busiest airport in the UK. From the ground movement perspective, the airport layout requires that departing aircraft taxi across the arrivals runway. This makes it impossible to separate arrival from departure sequencing in practice. Operationally, interactions between aircraft on the taxiways could prevent aircraft from taking off from, or landing on, runways during the slots assigned to them by an algorithm optimizing runway use alone. We thus consider the interactions between arrival and departure aircraft on the airport surface. Compared to sequentially optimized solutions, the results obtained with our approach indicate a significant decrease in the taxiway routing delay, with generally no loss in performance in terms of the sequencing delay for a regular day of operations. Another benefit of such a simultaneous optimization approach is the possibility of holding aircraft at the stands for longer, without the engines running. This significantly reduces the fuel burn, as well as bottlenecks and traffic congestion during peak hours that are often the cause of flight delays due to the limited amount of airport surface space available. Given that the maximum computing time per horizon is around 95 s, real-time operation might be practical with increased computing power.     

Airport taxi planning: Lagrangian decomposition

The airport taxi planning (TP) module is a decision tool intended to guide airport surface management operations. TP is defined by a flow network optimization model that represents flight ground movements and improves aircraft taxiing routes and schedules during periods of aircraft congestion. TP is not intended to operate as a stand‐alone tool for airport operations management: on the contrary, it must be used in conjunction with existing departing and arriving traffic tools and overseen by the taxi planner of the airport, also known as the aircraft ground controller. TP must be flexible in order to accommodate changing inputs while maintaining consistent routes and schedules already delivered from past executions. Within this dynamic environment, the execution time of TP may not exceed a few minutes. Classic methods for solving binary multi‐commodity flow networks with side constraints are not efficient enough; therefore, a Lagrangian decomposition methodology has been adapted to solve it. We demonstrate TP Lagrangian decomposition using actual data from the Madrid‐Barajas Airport. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How to mix per-flight and per-passenger based airport charges

This paper investigates the questions of why carriers advocate for higher per-passenger airport charges and lower per-flight charges, and whether and when this proposal is welfare-enhancing. Specifically, the paper compares the optimal mix of per-flight and per-passenger based airport charges from both a monopoly carriers’ and the social viewpoints conditional on airport cost recovery. It focuses on the trade-off between price and frequency (i.e., schedule delays) when time valuations are uniform, or differ, between business and leisure passengers. We identify an easy test for the evaluation of the mix of per-passenger and per-flight based airport charges by policy makers, which is simply to check whether the carrier’s preferred per-flight charge is zero. Our analysis suggests that there is no need for immediate regulatory corrections of the current trend towards the strong use of per-passenger based airport charges.     

航班快速恢复建模与仿真研究

随着民用航空的发展与竞争,航班延误不仅影响航空飞行的安全与正常,更与航空公司的运营效率、运营成本及乘客利益息息相关。针对某一恶劣天气影响,对某公司受影响航班进行重新调配,考虑到航班的备降、盘旋等待、延误、取消等多种状态,以总成本最小为目标函数,建立航班快速恢复模型,通过MATLAB运用遗传算法设计航班恢复算法进行求解,得出最经济的航班恢复方案。     

Ground delay program planning under uncertainty in airport capacity

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm for assigning flight departure delays under probabilistic airport capacity. The algorithm dynamically adapts to weather forecasts by revising, if necessary, departure delays. The proposed algorithm leverages state-of-the-art optimization techniques that have appeared in recent literature. As a case study, the algorithm is applied to assigning departure delays to flights scheduled to arrive at San Francisco International Airport in the presence of uncertainty in the fog clearance time. The cumulative distribution function of fog clearance time was estimated from historical data. Using daily weather forecasts to update the probabilities of fog clearance times resulted in improvement of the algorithm's performance. Experimental results also indicate that if the proposed algorithm is applied to assign ground delays to flights inbound at San Francisco International airport, overall delays could be reduced up to 25% compared to current level.     

Revenue sharing with multiple airlines and airports

This paper investigates the effects of concession revenue sharing between an airport and its airlines. It is found that the degree of revenue sharing will be affected by how airlines’ services are related to each other (complements, independent, or substitutes). In particular, when carriers provide strongly substitutable services to each other, the airport has incentive to charge airlines, rather than to pay airlines, a share of concession revenue. In these situations, while revenue sharing improves profit, it reduces social welfare. It is further found that airport competition results in a higher degree of revenue sharing than would be had in the case of single airports. The airport–airline chains may nevertheless derive lower profits through the revenue-sharing rivalry, and the situation is similar to a Prisoners’ Dilemma. As the chains move further away from their joint profit maximum, welfare rises beyond the level achievable by single airports. The (equilibrium) revenue-sharing proportion at an airport is also shown to decrease in the number of its carriers, and to increase in the number of carriers at competing airports. Finally, the effects of a ‘pure’ sharing contract are compared to those of the two-part sharing contract. It is found that whether an airport is subject to competition is critical to the welfare consequences of alternative revenue sharing arrangements.     

Open skies and open gates

Airline alliances are a global transportation issue which is the subject of increasing attention in the literature. A simple simulation model of air carrier competition in a network is constructed to examine the economic welfare effects of different levels of alliance between the carriers serving the network. The simulations confirm that consumers derive benefits from improved access to passenger markets. However, in many cases, carriers tend to gain from a limited alliance such as code-sharing. This suggests that closer alliances may be driven by other considerations such as raising barriers to entry or the cross-subsidisation of international routes through greater control of the domestic market.