Aircraft Maintenance Routing Problem – A Literature Survey

The airline industry has shown significant growth in the last decade according to some indicators such as annual average growth in global air traffic passenger demand and growth rate in the global air transport fleet. This inevitable progress makes the airline industry challenging and forces airline companies to produce a range of solutions that increase consumer loyalty to the brand. These solutions to reduce the high costs encountered in airline operations, prevent delays in planned departure times, improve service quality, or reduce environmental impacts can be diversified according to the need. Although one can refer to past surveys, it is not sufficient to cover the rich literature of airline scheduling, especially for the last decade. This study aims to fill this gap by reviewing the airline operations related papers published between 2009 and 2019, and focus on the ones especially in the aircraft maintenance routing area which seems a promising branch

Regional Airline Study: The Impact Of Operational Volume On Performance At Capacity Constrained Airports

New regulation requires mainline carriers to report regional airline on-time performance. Regional airlines have a high operational volume at capacity constrained airports. Studies have indicated that if volume at a capacity constrained airport increases, then flight delays are likely to grow. Regional airline operational data in JFK and LGA is analyzed to determine the relationship between volume and on-time performance over a two-year period. Through reviewing statistical test results, recommendations are made in effort to predict a regional airline’s optimal volume while maintaining adequate on-time performance. Operational volume is characterized by three independent variables: block hours, aircraft utilization, and the number of scheduled departures. Three on-time performance metrics are considered: delays, significant delays and completion factor. The results of the output models show that an increase of volume at JFK and LGA led to an increase of delays, significant delays, and cancellations. Volume predicts operational performance but the relationship is sensitive to operational season, fleet type, and hub station

The design and simulation of an autonomous system for aircraft maintenance scheduling

International audienceOperational support is a key issue for aircraft maintenance, which aims to improve operational efficiency and reduce operating costs under the premise of ensuring flight safety. Although many works have emerged to achieve this aim, they mostly address the concept of maintenance systems, the relationship between stakeholders and the loop of maintenance information separately. Hence, the cooperation between stakeholders could be impeded especially when urgent decisions should be made, relying on historical data and real-time data. In this paper, we propose an innovative design of an autonomous system supporting the automatic decision-making for maintenance scheduling. The design starts from the proposition of the analysis framework, to concept formulation of the system, to information transitional level interface, and ends with an instance of system module interactions. The underlying architecture illustrates the high-level fusion of technical and business drives; optimizes strategies and plans with regard to maintenance costs, service level and reliability. An agent-based simulation system is developed as a proof to illustrate the feasibility of the system principle and algorithms. Furthermore, the simulation experiment analyzing the impact of maintenance sequence strategies on maintenance costs and service level has demonstrated the algorithm functionality and the feasibility of the proposed approach

Havacılık Sektöründe Ekip Planlama Yönetimi: Bir Türk Havayolu Örneği Crew Planning Management in Aviation Industry: A Turkish Airline Case

Havayolu taşımacılığının günümüzde ortadan kalkmış olan sınırlar ve müşteri ihtiyaçlarının anında karşılanma isteği gibi nedenler dolayısıyla gün geçtikçe artması havayolu işletmelerinin ihtiyaç duyduğu uçuş personeli sayısını da arttırmaktadır. Bu sebeple bu çalışmada havacılık sektöründe ekip planlama fonksiyonunun faaliyetleri incelenmiş, ekip planlama yönetiminde dikkate alınan matematiksel kısıtlar kadar insani kısıtların da önemine vurgu yapılmak istenmiştir. Bu doğrultuda Türkiye’de faaliyet gösteren bir havayolu şirketinde üst düzey yöneticiler ve ekip planlama çalışanlarıyla odak grup görüşmeleri yapılmıştır. Ekip planlamanın iki temel fonksiyonu olan ekip eşleme (pairing) ve ekip atama (rostering) faaliyetleri yerine getirilirken dikkate alınan ve uygulanan unsurlar çalışmanın sonucunda elde edilen bulgulardır. Ekip planlama uygulamalarının bilimsel literature uygunluğu da dikkate alınmıştır. Ayrıca bu bulgulardan yola çıkarak ekip planlama faaliyetleri için 5 temel unsur ortaya konmuş olup bu unsurlar; kurallara ve zindelik seviyesine uyum, insan kaynağını hoyratça kullanmama, çalışan memnuniyetini sağlama, birim ekip maliyetlerinin düşürülmesi ve hizmet düzeyinin yüksek tutulması olarak sıralanmaktadır. Use of air transport is increasing steadily, due to the fact that today’s boundaries have been lifted and customer needs are being met instantaneously, which allows growth in the aviation industry. In this study, the activities of crew planning were examined and it was aimed to emphasize the importance of human constraints as well as the mathematical constraints considered in crew planning management. In line with this, focus group interviews were conducted with senior managers and crew planning personnel who are working in an airline company operating in Turkey. When crew pairing and rostering activites are carried out, the factors taken into account and applied are the findings obtained as a result of the study. Academic literature conformity of crew planning applications is also taken into consideration. Finally, five basic dimensions for crew planning activities have been set out from these findings; compliance with rules and personnel wellness level, not using human resourses harshly, ensuring employee satisfaction, reducing unit crew costs and keeping service level high

Aplicação de Modelos Semi-Integrados de Programação de Voos e Alocação de Aeronaves Utilizando Algoritmo Genético

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Joinville, Engenharia de Transportes e Logística.A Programação de Voos consiste em sequenciar um conjunto de voos a partir de pares Origem-Destino com janelas de operações definidas, escolhidos na etapa anterior de Desenvolvimento de Rotas, enquanto Alocação de Aeronaves consiste em escolher o modelo de aeronave que irá atender cada programação de voos. Tais etapas são as que mais impactam nos custos de uma companhia aérea e, tratar cada uma de forma isolada pode levar a resultados insatisfatórios, seja em alocar um modelo de aeronave incompatível com a demanda da programação de voos, seja não gerar o sequenciamento ideal para cada modelo de aeronave. No entanto, buscar aplicar as duas etapas de forma integrada gera modelos da classe NP-hard, aumentando a complexidade computacional e exigindo a utilização de meta-heurísticas. Neste contexto, este trabalho concentrou-se em analisar dois modelos matemáticos relacionados à Programação de Voos e Alocação de Aeronaves, sendo que o primeiro busca minimizar a perda de receitas e o segundo busca minimizar o Momento de Transporte, dado pelo produto entre o número de passageiros não transportados e o tempo de viagem, e, para a busca de solução dos referidos problemas, foi desenvolvido um Algoritmo Genético. Os dados utilizados no estudo são de uma empresa aérea regional. Ao final deste trabalho, são apresentados os resultados operacionais, econômicos, e de robustez das programações de voos geradas por cada modelo

Applying human factors and ergonomics system analysis methods to the V5-NRS Cessna 441 Conquest II aviation accident

Intro: Accidents are complex in nature with multiple contributing factors. The way in which accidents are investigated is important and using system-based analysis tools assists in understanding and mapping these contributing factors to learn from them. There has been an increase in the number of accidents that have occurred within the general aviation industry in South Africa and while accident investigations have been undertaken, these have not included the application of system-based analysis tools. This led to a collaboration between Rhodes University and the Accident and Incident Investigations Division (AIID) of the South African Civil Aviation Authority where it was agreed that two systems-based analysis tools will be applied to a previously investigated accident that occurred in 2015. Aims: The first aim of this thesis was to identify if, through the implementation of these systems-based tools, the systemic contributory factors could be determined using the existing report by the AIID. The second aim of this thesis was to identify if, using the two systems-based tools, the actors and levels involved in the accident could be identified and the third aim was to identify if the implementation of these tools generates the same or different recommendations to that of the AIID. Methods: The two systems-based analysis tools applied were AcciMap and Causal Analysis using Systems Theory (CAST). These tools were applied to the V5-NRS Cessna 441 Conquest II accident report which captured the details of how the aircraft flew into the Tygerberg mountain on its descent into the Cape Town International Airport in August 2015. Results: Through the application of these two systems-based analysis tools the major contributing factors elucidated throughout this analysis were: visual and lighting conditions, pilot experience, training, lack of terrain warning equipment, fatigue, inadequate oversight, and inadequate risk management. In line with these findings, the analysis revealed various actors across various levels (the crew; South African Air Traffic Control, the SACAA, WestAir (the operator) and the Namibian Civil Aviation Authority Through the elucidation of these factors at various levels, 14 to 15 different recommendations were generated which was more than the one recommendation that was generated by the AIID. Discussion: Even when applied to an existing report, both the CAST and Accimap tools were able to bring to light the systemic contributing factors to this accident and importantly, highlight the role that various actors and levels within the system had in this unfortunate event. Consistent with previous literature, most of the contributing factors were found at the lowest level (the crew in this case) and fewer, but key factors were identified at higher levels (management and regulator level). Importantly, the application of the systems tools facilitated a systematic and systemic analysis of this accident, which allowed for the generation of recommendations at all levels, not just at the operator level. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the benefits and importance behind implementing a systems-based analysis method to an accident as these tools generate more useful recommendations which allows for important lessons to be learned following accidents, with the intention of re-designing systems to prevent them from happening again.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, 202

Modelo matemático como soporte para la planificación del transporte masivo de pasajeros aplicando una estrategia de cambio de resolución

En esta tesis se formula un modelo matemático de optimización para resolver de manera integrada las etapas de diseño de itinerarios y asignación de flota en un sistema de transporte aéreo de pasajeros utilizando una estrategia de cambio de resolución para disminuir el tamaño del problema resultante, en términos de la cantidad de variables de decisión y ecuaciones, así como del tiempo y de la cantidad de iteraciones requeridas para resolverlo. Para reducir el tamaño del modelo de optimización resultante se implementa una estrategia de clusterización de datos utilizando algoritmos de Aprendizaje de Máquina e Inteligencia Artificial. Estos algoritmos permiten agrupar datos en clústers de manera no trivial, de manera que los elementos pertenecientes a cada clúster son homogéneos entre sí, y los clústers contienen elementos heterogéneos entre ellos. Así, un conjunto original de datos pasa a ser reemplazado por los centroides de los clústers encontrados. Se desarrolla un caso de aplicación en el que, usando el modelo de optimización y la estrategia de cambio de resolución propuesta, se resuelven las dos etapas de la planeación mencionadas. Se plantea el modelo con y sin clusterización de datos y se concluye que la estrategia de clusterización, además de disminuir drásticamente el tiempo de resolución del modelo, mejora la calidad de la solución encontrada, ya que se obtiene una combinación de vuelos incluidos en el itinerario operada con un costo menor que el óptimo encontrado sin aplicar la clusterización de datos y con mejor conectividad entre ellos.Abstract: In this thesis, a mathematical optimization model to solve the integrated problem of itinerary design and fleet assignment in a passenger air transportation system is formulated using a change-of-scale strategy to reduce the size of the resulting problem, in terms of the number of decision variables and constraints, as well as the time and number of iterations required to solve it. To reduce the size of the resulting model, a clustering strategy is implemented using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Such algorithms allow to group data in clusters, in a non-trivial way, so that the elements belonging to one cluster are similar among them, and the clusters contain dissimilar elements. This way, an original data set is replaced by the centroids of the clusters found. An application case is developed to solve the mentioned integrated problem using the proposed optimization model and change-of-scale strategy. The model is solved with and without data clustering. The data clustering strategy, besides drastically reducing the resolution time of the model, improves the quality of the solution found, due to a higher flexibility to find a combination of flights included in the final itinerary with higher connectivity between them and operated with a lower cost than the optimal found without the data clustering.Maestrí

Analysing the Network & Schedule Performance of Airlines and Developing a Passenger-Centric Commercial Methodology for Air Services

In the aviation industry and academic literature, there are a number of methods to compute and benchmark the perceived quality of the airline schedule. However, these are open to criticism in the sense that they solely use the airline’s schedules as the input for the quality computation rather than the consumer’s perspective. Injecting dynamic consumer preference metrics on top of the existing network evaluation methods is the aim of this research. Therefore, the research brings a new and innovative passenger-oriented perspective on airline network and schedule design, an outlook regarding the “quality” of supply rather than the sole “quantity” of the supply. The model also helps to compute schedule-service quality indexes by understanding consumers’ priorities and preferences through a survey. Using the schedule data of main legacy and low cost carriers in the Middle East, Europe and Africa the model produces a “realistic market share” estimation for each airline serving particular routes. The model’s outputs provide guidelines to effectively shape the airline planners’ investment decisions in the sense that, the airline executives will be enabled to numerically assess the estimated realistic market share change of a potential investment and to benchmark the performance of their products against competitors. Moreover, the research contributes to the academic literature by conceptualising the comparative and competitive advantages of airline schedules and network designs from a consumer-centric perspective