2,789 research outputs found
Disentangling the European airlines efficiency puzzle: a network data envelopment analysis approach
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. In recent years the European airline industry has undergone critical restructuring. It has evolved from a highly regulated market predominantly operated by national airlines to a dynamic, liberalized industry where airline firms compete freely on prices, routes, and frequencies. Although several studies have analyzed performance issues for European airlines using a variety of efficiency measurement methods, virtually none of them has considered two-stage alternatives - not only in this particular European context but in the airline industry in general. We extend the aims of previous contributions by considering a network Data Envelopment Analysis (network DEA) approach which comprises two sub-technologies that can share part of the inputs. Results show that, in general, most of the inefficiencies are generated in the first stage of the analysis. However, when considering different types of carriers several differences emerge - most of the low-cost carriers' inefficiencies are confined to the first stage. Results also show a dynamic component, since performance differed across types of airlines during the decade 2000-2010
Mathematical models for group revenue management
Revenue Management is a technique focus to decision rules for maximizing profit from sale of perish-able inventory units. This paper deals with the special case of hotel revenue management, which can be solved using deterministic and stochastic mathematical programming techniques. We first describe the problem with a theoreti-cal framework that sets the revenue maximization criteria for a hotel. We consider the general case of the problem that accept independent and group guests, with a general mixed integer linear programming model that maximize the total forecasting. Finally, we made comparisons be-tween different proposed models and were found good-quality solutions in short running times
Forecasting and Forecast Combination in Airline Revenue Management Applications
Predicting a variable for a future point in time helps planning for unknown
future situations and is common practice in many areas such as economics, finance,
manufacturing, weather and natural sciences. This paper investigates and compares
approaches to forecasting and forecast combination that can be applied to service
industry in general and to airline industry in particular. Furthermore, possibilities to
include additionally available data like passenger-based information are discussed
Improved genetic algorithms by means of fuzzy crossover operators for revenue management in airlines
Abstract: Revenue Management is an economic policy that increases the earned profit by adjusting the service
demand and inventory. Revenue Management in airlines correlates with inventory control and price levels in
different fare classes. We focus on pricing and seat allocation problems in airlines by introducing a constrained
optimization problem in Binary Integer Programming (BIP) formulation. Two BIP problems are represented.
Moreover, some improved Genetic Algorithms (GAs) approaches are used to solve these problems. We
introduce new crossover operators that assign a Fuzzy Membership Function to each parent in GAs. We
achieve better outputs with new methods that take lower calculation times and earn higher profits. Three
different test problems in different scales are selected to evaluate the effectiveness of each algorithm. This
paper defines new crossover operators that help to reach better solutions that take lower calculation times and
more earned profits
Technology revenue management system for customer groups in hotels
This paper discusses revenue management; a technique that focuses on decision
making that will maximize profit from the sale of perishable inventory units. New
technologies management plays an important role in the development of revenue
management techniques. Each new advance in technology management leads to more
sophisticated revenue business capabilities. Today decision support revenue
management systems and technologies management are crucial factors for the success
of businesses in service industries. This paper addresses the specific case of customer
groups in hotels.The paper introduces a new decision support system that sets the revenue
maximization criteria for a hotel. The system includes a set of forecasting demand
methods for customers. It addresses a general case considering individual guests and
customer groups. The system also incorporates deterministic and stochastic
mathematical programming models that help to make the best decisions. The actual
revenue depends upon which reservation system the hotel uses. A simulation engine
makes a comparison between different heuristics of room inventory control: the results
include performance indexes such as occupancy rate, efficiency rate, and yield; it
compares results and chooses one of them. The system proves its suitability for actual
cases by testing against actual data and thus becomes an innovative and efficient tool in
the management of hotels’ reservation systems
Business to business online revenue management.
With the emergence of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce), revenue management and especially applications that combine both are becoming increasingly an area of innovation for service industries. E-commerce has introduced efficiencies across the service chain and it has allowed improvements to take place within and across organizations. Revenue management when combined with ecommerce and done online not only improves resource management but it can be used as a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage. This chapter examines the current approaches and future trends in these very exciting and promising areas
Dynamic Pricing through Sampling Based Optimization
In this paper we develop an approach to dynamic pricing that combines ideas from data-driven and robust optimization to address the uncertain and dynamic aspects of the problem. In our setting, a firm off ers multiple products to be sold over a fixed discrete time horizon. Each product sold consumes one or more resources, possibly sharing the same resources among di fferent products. The firm is given a fixed initial inventory of these resources and cannot replenish this inventory during the selling season. We assume there is uncertainty about the demand seen by the fi rm for each product and seek to determine a robust and dynamic pricing strategy that maximizes revenue over the time horizon. While the traditional robust optimization models are tractable, they give rise to static policies and are often too conservative. The main contribution of this paper is the exploration of closed-loop pricing policies for di fferent robust objectives, such as MaxMin, MinMax Regret and MaxMin Ratio. We introduce a sampling based optimization approach that can solve this problem in a tractable way, with a con fidence level and a robustness level based on the number of samples used. We will show how this methodology can be used for data-driven pricing or adapted for a random sampling optimization approach when limited information is known about the demand uncertainty. Finally, we compare the revenue performance of the di fferent models using numerical simulations, exploring the behavior of each model under diff erent sample sizes and sampling distributions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0556106-CMII)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0824674-CMII)Singapore-MIT Allianc
The global airline industry: an assessment of the impact of low-cost carriers on the technical efficiency of full-service airlines
Since the emergence of the first low-fare airline, Southwest Airlines, we have
witnessed the spread of the low-cost phenomenon in different regions of the world. The
simplicity, the low fares and the focus on core business (flying) have been the critical
basis for their success, and the concern of traditional operators who see their market
positioning threatened. To remain competitive, full-service operators have been forced to
redefine their business model.
With great interest in the innovative nature of low-cost carriers, literature has
covered inter-business model comparisons of efficiency, as well as on the analysis of the
strategies carried out by full-service to adapting to the increased competition. However,
there seems to be no study on the impact of low-cost operators on the technical efficiency
of full-service airlines. Thus, this thesis aims to analyse the impact of the low-cost
regional market share on the technical efficiency of full-service airlines domiciled in the
same region. In order to pursue this analysis, a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis was
implemented. Initially, bootstrapped efficiency scores were estimated for a set of 137
passenger airlines. Subsequently, the estimated efficiency measures were used as a
dependent variable in a truncated bootstrap regression to identify the determinants of the
technical efficiency. Results suggest that larger low-cost market shares are associated
with lower input uses for the same full-service carriers’ output levels based on that region.
This relationship might be explained by the adoption of better management practices that
approach the full-service model to the low-cost model.A criação da primeira companhia aérea de baixo-custo, a "Southwest Airlines",
impulsionou o desenvolvimento mundial de tantas outras no sector da aviação. A
simplicidade, os preços baixos e o foco no principal objetivo da atividade (voar) têm sido
a chave do seu sucesso e, simultaneamente, uma ameaça às companhias aéreas
tradicionais. Inevitavelmente, os operadores de serviço-completo têm vindo a realizar
mudanças no seu modelo de negócio para conseguirem manter-se competitivas.
Recentemente, alguns estudos têm-se focado na comparação entre os dois
modelos de negócio e na análise das estratégias das transportadoras tradicionais ao
aumento concorrencial. No entanto, parece não existir qualquer investigação acerca do
impacto dos operadores de baixo-custo na eficiência técnica dos tradicionais. Assim, este
estudo foca-se na relação entre a quota de mercado regional das transportadoras de baixo-custo e a eficiência técnica das companhias aéreas tradicionais sediadas nessa região. Para
prosseguir esta investigação, foi implementada uma Análise por Envoltória de Dados de
duas etapas. Inicialmente, foram estimadas as pontuações de eficiência técnica com
métodos de "bootstrap" para 137 transportadoras de passageiros e, posteriormente, as
pontuações foram usadas como variável dependente numa regressão "bootstrapped"
truncada para identificar as fontes de eficiência. Os resultados sugerem que uma maior
concentração de operadores de baixo-custo numa dada região está associada a uma menor
utilização de recursos, por parte dos operadores tradicionais dessa região, para o mesmo
nível de produção. Esta relação poderá ser explicada por práticas de gestão mais
adequadas que aproximam o modelo tradicional do modelo de baixo-custo
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