Investigating the effects of job demands and job resources on cabin crew safety behaviors

Cabin crews are crucial to the cabin safety performance of airlines, and may enhance air travel safety and alleviate passenger concerns. Within the limited literature devoted to cabin crew related research, this study aims to examine the causal relationships among “job demands”, “job resources” and cabin crew safety behaviors. Data from a survey of 339 flight attendants working for Taiwanese international airlines were analyzed using structural equation modeling. A variety of fit indices confirmed the overall model fit, and all the paths in the model were statistically significant. Framed in the context of the job demands-resources model, the results reveal negative causality between “job demands” and “cabin crew safety behaviors”, whereas “job resources” are positively related to “upward safety communication”, “in-role” and “extra-role” safety behaviors. The implications of the results for practitioners and future research are discussed.     

Dose safety motivation mediate the effect of psychological contract of safety on flight attendants' safety performance outcomes?: A social exchange perspective

This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that investigates the mediating effect of safety motivation linking psychological contract of safety (PCS) as manifested by employer obligations of safety and employee obligations of safety to safety violations and safety creative performance (SCP). Data were collected from a sample of flight attendants with two weeks time lag in Iran. Underpinned by social exchange theory, the results of structural equation modeling revealed that safety motivation fully mediates the simultaneous effects of PCS indicators on safety violations and SCP. Specifically, indicators of PCS jointly enhance safety motivation. In turn, safety motivation reduces safety violations, while enhancing SCP. Theoretical and practical implications evoked from the results advance existing knowledge of organizationally social interactions in promoting safety and the motivational mechanism through which PCS predicts employees' safety performance outcomes.     

Impacts of COVID-19 on aircraft usage and fuel consumption: A case study on four Chinese international airports

COVID-19 pandemic starting in early 2020 has greatly impacted human and industrial activities. Air transport in China shrank abruptly in February 2020, following a year-long gradual recovery. The airline companies reacted to this unprecedented event by dramatically reducing the flight volume and rearranging the aircraft types. As the first major economy that successfully controls the spread of COVID-19, China can provide a unique opportunity to quantify the medium-long impacts on the air transport industry. To quantify the corresponding changes and to elucidate the effects of COVID-19 in the wake of two major outbreaks centered in Wuhan and Beijing, we analyze twelve flight routes formed by four selected airports, using the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data in 2019 and 2020. Our results show that the total flight volume in 2020 reduced to 67.8% of 2019 in China. The recovering time of flight volume was about 2–6 months, dependent on the severity. In order to unwind the severe challenge, airlines mainly relied on aircraft B738 and A321 between February and June in 2020 because the fuel consumption per seat of these two aircraft types is the lowest. Besides, fuel consumption and aircraft emissions are calculated according to the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization's Engine Emissions Databank (ICAO's EEDB). At the end of 2020, the ratios of daily fuel consumption and aircraft emissions of 2020 to 2019 rebounded to about 0.875, suggesting the domestic commercial flights were nearly fully recovered. Our results may provide practical guidance and meaningful expectation for commercial aircraft management for other countries.     

Willingness to pay for safety improvements in passenger air travel

The risk of being involved in an airplane accident is largely ignored in air passengers’ choice models. The reason presumably is that it is hard to operationalize, because objective safety indicators often involve extremely low probabilities that are hard to grasp and interpret by passengers. In this paper, we propose an operationalization that is based on the perception of safety, which is easy to understand and resonates that perceptions often influence decisions stronger than objective variables. We conceptualize that passengers form a safety perception score of a particular flight based on their perception of airline and route attributes and that this score in turn is traded-off against other flight attributes, such as ticket costs, to arrive at a flight choice. In line with this conceptualization, two stated preference experiments are conducted. In a first experiment, combinations of airline and route attributes are evaluated in terms of safety that is captured on a rating scale. In a second experiment, safety perception is treated as an attribute and traded-off against other flight attributes to arrive at a flight choice. The paper presents the results of a regression and a Panel Mixed Logit model estimated from responses obtained from a convenience sample of 161 air passengers recruited in the Netherlands. The results of both models are then combined to calculate the willingness to pay values for improvements made to a range of airline and route attributes, taking into account socio-demographic variables and psychological traits. As expected, the results indicate that the willingness to pay for improving safety decreases with higher initial safety levels.     

Dynamic routing of time-sensitive air cargo using real-time information

The route planning of time-sensitive air-cargo is becoming more important with the growing air-network congestion and delays. We consider a freight forwarder’s routing of a time-sensitive air-cargo in the presence of real-time and historical information regarding flight availability, departure delays and travel times. A departure delay estimation model is developed to account for real-time information inaccuracy. A novel Markov decision model is formulated and solved with online backward induction. Through synthetic experiments and case studies, we demonstrate that dynamic routing with real-time information can improve delivery reliability and reduce expected cost.     

机车运用管理信息系统的设计与应用

针对目前机车运用管理上存在的不足，结合运输生产实际，设计了机车运用管理信息系统，为各相关岗位动态掌握机车、机班信息提供有效手段。本文介绍了系统的物理结构、逻辑结构、系统功能及关键技术。该系统在全集团范围推广使用，效果良好。     

The Influence of Grassroots Political Turmoil on Capital Flight from Developing Countries

Abstract

This study hypothesizes that capital flight from developing countries into the United States is related to political disturbances in these countries. The empirical examination of more than two decades of capital flight and political turmoil data for selected developing countries seems to support the hypothesis. Implications for planners are discussed.     

Working the skies: Changing representations of gendered work in the airline industry, 1930–2011

The influence of the media, whether print, celluloid or contemporary electronic, on life and career choices, particularly from a gender perspective is well documented. Indeed, the power of today’s e-media imagery has, arguably, a more ubiquitous influence on such decisions than was in the case for previous generations. However, both traditional print and more contemporary media influencers remain important and, therefore, gaining an understanding of their role in the representation of gendered work, both historically and in a modern context, is of considerable value. Working in the sky, whether as a pilot or member of the cabin crew, continues to hold a fascination and attraction for potential entrants that far exceeds the technical demands or financial rewards of the reality of such work. Perceived as ‘glamorous’ work since the early days of commercial flight in the 1930s, this tag has largely remained, despite major changes to the business and workplace environment in the intervening years. Commercial aviation is an area of work that has inspired a genre of influential romantic literature and numerous ‘real-life’ recollections alongside serious academic analysis. This paper charts the representation of, in particular, female flight attendant work from its ‘golden era’ through to the present context where the influence of the low-cost airline model has radically impacted upon the working environment within the sector. The discussion focuses on the broad ‘genre’ of airline-related employment literature, drawing on romantic, comic and biographical accounts alongside sources that address this theme from academic/research perspectives, in order to ask whether contemporary representation is any more a true reflection of this work than that during previous generations. In undertaking this analysis, this paper draws upon the role and career representation literature, particularly with respect to embodied and gendered work.     

并联式TBCC发动机排气系统性能数值模拟

针对一个并联式涡轮基组合循环(Turbine Based Combined Cycle, TBCC)发动机排气系统的气动方案,对其在整个飞行包线范围内典型工作点上的流场进行了数值模拟研究,获得了飞行包线范围内排气系统相应的推力系数、升力、俯仰力矩随飞行马赫数的变化关系。计算结果显示,在整个飞行包线范围内,排气系统的轴向推力系数随着飞行马赫数先减小后增大,在跨声速飞行时降到最低 Ma=0.9,涡喷不加力时为0.562,加力时0.662),在设计点附近达到最大;升力和俯仰力矩性能在亚声速及跨声速飞行时较差,在超声速飞行时随着飞行马赫数增加逐渐好转。表明排气系统在跨声速飞行范围内工作时应采取措施以改善其性能。 