A simulation analysis for the re-solving issue of the network revenue management problem

The classic dynamic programming approach is not applicable to the airline network revenue management (RM) problem of a practical size due to the curse of dimensionality. Many heuristic methods, including the most popular bid-price control approach, generate the approximate control decisions based on various static formulations, which need to be re-solved to take into account the dynamic features of the problem. By a simulation experiment, this study examines the re-solving issue of the bid-price method and tests a new method, the parameterized function approach, in which no problem-resolving is required. Based on the results, the parameterized function approach is found to be a promising alternative. As for the bid-price control approach, a high re-solving frequency is needed for a good result.     

An analysis of profitability of the world’s major airlines

This paper analyses airline profitability through an examination of the changes in their productivity growth and the ability to markup prices above costs. A yearly panel data of 22 major airlines over the 1986–1995 period is used. Despite the fact that the European carriers were subjected to a more rapid rise in input prices and a faster decline in airfares than their North American counterparts, they achieved a faster growth in profitability since the early 1990s thanks to their higher productivity growth caused largely by the increased competition in Europe. Although overall profitability of the industry has improved during the 1990s, there are significant variations across airlines because of their differential capabilities to deal with the increasing competition and input prices.     

Using analytic network process to measure the determinants of low cost carriers purchase intentions: A comparison of potential and current customers

The goal of this study is to use the analytic network process (ANP) approach to develop an evaluation model which prioritized the relative weights of determinants of low cost carriers (LCCs) purchase intentions between potential and current customers. A field study with 96 potential customers and 84 current customers of LCCs was performed. The results found some similarities and differences between potential and current customers with regard to the determinants of LCCs purchase intentions. With respect to the final weights of these determinants, both customer groups considered “reliability and image” to be the important factor that affects their intentions to purchase LCCs. Additionally, “price and convenience” received a higher weighting by potential customers, while current customers emphasized the importance of “employee services”. The evaluation model and the results obtained using it provide a valuable reference for LCC managers who are seeking to facilitate effective customer relationship management.     

A GIS-based toolkit for route choice analysis

This paper develops and applies the route choice analysis (RCA) toolkit. This GIS-based toolkit generates a suite of over 40 variables describing route characteristics such as distance, travel time, speed statistics, number of intersections, number of turns, number of stop signs/stop lights, and a measure of route circuity, to name a few. The input to the toolkit is one or more routes, which can be obtained from global positioning system (GPS) data or some other means (e.g., shortest path). While the toolkit is designed to support route choice modeling by generating variables that have been tested in previous modeling efforts, we demonstrate its utility by testing the hypothesis that workers choose routes to minimize either travel time or distance between home and work. A GPS-enhanced data set of 237 observed routes for home-to-work trips collected for auto drivers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is used in our analysis. We find that the null hypothesis is refuted - that is, a comparison of observed routes to their shortest-path alternatives based on time and distance via inferential statistics indicates that observed routes are significantly longer compared to their alternatives. This finding suggests that workers may choose routes based on other route attributes. The attributes generated by the RCA toolkit for observed, shortest time, and shortest distance routes are compared and significant differences are noted.     

EU network carriers,low cost carriers and consumer behaviour: A Delphi study of future trends

This paper uses a Delphi panel of 26 air transport experts to forecast the structure of air transport in the EU in 2015 in respect of network carriers, low cost airlines and passenger behaviour. Secondary research was used to construct a number of scenarios about the future structure and strategy of EU network and low cost airlines and also traveller behaviour. Consensus of opinions was sought amongst the panel in a two-round process. The consensus opinion of the Delphi experts was that; network carrier consolidation will reduce EU players to less than five, there will be only two or three large low cost carriers, Business Class products will disappear on short hauls, and leisure travellers will take an increasing number of multiple short-duration holidays.     

Airport selection criteria of low-cost carriers: A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

The selection of airport is an important consideration for low-cost carriers (LCCs) to remain cost competitive. The objective of this study is to identify and rank the airport selection criteria of LCCs. Based on reviewing the existing literature, five main factors comprising 16 sub-factors were developed. The factors were first validated by three industry experts from the aviation industry. Thereafter, a survey questionnaire requiring a comparison of the factors was administered on 28 executives who were involved in the strategy planning and formulation of LCCs based in China or Korea. The collected data were analysed using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). In descending order of their importance, the main factors influencing LCCs' selection of airport are (1) airport charges, (2) airport performance, (3) airport growth opportunities, (4) catchment area and (5) airport infrastructure. The top three sub-factors are airport costs, demand for LCC services and passenger throughput. The research contributes to academic research by providing a holistic assessment of the key considerations influencing LCCs' selection of airport. In addition, it implicates policy formulation of LCCs by providing a framework for assessment of airports that are suitable for LCCs’ operations.     

When legacy carriers converge with low-cost carriers: Exploring the fusion of European airline business models through a case-based analysis

The paper makes uses of cognitive mappings developed from personal interviews with a number of European airline executives to examine the differences in managerial attitudes of low-cost and transitional carriers. In particular it explores the extent to which there is a convergence of views regarding the ways various airline models will develop in the future.     

A Linear Programming approach for robust network revenue management in the airline industry

The classical revenue management problem consists of allocating a fixed network capacity to different customer classes, so as to maximize revenue. This area has been widely applied in service industries that are characterized by a fixed perishable capacity, such as airlines, cruises, hotels, etc.It is traditionally assumed that demand is uncertain, but can be characterized as a stochastic process (See Talluri and van Ryzin (2005) for a review of the revenue management models). In practice, however, airlines have limited demand information and are unable to fully characterize demand stochastic processes. Robust optimization methods have been proposed to overcome this modeling challenge. Under robust optimization framework, demand is only assumed to lie within a polyhedral uncertainty set (Lan et al. (2008); Perakis and Roels (2010)).In this paper, we consider the multi-fare, network revenue management problem for the case demand information is limited (i.e. the only information available is lower/upper bounds on demand). Under this interval uncertainty, we characterize the robust optimal booking limit policy by use of minimax regret criterion. We present an LP (Linear Programming) solvable mathematical program for the maximum regret so our model is able to solve large-scale problems for practical use. A genetic algorithm is proposed to find the booking limit control to minimize the maximum regret. We provide computational experiments and compare our methods to existing ones. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our robust approach.     

Study of the topology and robustness of airline route networks from the complex network approach: a survey and research agenda

Communication via air routes is an important issue in a world organized around a web city network. In this context, the robustness of network infrastructures, e.g. air transport networks, are a central issue in transport geography. Disruption of communication links by intentional causes (e.g., terrorist attack on an airport) or unintentional (e.g., weather inclemency) could be crucial for countries, regions and even the airlines affected themselves. Policymakers and the management of airlines and alliances should be able to reduce the effects of such interruptions in order to ensure good communication through air transport (i.e., maximize the robustness of their network at a reasonable cost). The literature review of the study of air transport route networks through an analysis of complex networks has highlighted a lack of contributions to the study of the topology and the robustness of such networks which contrasts, with advances undertaken for other transport networks or communication systems. This survey suggests areas in which research should be undertaken, based on the existing literature in other areas and from three different perspectives: global route networks, airline alliances, airlines and airports so as to help towards a better understanding of air traffic and, therefore, to be able to assess the potential damage of any airport being inoperative for a continent, country or airline.     

Evaluation of land-use and transport network effects on cyclists' route choices in the Copenhagen Region in value-of-distance space

Growing interest in sustainable transportation systems has driven decision-makers toward policies and investments aimed at promoting cycling, but little to no effort has been made toward incorporating bicycle transport in transport planning models. This study contributes toward this direction by estimating a bicycle route choice model in value-of-distance space from a large sample of 3384 cycling trips that were traced with GPS devices in the Copenhagen Region. The novelty of this study lies in (i) observing cyclists' behavior in a cycling-oriented country, (ii) exploiting rich data about the cycling environment, (iii) estimating the model in value-of-distance rather than preference space, and (iv) not focusing only on preferences for traditional variables (e.g., distance, turns, hilliness, intersections, motorized road characteristics), but also on perceptions and preferences for bicycle facilities (e.g., bicycle lanes, bicycle paths, bicycle traces) and land-use designations (e.g., residential, industrial, sports, scenic areas). The findings from the model show that: (i) cyclists exhibit heterogeneous preferences for avoiding right and left turns, cycling the wrong way, using roundabouts and bridges, and cycling alongside residential and scenic areas; (ii) cyclists dislike cycling on unpaved and hilly surfaces and alongside larger roads; (iii) cyclists have clear perceptions about different types of bicycle facilities, with a preference for bicycle lanes and segregated paths; (iv) cyclists have clear perceptions about land-use designations, with a preference for cycling alongside sports and scenic areas; (v) time-of-day and air temperature contribute to the perceptions of cyclists and their preferences for bicycle facilities and land-use designations.     

Determinants of flight delays at East Asian airports from an airport,route and network perspective

Previous studies on determinants of flight delays have been limited to the attributes of departure and arrival airports and routes and experiences in North America and Europe. This research extends the existing discussions by considering a network perspective to explore East Asian airports. A total of 4611 routes among 318 airports in the second half of 2017 are analyzed using panel data regressions. Results show that the attributes of airports and routes linked with the departure and arrival airports of a flight are the essential determinants of flight delays in East Asia. However, the congestion internalization and hubness effect of departure and arrival airports suggested in previous research are not observed in this region. The associations of slot control levels and route attributes with delays are varying between airports inside and outside China and domestic and international routes. This research supplements a new perspective to understand the determinants of flight delays in existing literature and provides a rarely observed knowledge to encourage East Asian airport operators and carriers developing management strategies for minimizing flight delays.     

铁路企业的信息化建设与服务过程管理探索

信息化建设是一个复杂的课题，它涉及到企业的管理体制、人员分工、业务流程等许多具体内容。企业完成一个信息化项目一般需要经过调研与需求分析、详细设计、软件开发和应用测试等5个步骤，在这引些开发建设的实际环节中需要企业与建设方的相互了解和协调配合，为此根据信息化建设和过程管理的实践，对企业和项目建设方在每个开发步骤中的作用和要求进行了分析论述。     

Concentration,productivity and profitability in the Italian commercial accommodation sector

This study avails itself of the Aida data bank from which were taken the accounting data for the 2,518 limited companies active in the Italian accommodation sector in the years 2000–2006. The research aims at describing the structural characteristics and the competitive advantages of the Italian accommodation sector. The Italian position as leader would seem to be threatened by the entry into the market place of new‐comer countries. Understanding the sector's industrial organisation would appear to be a particularly important step towards the implementation of an effective policy for the industry. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation analysis of factors affecting air route connection in China

In order to explore the impacts of various factors on air route connection, a probability model is constructed to simulate the Chinese airline network (CAN) in 2010, and the influences of tertiary industry output, degree and the spatial distance between two navigable cities on the analog results are discussed. Our research shows that, the opening of an air route is not completely determined by the potential air passenger flow of it, although the latter is playing a leading role. In addition, the connection probability of an air route is significantly affected by the tertiary industry outputs and degrees of corresponding two navigable cities, but little influenced by the spatial distance between them. Moreover, scale economies effect obtained from the increasing of degree is apparently greater than that brought by the developing of social economy, so CAN is more inclined to evolve into a hub-and-spoke network.     

An analysis of drivers route choice behaviour using GPS data and optimal alternatives

This work aims to study drivers' route choices using a dataset of low frequency GPS coordinates to identify travels' trajectories. The sample consists of 89 drivers who performed 42 thousand paths in the province of Reggio Emilia, in Italy, during the seventeen considered months. Four attributes that may be important for the driver are identified and four optimal alternative paths are created based on the selected objectives to evaluate route choice behaviour. The comparison between the characteristics of the paths allows to conclude that drivers select routes that are overall longer than their optimal alternatives but that allow for higher speeds. Furthermore the statistical analysis of drivers' route choices in macroareas evidences that drivers have different behaviours depending on the geography of the territory. Specifically, there is higher heterogeneity of route choices in the plain areas compared to the mountains. In the second part of this work, clusters of repetitive travels are identified and a Geographical Route Directness Index is proposed to identify the areas of the province where the deviation from the shortest alternative path is higher. The analysis shows that, among groups of repetitive travels, the value of the index is higher along the ring road of the city of Reggio Emilia and there is a strong negative correlation between the frequency the driver selects the longer alternative that allow for higher speed, and the number of additional kilometres the same driver has to travel.     

Logistics global network connectivity and its determinants. A European City network analysis

The Globalization and World City Research Network classifies global cities according to their connectivity through advanced producer service activities. Recent studies have suggested there is scope to develop a new classification of cities based on advanced logistics services. Within this framework, the aim of this paper is twofold: (i) to develop an interlocking Logistics Global Network for advanced logistics in Europe and measure the Logistics Global Network Connectivity (LGNC) of the host cities; (ii) to explore the variables explaining each the cities' score on the LGNC. The aim is achieved by means of a mixed methodological approach based on Taylor's Interlocking Network Model and via econometric analysis through Ordinary Least Square regression (OLS).     

Interregional trade network analysis for road freight transport in Greece

This paper suggests a flexible decision support framework for the strategic planning of a freight transport hub network in Greece. The proposed methodology treats practical aspects related to the optimal number, location and geographical covering of hubs, through the network analysis of interregional trade, based on original survey data for road freight flows during 2004–2012. The results offer insights into the hierarchical structure of the network and related investment priorities, as the hub role of a prefecture is found to be strongly influenced by high population densities and manufacturing specialization, and its location along highway corridors.     

Relevance research of threat/ error and undesired states in air traffic management based on Bayesian Network Model

We have realized that the quantitative analysis of safety data is an advanced technology of unsafely events research. Based on the analysis and statistical research on Air Traffic Control irregular events of 2011 using The Threat and Error Management (TEM) model, we have established the Bayesian network model to perform a precise quantitative analysis on the relevance between the threat, error and undesired states in Air Traffic Control operation. This analysis, based on the prior probability, obtained the relevance of the three kinds of safety information above through studying the respective posterior probabilities of threats or errors under undesired states. The result showed that the relevance of controller communication error and undesired states was 75%, and the relevance of Air Traffic Control threats as well as communication error with undesired states in Air Traffic Control was 13.3% and 25%, respectively. Therefore, this research method is of great significance for improving the mechanism of the Air Traffic Control operation risk management.     

Evolving competition between low-cost carriers and full-service carriers: The case of South Korea

This study explores the impact of domestic low-cost carriers (LCCs) on regional tourism and aviation industries. In particular, it articulates the changing competitive dynamics between LCCs and full-service carriers (FSCs). The Lotka-Volterra (LV) model, utilising the newly proposed moving-window concept, is used for the assessment of the influence of LCCs on the South Korean and airline industry. Analysis results demonstrate that the competitive dynamics between LCCs and FSCs are not static and have evolved over time. The study proposes an efficient and effective change analysis and enables strategic planning for aviation industries.     

Route churn: an analysis of low-cost carrier route continuity in Europe

Discontinuity of air routes is a subject that has been analysed in various ways. For example, the complex network approach focuses on network robustness and resilience due to route interruptions during a relatively short period. Also seasonal interruptions of air routes are a well-documented phenomenon in the context of demand variability. However, only recently discussions emerge on the more permanent cessation of air routes, the route churn. Today, European low-cost carriers frequently apply route churn in their networks. To enable early route churn detection in these networks, a regression model is developed in which route characteristics explain the churning likelihood of individual routes. The results of the econometric analysis show that churn rates are higher during an economic downturn, within the Eastern European market, between the Eastern and the Mediterranean market and between primary airports. In addition, we find that distance and the number of seats offered have a significant negative effect on the churn likelihood. The results also show significant effects of market share, seasonality and route age on the chance of cessation. To conclude, the paper demonstrates substantial differences in churn behaviour amongst specific low-cost carriers.