Graham Tanner

Towards superior air transport performance metrics – imperatives and methods

In order to improve air traffic management service delivery, we need to better characterise and measure performance, through improved metrics. The authors introduce complexity science and illustrate examples of the additional metrics it may bring to air traffic management. The authors show how exploring metric variability is preferred to focusing on central tendency. The importance of embracing passenger-centricity is demonstrated. The first results of applying complexity science techniques to the characterisation of actual European passenger trip itineraries are presented, investigating network topologies and vulnerabilities. It is anticipated that on-going work will further contribute to existing research demonstrating the differences between flight-centric and passenger-centric metrics, establishing the better alignment of the latter with key high-level policies in Europe. The specific metric contributions from complexity science remain to be fully proven – although the initial evidence is encouraging.

A Quantitative Exploration of Flight Prioritisation Principles, using New Delay Costs

New costs of delay to the airline are presented for a range of aircraft and by phase of flight. It is shown how these costs may be suitable for cost optimisations during flight prioritisation decision-making. Desirable properties of prioritisation procedures are benchmarked against taxation principles. It is shown that Maximum Take-Off Weights, historically established as a charging mechanism in air transport, could actually be used in the context of determining flight prioritisations. Using non-linear delay costs is superior to the use of delay minutes in such optimisations and often produces more equitable solutions. Issues regarding the scale of solutions sought (e.g. by several flights or a whole network), and the implementation of truly dynamic cost optimisation, both require further research.