Luigi La Franca

Travelling towards and from minor islands through non-conventional air transport: demand and cost analysis

This research addresses the role of innovative forms of passenger air transport in favouring the mobility of tourists visiting minor islands. In particular, we studied the feasibility of scheduled transport services using a helicopter and a seaplane for rapidly connecting Sicily in the south of Italy to the near and very attractive Eolie Islands. In order to estimate the potential service demand, we allowed for the number of tourists arriving in the Eolie Archipelago during the period 1999-2008. In detail, we considered only the market of visitors with a high willingness-to-pay for time savings (individuals choosing superior hotels) coming from origins at least 300 km away from the Eolie Islands. Furthermore, we excluded a quota of travellers not disposed to flying, determined on the basis of a previous study about air transport demand. We also considered as potential users of the proposed transport services a percentage of the Eolie Isles’ population that was set according to a recent study about the use of air transport by Sicilian residents. The resulting observations were employed to estimate forecasts through an ARIMA model. After a technical analysis to identify the types of helicopter and seaplane suited to implementing regular transport services, we performed a cost analysis concerning the proposed non-conventional air transport services (taking into account fixed, variable, trading and financial costs). In particular, based on the ARIMA model demand forecasts, we determined the service supply (daily frequency and number of aircrafts) in the different cases and evaluated the related total cost per passenger. At the final step, we compared the helicopter and seaplane options with the various existing transport alternatives that can be used to get to the Eolie Islands

Simulation-Based Study to Quantify Data-Communication Benefits in Congested Airport Terminal Area

The scope of this study was to evaluate the impact of the air traffic controller-to-pilot communication standard known as CPDLC or Data-Communication on the future air traffic operations. The impact was evaluated from the double prospective of airport delays and air traffic controllers workload. RAMS simulation software is used to perform all the runs and from its output data the values of terminal area delays and controllers workload are extrapolated. The New York Metroplex terminal area was used as the case study. Because of its complexity, where three major airports (i.e. JFK, Newark, and La Guardia) interact and constraint each other, this area was particularly interesting to be studied and the data analyzed gave a valuable insight on the possible future impact of Data-Communication in congested terminal areas. The results of the study, based on some previous man-in-the-loop simulations performed by the FAA in the nineties, showed that significant potential benefits could be obtained with the complete implementation of such technologies in the workload experienced by air traffic controllers. Moreover some small but not negligible benefits were obtained in the total delays accrued by each airport studied. On the other hand, the simulations of the future demand predicted by the FAA demonstrated that without a significant increment in capacity or limitation on the traffic growth intolerable delays would be recorded across the NAS in the future. For the complexity of the simulation model calibration and for the very time-consuming run time not all the scenarios described in the methodology were tested, demonstrating the weakness of RAMS as a ground simulation model.

Sustainable Mobility Planning in the Tourist Centres: the Estimation of Transport Demand

This paper on sustainable mobility planning in tourist centers is from the proceedings of 14th international Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment in the 21st Century, which was held in Malta in 2008. The authors focus on estimating the potential non-motorized transport demand and to design the supply of sustainable modes of transportation, including public transit, bicycling and walking. The authors use the tourist area of San Vito Lo Capo, the famous historical and swimming center of Sicily, as a case example. They conducted a stated preference survey in June-July 2006 to evaluate the potential demand of non-motorized transport modes, primarily bicycling, then calibrated a multinomial logit model from the findings. The model supports the use of a framework to design bicycle paths based on the potential demand of cycling. They conclude by briefly listing some critical factors that can influence the viability of the bicycling mode: the availability of separated cycle lanes, the rental service costs, the integration of bicycling with other modes, bicycle storage facilities at Transit/Railway stations, and the accessibility of bicycling paths.