Airline schedules planning and route development

Abstract

The airline’s scheduling process is intended to provide a plan on the operating patterns of the companies’ aircraft and their resources, to meet the anticipated demand. The schedules’ plans are usually based on one season only. However, they should be integrated into long-term corporate plans, as the latter plan specify the fleets’ and other operational requirements. The main reason behind the short-term nature of the schedules plan is the unpredictable economic environment in which airlines operate. For this reason, this chapter provides an introduction to the schedules planning process, as it describes its conflicting objectives, including; customer satisfaction, productivity of human resources, high aircraft utilisation, high load factors, high frequency, maximisation of connections and consistent timing. It deliberates on scheduling constraints, including: slot problems; night curfews; industry regulations; pool agreements and peak surcharges; maintenance requirements, standby arrangements and general operational requirements; as it specifies about slot allocations, frequencies and resources, among other issues. Afterwards, this contribution also deals with the major routing patterns which are often considered during the scheduling process.