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Is the boarding process on the critical path of the airplane turn-around?

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  • Neumann, Simone

Abstract

One of the effects of increasing cost pressure in airline industry is that airlines strive to realize short turn-around times, i.e., to let the airplanes stay at the gates between flights only as long as necessary. Associated with this is the reduction of the airplane boarding time, which accounts for a large part of the turn-around time. Most of the scientific literature in this area assumes that the boarding process is on the critical path of the turn-around, at least in sufficiently many cases, and hence has a crucial influence on the delay of a flight. The aim of this study is to analyze this assumption empirically. In a field study, we manually collected data of short- and medium-haul flights at a large European airport and analyzed them by performing statistical hypothesis testing. Our results indicate that boarding is on the critical path of the airplane turn-around. Hence, when aiming to reduce the cost of a flight by minimizing delays, optimizing the boarding time and the processes that are related to the boarding procedure is reasonable and thus recommended to the airlines.

Suggested Citation

  • Neumann, Simone, 2019. "Is the boarding process on the critical path of the airplane turn-around?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(1), pages 128-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:277:y:2019:i:1:p:128-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2019.02.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eitan Bachmat & Daniel Berend & Luba Sapir & Steven Skiena & Natan Stolyarov, 2009. "Analysis of Airplane Boarding Times," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 499-513, April.
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    5. Nyquist, David C. & McFadden, Kathleen L., 2008. "A study of the airline boarding problem," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 197-204.
    6. Menkes H. L. van den Briel & J. René Villalobos & Gary L. Hogg & Tim Lindemann & Anthony V. Mulé, 2005. "America West Airlines Develops Efficient Boarding Strategies," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 191-201, June.
    7. Zeineddine, Hassan, 2017. "A dynamically optimized aircraft boarding strategy," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 144-151.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ren, Xinhui & Zhou, Xiyu & Xu, Xiaobing, 2020. "A new model of luggage storage time while boarding an airplane: An experimental test," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Erland, Sveinung & Bachmat, Eitan & Steiner, Albert, 2024. "Let the fast passengers wait: Boarding an airplane takes shorter time when passengers with the most bin luggage enter first," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 317(3), pages 748-761.
    3. Fabrin, Bruna H.P. & Ferrari, Denise B. & Arraut, Eduardo M. & Neumann, Simone, 2024. "Towards balancing efficiency and customer satisfaction in airplane boarding: An agent-based approach," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 12(C).

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