IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v127y2019icp32-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving slot allocation at Level 3 airports

Author

Listed:
  • Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes
  • Jacquillat, Alexandre
  • Antunes, António Pais
  • Odoni, Amedeo

Abstract

Most of the busiest airports outside the United States, including the major connecting hubs, are classified as Level 3. At these airports, airlines need to be assigned slots by a schedule coordinator to schedule flights. Slot allocation is driven by a set of rules and priorities specified in the Worldwide Slot Guidelines (WSG) published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The process and rules for slot allocation at Level 3 airports carry enormous economic and regulatory implications for the global air transport sector. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing quest for improvements to the process that can be realistically implemented in practice. For that purpose, we have developed an optimization model, fully compliant with the WSG, for allocating airport slots to airlines and applied it at a few airports of varying sizes in Portugal, in order to compare the slot allocations performed by the coordinators with the best possible slot allocations under a variety of objectives and constraints, as well as to assess the impacts of potential changes to the WSG. The results obtained show that some even limited changes to the WSG can, on their own, bring considerable benefits in the short term to the slot allocation process. We have also identified and summarized a number of other potential changes to the WSG, with potential to make the slot allocation process even more efficient, fair, transparent and inclusive.

Suggested Citation

  • Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Antunes, António Pais & Odoni, Amedeo, 2019. "Improving slot allocation at Level 3 airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 32-54.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:127:y:2019:i:c:p:32-54
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2019.06.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856418304804
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2019.06.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacquillat, Alexandre & Odoni, Amedeo R., 2015. "Endogenous control of service rates in stochastic and dynamic queuing models of airport congestion," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 133-151.
    2. Gillen, David & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Odoni, Amedeo R., 2016. "Airport demand management: The operations research and economics perspectives and potential synergies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 495-513.
    3. Fukui, Hideki, 2014. "Effect of slot trading on route-level competition: Evidence from experience in the UK," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 124-141.
    4. Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Antunes, António Pais & Odoni, Amedeo R. & Pita, João P., 2018. "An optimization approach for airport slot allocation under IATA guidelines," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 132-156.
    5. Konstantinos G. Zografos & Michael A. Madas & Konstantinos N. Androutsopoulos, 2017. "Increasing airport capacity utilisation through optimum slot scheduling: review of current developments and identification of future needs," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 3-24, February.
    6. Alexandre Jacquillat & Amedeo R. Odoni, 2015. "An Integrated Scheduling and Operations Approach to Airport Congestion Mitigation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1390-1410, December.
    7. Nikolas Pyrgiotis & Amedeo Odoni, 2016. "On the Impact of Scheduling Limits: A Case Study at Newark Liberty International Airport," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(1), pages 150-165, February.
    8. Pellegrini, Paola & Bolić, Tatjana & Castelli, Lorenzo & Pesenti, Raffaele, 2017. "SOSTA: An effective model for the Simultaneous Optimisation of airport SloT Allocation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 34-53.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jorge, Diana & Antunes Ribeiro, Nuno & Pais Antunes, António, 2021. "Towards a decision-support tool for airport slot allocation: Application to Guarulhos (Sao Paulo, Brazil)," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Katsigiannis, Fotios A. & Zografos, Konstantinos G., 2021. "Optimising airport slot allocation considering flight-scheduling flexibility and total airport capacity constraints," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 50-87.
    3. Katsigiannis, Fotios A. & Zografos, Konstantinos G., 2023. "Incorporating slot valuation in making airport slot scheduling decisions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 436-454.
    4. Yang, Huijuan & Buire, Clara & Delahaye, Daniel & Le, Meilong, 2024. "A heuristic-based multi-objective flight schedule generation framework for airline connectivity optimisation in bank structure: An empirical study on Air China in Chengdu," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    5. Keskin, Merve & Zografos, Konstantinos G., 2023. "Optimal network-wide adjustments of initial airport slot allocations with connectivity and fairness objectives," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    6. Pouget, Lilian & Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes & Odoni, Amedeo R. & Antunes, António Pais, 2023. "How do airlines react to slot displacements? Evidence from a major airport," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cavusoglu, Sabriye Sera & Macário, Rosário, 2021. "Minimum delay or maximum efficiency? Rising productivity of available capacity at airports: Review of current practice and future needs," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Till Kösters & Marlena Meier & Gernot Sieg, 2023. "Effects of the use-it-or-lose-it rule on airline strategy and climate," Working Papers 36, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.
    3. Nuno Antunes Ribeiro & Alexandre Jacquillat & António Pais Antunes, 2019. "A Large-Scale Neighborhood Search Approach to Airport Slot Allocation," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 1772-1797, November.
    4. Keskin, Merve & Zografos, Konstantinos G., 2023. "Optimal network-wide adjustments of initial airport slot allocations with connectivity and fairness objectives," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    5. Androutsopoulos, Konstantinos N. & Madas, Michael A., 2019. "Being fair or efficient? A fairness-driven modeling extension to the strategic airport slot scheduling problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 37-60.
    6. Donghai Wang & Qiuhong Zhao, 2020. "A Simultaneous Optimization Model for Airport Network Slot Allocation under Uncertain Capacity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-14, July.
    7. Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Antunes, António Pais & Odoni, Amedeo R. & Pita, João P., 2018. "An optimization approach for airport slot allocation under IATA guidelines," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 132-156.
    8. Li, Max Z. & Ryerson, Megan S., 2019. "Reviewing the DATAS of aviation research data: Diversity, availability, tractability, applicability, and sources," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 111-130.
    9. Sheng, Dian & Li, Zhi-Chun & Fu, Xiaowen, 2019. "Modeling the effects of airline slot hoarding behavior under the grandfather rights with use-it-or-lose-it rule," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 48-61.
    10. Androutsopoulos, Konstantinos N. & Manousakis, Eleftherios G. & Madas, Michael A., 2020. "Modeling and solving a bi-objective airport slot scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 135-151.
    11. Jorge, Diana & Antunes Ribeiro, Nuno & Pais Antunes, António, 2021. "Towards a decision-support tool for airport slot allocation: Application to Guarulhos (Sao Paulo, Brazil)," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    12. Katsigiannis, Fotios A. & Zografos, Konstantinos G., 2021. "Optimising airport slot allocation considering flight-scheduling flexibility and total airport capacity constraints," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 50-87.
    13. Hu, Rong & Feng, Huilin & Witlox, Frank & Zhang, Junfeng & Connor, Kevin O., 2022. "Airport capacity constraints and air traffic demand in China," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    14. Wang, Chun-Han & Zhang, Wenzhu & Dai, Yue & Lee, Yu-Ching, 2022. "Frequency competition among airlines on coordinated airports network," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(2), pages 484-495.
    15. Zografos, Konstantinos G. & Androutsopoulos, Konstantinos N. & Madas, Michael A., 2018. "Minding the gap: Optimizing airport schedule displacement and acceptability," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 203-221.
    16. Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Liu, Shaoxuan & Wang, Kun & Yan, Jia, 2020. "On-time performance policy in the Chinese aviation market - An innovation or disruption?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 14-23.
    17. Ziming Wang & Chaohao Liao & Xu Hang & Lishuai Li & Daniel Delahaye & Mark Hansen, 2022. "Distribution Prediction of Strategic Flight Delays via Machine Learning Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    18. Lambelho, Miguel & Mitici, Mihaela & Pickup, Simon & Marsden, Alan, 2020. "Assessing strategic flight schedules at an airport using machine learning-based flight delay and cancellation predictions," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    19. Birolini, Sebastian & Jacquillat, Alexandre, 2023. "Day-ahead aircraft routing with data-driven primary delay predictions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(1), pages 379-396.
    20. Jacquillat, Alexandre & Odoni, Amedeo R., 2018. "A roadmap toward airport demand and capacity management," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 168-185.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:127:y:2019:i:c:p:32-54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.