Multi-Stage Formation Flight Planning

This thesis investigates the concept of fuel-reduction via formation flight of long-haul commercial aircraft on a network-wide scale, particularly addressing the issue of combinatorial complexity in global formation routing and allocation. A multi-stage formation flight planning (MS-FFLIP) tool is proposed as a computationally tractable approach...

Modelling Network Contribution Under Changing Capacity For A Hub & Spoke Carrier

The main characteristic of a hub-and-spoke network is that many passengers will reach their final destination via a connection at the hub, instead of a direct flight in case of a point-to-point network. An airline operating such a hub-and-spoke network thus has a significant ratio of transfer passengers on its flights. This means that each...

Robust fleet planning under stochastic demand

The research objective of this thesis is to develop an innovative airline fleet planning concept that is capable to consider the long-term stochastic nature of air travel demand while generating meaningful results in reasonable computation times. The proposed methodology aims to identify robust fleets, in terms of profit generating capability...

Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation of Safety and Resilience in Air Transportation

Purpose: In order to improve the safety, capacity, economy, and sustainability of air transportation, revolutionary changes are required. These changes might range from the introduction of new technology and operational procedures to unprecedented roles of human operators and the way they interact. Implementing such changes can introduce both...

Inclusion of noise-related constraints in departure procedure optimization

The ever-increasing use of aircraft, together with the on-going urbanization causes increasing noise nuisance due to aviation. This is attenuated by the positioning of airports close to densely populated areas. For this reason the majority of the large airports in the world indicate that noise is one of the limiting factors in the expansion of...

A Low Emissions Taxi Movement Planning Tool

The goal of this research project was to develop and test an online, automated taxi movement planning tool, that optimizes the timed taxiing routes of all aircraft on an airport, by minimizing the impact on the environment. Automatic taxi planning tools have been developed before, but the emissions have never been included before as a factor in...

Classifying sediments on Dutch riverbeds using multi-beam echo-sounder systems

The economic importance of the Dutch rivers is very high as they are heavily used for inland waterway transport between the Netherlands and their neighbouring countries. A minimum depth must be guaranteed to keep the rivers navigable but also to ensure that the ships can carry maximum cargo. An attractive system for obtaining information about...

Heliport Gorinchem - Designing an Aerial Logistic Network

The Dutch city of Gorinchem has great economic growth opportunities for the future, but is limited by its transport system. It is strategically located at a crossroad of two motorways and two rivers, the Boven-Merwede and the Linge. Gorinchem is home to a number of multinationals, among others Damen Shipyards and Van Oord. This sets the right...

Stochastic simulation of delay propagation: Improving schedule stability at Kenya Airways

A large challenge for passenger airlines is the design of a profitable flight schedule, for example at Kenya Airways who operates a highly connected hub-and-spoke network. The goal of this research is create a fundamental insight into the stochastic nature of delay propagation in a passenger hub-and-spoke network which allows airlines to...

Value-leverage by Aerospace Original Equipment Manufacturers

With the creation of new aircraft products; Embraer E-170/190, Dassault 7X, Airbus A380 and Boeing B787, aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) involve suppliers not only with the co-production of aircraft sub systems, but also with the entire development of sub systems, like fuselage and wings. Hence, the value to create and produce...

Developing a Decision-Support-Tool for an Air Taxi Service in Western Europe

This paper is a research proposal to develop a tool to analyze logistic concepts of the air taxi service of Aeolus Aviation in different scenarios. Based on this analysis recommendations can be done for a suitable logistic concept for Aeolus. Based on background analysis of the air taxi service three objectives are formulated; analyzing the air...