System Analysis and Modelling in Air Transport: Demand, Capacity, Quality of Services, Economic, and Sustainability

This book presents a comprehensive analysis and modelling of demand,  capacity, quality of services, economics, and sustainability of the air  transport system and its main components - - airports, airlines, and  ATC/ATM (Air Traffic Control/Management). Airports consist of the  airside and landside area characterized by their capacities for handling  demand such as aircraft, air passengers, and air freight/cargo  shipments. Regarding spatial configuration, airlines generally operate  hub-and-spoke (conventional or legacy airlines) and point-to-point (LCCs  - Low Cost Carriers) air route networks. Their fleets consisting of  different aircraft types provide transport capacity for serving demand  including air passengers and freight/cargo shipments. The ATC/ATM  includes the controlled airspace, traffic management and control  facilities and equipment on the ground, space, and on board aircraft,  and the ATC Controllers). They all provide capacity to handle demand  consisting of the flights between origin and destination airports  carried out by airline aircraft. The outcome from the interrelationships  between demand and capacity at these components materializes as the  quality of services. At airports and airlines this is generally  expressed by congestion and delays of aircraft, air passengers, and  freight/cargo shipments. At ATC/ATM, this is expressed by delays,  horizontal and vertical in-efficiency, and safety of flights. Economics  of each component relate to its revenues, costs, and profits from  handling demand, i.e., providing services of given quality. The  sustainability of air transport system has become increasingly important  issue for many internal and external actors/stakeholders involved to  deal with. This has implied increasing the system’s overall  social-economic effects/benefits while reducing or maintaining constant  impacts/costs on the environment and society at both global and  regional/local scale under conditions of continuous medium- to long term  growth.