European route choice determinants

Different charging zones are found within European airspace. This allows airlines to select different routes between origin and destination that have different lengths and en-route charges. There is a trade- off between the shortest available route and other routes that might have different charges. This paper analyses the routes submitted by airlines to be operated on a given day and compares the associated costs of operating those routes with the shortest available at the time, in terms of en-route charges and fuel consumption. The flights are characterised by different variables with the idea of identifying a behaviour or pattern based on the airline or flight characteristics. Results show that in some areas of the European airspace there might be an incentive to select a longer route, leading to both a lower charge and a lower total cost. However, more variables need to be considered and other techniques used, such as factor analysis, to be able to identify the behaviour within an airline category.

Controller Time and Delay Costs - a Trade-off Analysis

Air traffic controller shortages remain a significant challenge in European ATM. Comparing different rules, we quantify the cost effectiveness of adding controller hours to Area Control Centre regulations to avert the delay cost impact on airlines. Typically, adding controller hours results in a net benefit. Distributions of delay duration and aircraft weight play an important role in determining the total cost of a regulation. Errors are likely to be incurred when analysing performance based on average delay values, particularly at the disaggregate level.