A new model for airport passenger segmentation

Recent changes in the aviation industry and in the expectations of travellers have begun to alter the way we approach our understanding, and thus the segmentation, of airport passengers. The key to successful segmentation of any population lies in the selection of the criteria on which the partitions are based. Increasingly, the basic criteria used to segment passengers (purpose of trip and frequency of travel) no longer provide adequate insights into the passenger experience. In this paper, we propose a new model for passenger segmentation based on the passenger core value, time. The results are based on qualitative research conducted in-situ at Brisbane International Terminal during 2012-2013. Based on our research, a relationship between time sensitivity and degree of passenger engagement was identified. This relationship was used as the basis for a new passenger segmentation model, namely: Airport Enthusiast (engaged, non time sensitive); Time Filler (non engaged, non time sensitive); Efficiency Lover (non engaged, time sensitive) and Efficient Enthusiast (engaged, time sensitive). The outcomes of this research extend the theoretical knowledge about passenger experience in the terminal environment. These new insights can ultimately be used to optimise the allocation of space for future terminal planning and design.

The future passenger experience: A shift from physical to virtual design

The importance of passenger experience in aviation has become well understood in the last several years. It is now generally accepted that the provision of good passenger experience is not an option, but a necessity, from an aviation profitability perspective. In this paper, we paint a picture of the future passenger experience by consolidating a number of industry and research perspectives. Using the future passenger experience as a starting point, we explore the components needed to enable this future vision. From this bottom-up approach, we identify the need to resolve data formatting and data ownership issues. The resolution of these data integration issues is necessary to enable the seamless future travel experience that is envisioned by the aviation industry. By looking at the passenger experience from this bottom-up, data centric perspective, we identify a potential shift in the way that future passenger terminals will be designed. Whereas currently the design of terminals is largely an architectural practice, in the near future, the design of the terminal building may become more of a virtual technology practice. This of course will pose a new set of challenges to designers of airport terminal environments.

Deconstructing expected passenger experience in airports

The effect of passenger satisfaction on airport profitability has been widely acknowledged in the aviation industry. As a result, there has been much attention directed towards developing a deeper understanding of the factors that influence the passenger experience. In this paper, we explore passenger experience from a novel perspective - that of the activities expected to be undertaken by passengers while in the airport terminal building. Using the Taxonomy of Passenger Experience (TOPA) as our framework, we look at the pre-travel interview data of 48 participants. The results of our analysis are used to construct an activity-centred account of the expected passenger experience for international departures. Our exploration of the expected passenger experienced revealed that not all of the TOPA activities have an equal impact on the passengers' expected experience. The processing, consumptive, preparatory and queuing activity groups featured most prominently in passengers' accounts of their upcoming airport experiences. Of these, the preparatory category was found to have the most direct impact on passenger satisfaction. Additionally, our analysis indicated that utilising queue time to prepare passengers for upcoming processing activities could have a positive effect on both satisfaction and processing efficiency. A further outcome of this research was the observation that "shopping" did not form a part of the expected experience of any of the interviewed participants. The outcomes of this study can be used by airports to assist in the management of passengers' expected experience in the terminal building. As passenger expectations and passenger satisfaction are intrinsically linked, understanding which activities have the most impact on satisfaction provides a basis from which alternate design choices can be evaluated when constructing, or fine-tuning, airport terminal designs.

Flight-training effect on the cervical muscle isometric strength of trainee pilots

External stimulus/loading initiates adaptations within skeletal muscle. It has been previously found that the cervical area has the highest loading while performing flying maneuvers under +Gz. The first purpose of this study was to examine the neck muscle response to the physical environment associated with flight training, incorporating limited exposure to +Gz force, in a Pilatus PC-9 aircraft. The second purpose was to examine the short-term range of movement (ROM) response to flight training. Isometric cervical muscle strength and ROM was monitored in 9 RAAF pilots completing an 8-mo flight-training course at Pearce Airbase in Western Australia, and in 10 controls matched for gender, age, height, and weight. Isometric cervical muscle strength and ROM were measured at baseline and at 8 mo using the multi-cervical rehabilitation unit (Hanoun Medical, Downsview, Ontario, Canada). Results indicated that an increase in pilot neck strength was limited to flexion while in a neutral position. No strength changes were recorded in any other site in the pilots or for the controls. These findings suggest that short-term exposure to the physical environment associated with flight training had a limited significant effect on increasing isometric cervical muscle strength. No significant changes were observed in pilot ROM, indicating that short-term exposure to flight does not effect ROM.

Changes in cervical spine bone mineral density in response to flight training

BACKGROUND High magnitude loads and unusual loading regimes are two important determinants for increasing bone mass. Past research demonstrated that positive Gz-induced loading, providing high loads in an unaccustomed manner, had an osteogenic effect on bone. Another determinant of bone mass is that the bone response to loading is site specific. This study sought to further investigate the site specific bone response to loading, examining the cervical spine response, the site suspected of experiencing the greatest loading, to high performance flight. METHODS Bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) was monitored in 9 RAAF trainee fighter pilots completing an 8-mo flight training course on a PC-9 and 10 age-height-weight-matched controls. RESULTS At completion of the course, the pilots had a significant increase in cervical spine BMD and total body BMC. No significant changes were found for the control group. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that the physical environment associated with flight training may have contributed to a significant increase in cervical spine bone mass in the trainee PC-9 pilots. The increase in bone mass was possibly a response to the strain generated by the daily wearing of helmet and mask assembly under the influence of positive sustained accelerative forces.

India’s indigenization of military aircraft design and manufacturing: Towards a fifth-generation fighter

India’s desire to transform itself into an international military power has brought about a rapid shift in its approach to procuring military hardware. The indigenization of India’s military manufacturing capacity forms an integral part of the strategic objectives of Indian military services, with its realization being a function of significant government investment in strategic technologies. This has a number of ramifications. An indigenous Indian military capacity, particularly in the field of aviation, forms a key part of India’s ambition of achieving regional air superiority, or even supremacy, and being capable of power projection. This is particularly in response to China’s increasing presence in South Asian airspace. A burgeoning Indian military manufacturing machine based on a comparative advantage in skilled technicians and lower-cost labour, together with strategic collaboration with foreign military hardware manufacturers, may also lead to neighbouring countries looking to India as a source of competitively priced military hardware. In short, this chapter seeks to analyse the rationale behind India’s attempt to become militarily self-sufficient in the field of aviation, discuss the technical, economic and political context in which it is achieving this transformation, and assess the potential outlook of success for India’s drive to achieve self-sufficiency in the arena of military aviation. This chapter will do so by using the case of India’s attempt to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Design and evaluation of decision and control strategies for autonomous vision-based see and avoid systems

This paper details the design and performance assessment of a unique collision avoidance decision and control strategy for autonomous vision-based See and Avoid systems. The general approach revolves around re-positioning a collision object in the image using image-based visual servoing, without estimating range or time to collision. The decision strategy thus involves determining where to move the collision object, to induce a safe avoidance manuever, and when to cease the avoidance behaviour. These tasks are accomplished by exploiting human navigation models, spiral motion properties, expected image feature uncertainty and the rules of the air. The result is a simple threshold based system that can be tuned and statistically evaluated by extending performance assessment techniques derived for alerting systems. Our results demonstrate how autonomous vision-only See and Avoid systems may be designed under realistic problem constraints, and then evaluated in a manner consistent to aviation expectations.

Boundary crossing: A theoretical framework to understand the operation dynamics of industry-school partnerships

Industry-school partnerships (ISPs) are increasingly being recognised as a new way of providing vocational education opportunities. However, there is limited research investigating their impact on systemic (organisational and structural) and human resource (teachers and education managers) capacity to support school to work transitions. This paper reports on a government led ISP, established by the Queensland state government. ISPs across three industry sectors: minerals and energy; building and construction; and aviation are included in this study. This research adopted a qualitative case study methodology and draws upon boundary crossing theory to understand the dynamics of how each industry sector responded to systemic and human resource issues that emerged in each ISP. The main finding being that the systematic application of boundary crossing mechanisms by all partners pro-duced mutually beneficial outcomes. ISPs from the three sectors adopted different models, leveraged different boundary crossing objects but all maintained the joint vision and mutually agreed outcomes. All three ISPs genuinely crossed boundaries, albeit in different ways, and assisted teachers to co-pro-duce industry-based curriculums, share sector specific knowledge and skills that help enhance the school to work transition for school graduates.

Incident reporting culture in recreational hot air ballooning

Hot air ballooning incidents are relatively rare; however, they have a high potential to be fatal. In order to inform appropriate safety interventions it is first necessary to understand the causal factors which lead to incidents and near-misses, which requires a formal incident report database. The Australian Balloon Federation (ABF) advocates the reporting of recreational hot air ballooning incidents, by reporting directly to the ABF safety officer or by completing an online incident report form. The objective of this paper is to understand how widely used the reporting system is and whether there are any perceived barriers to reporting. Sixty-nine balloonists participated in an online survey about their experience of incident reporting. Survey respondents were mostly male (11 female), experienced balloonists (mean years’ experience ballooning 19.51y with a SD 11.19). Sixty respondents (87%) held a pilot license. The majority (82.6%) of respondents were aware of the ABF incident reporting system. Over half (62.3%) had been involved in a ballooning incident or near-miss in Australia. However, 40% of those who had an incident or near-miss did not report it to the ABF and only 15.9% of all those surveyed had used the online incident report form. There was some disagreement regarding when it was appropriate to report an incident or near miss. Some respondents felt an incident or near miss should only be reported if it resulted in injury or damage, while others said near-misses should also be reported. The most frequent barriers identified were: a lack of understanding of when to report to the ABF; trivializing of incidents; and concerns about the system itself Steps should be taken to increase understanding of the system purpose and long term benefits. Specifically, reporting near-misses should be encouraged. This study is significant because it is the first to examine reporting practices in non-motorised recreational aviation.

The political decisions and policy leading to the Royal Australian Air Force having no fighters or interceptors for the coming war against Japan

The thesis provides an understanding of the ignored need for a modern air defence system for the Australian air force to meet the growing threat from Japan in the 1930s and early 1940s. The quality of advice provided to, and accepted by, Australian politicians was misleading and eliminated the need for fighters and interceptors despite glaring evidence to the contrary. Based on primary source material, including official documents, Allied and Axis pilot memoirs, popular aviation literature and newspaper and magazine articles and interviews, the thesis highlights the inability of Australian politicians to face the reality of the international situation.

Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance: Theory, Regulations and Practice in China

This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the theory, regulations and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance in China. Built on stakeholder and related theories, it employs a demand-and-supply analytical framework to illustrate the development and current status of China’s CSR assurance market. It finds that government agencies, stock exchanges, accounting standard setters and industrial associations have collectively shaped the current regulatory framework on CSR reporting and assurance in China. Regarding demand, differences in the social and legal environments across such a large country influence the regional development of CSR assurance. Industries under intensive CSR regulations and/or social reporting pressure—for example, the finance, aviation and mining industries—more actively achieve CSR report assurance. Regarding supply, the CSR assurance market in China is shared by accounting firms and professional certification bodies. Different assurance standards adopted by the two streams of assurance providers have different foci, potentially leading to different assurance coverage and emphases.

Design and a deep customer insight approach to innovation

This paper proposes and explores the Deep Customer Insight Innovation Framework in order to develop an understanding as to how design can be integrated within existing innovation processes. The Deep Customer Insight Innovation Framework synthesises the work of Beckman and Barry (2007) as a theoretical foundation, with the framework explored within a case study of Australian Airport Corporation seeking to drive airport innovations in operations and retail performance. The integration of a deep customer insight approach develops customer-centric and highly integrated solutions as a function of concentrated problem exploration and design-led idea generation. Businesses’ facing complex innovation challenges or seeking to making sense of future opportunities will be able to integrate design into existing innovation processes, anchoring the new approach between existing market research and business development activities. This paper contributes a framework and novel understanding as to how design methods are integrated into existing innovation processes for operationalization within industry.

When should ballooning incidents be reported?

This article follows on from our previous article in Aeronotes Volume 37 No.2 "Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent: Causal factors of hot air ballooning incidents". While nearly every balloon flight ends safely, with every flight comes the opportunity for an accident. The ABF maintains an incident reporting database containing information on all the accidents and near misses that are reported to them. The goal of the database is to provide a formal way for ABF members to share accident or near miss experiences and prevent future occurrences. We recently analysed the causal factors involved in the incident reports collected by the ABF. Twenty-two incident reports were analysed and 54 causal factors were identified that were reported to play a role in hot air ballooning accidents. While many factors were identified, the findings of this study were limited by the small number of incident reports available from the ABF reporting system...

Artificial Neural Network Based Automatic Emergency Landing Site Selection for UAVs and Highly Automated Aircraft

In this report an artificial neural network (ANN) based automated emergency landing site selection system for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and general aviation (GA) is described. The system aims increase safety of UAV operation by emulating pilot decision making in emergency landing scenarios using an ANN to select a safe landing site from available candidates. The strength of an ANN to model complex input relationships makes it a perfect system to handle the multicriteria decision making (MCDM) process of emergency landing site selection. The ANN operates by identifying the more favorable of two landing sites when provided with an input vector derived from both landing site's parameters, the aircraft's current state and wind measurements. The system consists of a feed forward ANN, a pre-processor class which produces ANN input vectors and a class in charge of creating a ranking of landing site candidates using the ANN. The system was successfully implemented in C++ using the FANN C++ library and ROS. Results obtained from ANN training and simulations using randomly generated landing sites by a site detection simulator data verify the feasibility of an ANN based automated emergency landing site selection system.