AIRPLANE UTILIZATION AND TURN-TIME MODELS PROVIDE USEFUL .

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AIRPLANE UTILIZATIONAND TURN-TIME MODELSPROVIDE USEFULINFORMATION FORSCHEDULE, FLEET, ANDOPER ATIONS PLANNING.

Economic Impact ofAirplane Turn-TimesBy Mansoor MirzaRegional Director,Economic and Financial Analysis GroupOptimizing airplane utilization, which includes efficient airplaneturn-time at the gates, can help an airline maximize the largecapital investment it has made in its airplanes. Efficient airplaneutilization requires close coordination among an airline’s ownfleet planning, schedules planning, passenger reservations,flight operations, ground operations, and airplane maintenancesystems, as well as with air traffic controllers and airportauthorities (see following article, “Improving Ramp/TerminalOperations for Shorter Turn-Times”). Even a small reductionin turnaround time at the gate can produce impressive benefits,particularly for short-haul carriers.Airplane utilization is a key performance indicator forairline operations and a significant differentiatorfor some business models. Airplane utilization isa function of a number of elements, including air plane design features and characteristics, airlinemaintenance programs, airplane technical relia bility, airline business philosophy, market demandcharacteristics, and availability of trained labor.Traditionally, some carriers rely on more effi cient airplane utilization based on point-to-pointservice and faster airplane turnaround at the gate.Improved airplane utilization helps spread fixedownership costs over an increased number oftrips, reducing costs per seat-mile or per trip.W WW.bo ei ng.co m/co m m e r c ia l / a e r om a g a z in eAirplane availability andturn‑timesAirplane availability is the total number of days ina given period, less downtime required for airplanemaintenance. Maintenance check intervals andcheck contents are key drivers for overall main tenance program efficiency, which in turn impactsairplane availability. Airplane systems and com ponents reliability further influence the down timerequired for additional maintenance. Airplane agingalso leads to increased maintenance requirementsand lower airplane availability.For planning purposes, it is useful to convertairplane availability from number of days tonumber of trips. In order to simplify the analysis,assume that the airplane performs all tripsat a specific trip distance. Based on airplaneperformance characteristics, average block time(defined as time from airplane pushback from thegate at origin to arrival at the gate at destination)for the trip can be estimated, using typical missionprofile and speed schedule.15

Average Turn-Time (minutes)airplane availabILITY as a function ofaverage trip distance7,000Figure 1Annual TripsAirplane availability (in terms of number of trips) is quitesensitive to average turn-time for shorter average triplengths. In this graphic, the solid lines represent themaximum number of annual trips for which an airplaneis available as a function of average trip distance usingvarious incremental turn-times. Additional operationalfactors further limit achievable airplane utilization whichis captured in network efficiency factors. The dotted linesrepresent actual airplane utilization: airplane availability(maximum possible trips) multiplied by network efficiency(which is less than 100 percent by 05001,0001,5002,0002,500Average Trip Distance (nautical miles)NETWORK EFFICIENCY IMPACTS AIRPLANEUTILIZATION8%Figure 27%Annual TripsThis graphic shows two examples of how different airlineoperating environments produce different network effi ciency factors. In this example, one airline (orange bars)operates airplanes more intensively between 6 a.m. and10 p.m. but has almost no utilization between 10 p.m.and 6 a.m. Another airline (turquoise bars) distributesdepartures relatively evenly throughout the 24-hour period,resulting in greater network efficiency.6%5%4%3%2%1%Airline A (greater network efficiency) n012345678Airline B nBefore an airplane can make another trip, itmust remain at the gate to allow passengers todisembark, have cargo and baggage unloaded,have the airplane serviced, cargo and baggageloaded, and board passengers for the next trip.Averaged over a number of trips, this time at thegate is defined as average turn-time.A typical hub-and-spoke system requires longerturn-times to allow for synchronization betweenthe feeder network and trunk routes. This enablescarriers to achieve higher load factors. On the169 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23Departure Timeother hand, carriers that typically rely on point-topoint service use a simplified fleet structure, fewerairplane types, and increased airplane utilization.With fewer airplane types, these carriers are betterable to substitute airplanes in the event of anunplanned technical problem with an airplane. Inorder to optimize airplane utilization, point-to-pointcarriers operate with significantly faster turn-timesat the gate. It’s not unusual for a point-to-pointcarrier to operate with turn-times that are halfas long as hub-and-spoke carriers because turntimes influence the number of trips an airplanecan make in a given period of time.Average block time for a given trip distanceplus average turn-time constitutes average elapsedtime per trip for the airplane. Dividing airplaneavailability by average elapsed time for a giventrip distance provides the maximum number oftrips an airplane can complete in any given period.Repeating these calculations for different tripdistances using incremental turn-times in minutesprovides a maximum number of trips for whichan airplane is available, as a function of averagetrip distance (see solid lines in fig. 1).a er o q u a rter ly   q tr 04 08

Operators who would like to take advantage of the costsavings and efficiencies of increased airplane utilizationmay want to start by educating their workforces about thepositive effects of reducing turn-times.Effect of network efficiency onairplane availabilityAirplane availability — maximum number of tripspossible — represents an extreme condition andassumes no other constraints and unlimited trafficdemand. In reality, traffic demand is unequallydistributed around the clock. Lack of traffic demandand nighttime curfews limit airplane utilization atcertain times of the day. Seasonality of demandimplies less intense airplane utilization duringcertain months of the year. Traffic rights, arrival/departure slot restrictions, and other systemW WW.bo ei ng.co m/co m m e r c ia l / a e r om a g a z in elimitations also restrict actual airplane utilization.All these factors combined create the networkefficiency factor. Airplane availability (maximumpossible trips) multiplied by the network efficiencyfactor (being less than 100 percent by definition)gives the actual airplane utilization (see dottedlines in fig. 1).Flight departures may be distributed aroundthe clock in very different ways, depending on thecarrier (see fig. 2). For example, one airline mayoperate airplanes more intensively between 6 a.m.and 10 p.m. but have almost no utilization between10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Another airline may distributedepartures relatively evenly throughout the 24-hourperiod, resulting in a better network efficiencyfactor. This factor varies from operator to operatorand by the business model the airline has adopted.Analysis of actual in-service data — such asannual utilization and average flight length — fora number of operators provides an opportunity tocalibrate and benchmark the network efficiencyfactor for different business models.In figure 1, the actual utilization levels as afunction of average trip distance and turn-time arebased on a 60 percent network efficiency factor,typical for most point-to-point carriers.17

average Turn-Time (minutes)EFFECTS OF TURN-TIME REDUCTIONS ONAIRPLANE UTILIZATION4,000Figure 33040-3,000Annual TripsReducing turn-time by 10 minutes with an average triplength of 500 nautical miles improves airplane utilizationby 8 percent.50-8% e Trip Distance (nautical miles)AIRPLANE UTILIZATION PROFILE4,000Point-to-point carriers have a significant advantage inairplane utilization compared to carriers operating on atypical hub-and-spoke system.3,000Annual TripsFigure 42,0001,000Point-to-Point Carriers nHub-and-Spoke Carriers nReal-world applications ofairplane utilizationAirplane utilization and turn-time models provideuseful information for schedule planning, fleetplanning, operations planning, and economic andfinancial analysis. For example, using the utiliza tion/turn-time model for a point-to-point carrierwith an average turn-time of 40 minutes givesan estimated utilization level of 2,304 tripsper year with an average mission length of500 nautical miles. Reducing the average turn-time185001,0001,5002,0002,500Average Trip Distance (nautical miles)by just 10 minutes — from 40 to 30 minutes —improves the utilization level to 2,491 trips peryear, an increase of 8.1 percent (see fig. 3).This efficiency can enable a carrier to reducethe number of air planes it needs to have in itsfleet to make an equal number of trips.With increased average trip distance, airplaneutilization in terms of flight hours increases butnumber of trips per year decreases, reducing thepotential savings from shorter turn-times. Becauseof their average trip distances, point-to-point car riers can achieve greater airplane utilization thanhub-and-spoke carriers (see fig. 4). The advantageis quite significant at around 20 percent for shortermission lengths (approximately 500 miles) andreduces to about 10 percent for longer missionlengths (approximately 2,000 miles).This increased utilization allows operators todistribute fixed ownership costs over higher num ber of trips, effectively lowering airplane-relatedoperating costs (AROC) compared to hub-and-spokecar riers. Increasing airplane utilization by 20 per cent effectively lowers AROC by about 5 percent, asignificant reduction. As mission lengths increase,this advantage decreases (see fig. 5). In fact, thea er o q u a rter ly   q tr 04 08

AROC Advantage of Improved AirplaneUtilization25%The greater airplane utilization that point-to-point carrierscan achieve relative to hub-and-spoke carriers allowsthem to distribute fixed ownership costs over more trips,effectively lowering AROC. Increasing airplane utilizationby 20 percent has the effect of lowering AROC by about5 percent. As mission lengths increase, this advantagedecreases due to fewer opportunities to save timeat the gate.Point-to-PointCarrier AdvantageFigure 520%15%10%5%Utilization n500AROC  nPASSENGER LOAD FACTORS FOR HUB-ANDSPOKE AND POINT-TO-POINT CARRIERSAlthough they have longer turn-times, hub-and-spokecarriers tend to have higher passenger load factors.1,5002,0002,500100%Passenger Load Factor (%)Figure 61,000Average Trip Distance (nautical miles)90%80%70%60%Hub-and-Spoke Carriers nPoint-to-Point Carriers nhub-and-spoke model, which requires relativelylonger turn-times, offsets the disadvantage oflower airplane utilization by capturing higher loadfactors (see fig. 6).How operators can increaseairplane utilizationOperators who would like to take advantage ofthe cost savings and efficiencies of increasedW WW.bo ei ng.co m/co m m e r c ia l / a e r om a g a z in e1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007Average Trip Distance (nautical miles)airplane utilization may want to start byeducating their workforces about the positiveeffects of reducing turn-times. For example,the airline may explain that saving 10 minuteson 2,000 trips per year means an additional20,000 minutes — or more than 300 hours —available for additional flights. More flightsmean more paying passengers and, ultimately,more revenue.SummaryReducing airplane turn-times means more effi cient airplane utilization, particularly for airlinesthat emphasize point-to-point routes. Benefitsof shorter turn-times are significant for shorteraverage trip distances. For example, a 10-minutefaster average turn-time can increase airplaneutilization by 8 percent and lower AROC for atypical single-aisle airplane by 2 percent.For more information, please contact MansoorMirza at mansoor.mirza@boeing.com.19

characteristics, and availability of trained labor. traditionally, some carriers rely on more effi cient airplane utilization based on point to point service and faster airplane turnaround at the gate. improved airplane utilization helps spread fixed ownership costs over an increased number of trips, reducing costs per seat mile or per trip.

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