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This paper aims to provide a framework for the airlines to forecast demand, specifically on international routes operated from major metros of the USA and position their services by designing the service positioning matrix. Major benefits include route contemplation, effective fleet scheduling, decisions on aircraft and fuel purchases and developing optimal fare policies. Much effort has been directed to developing forecasts of air transport demand, particularly by airline companies and professional bodies in the air transport industry. However, detailed analysis of the characteristics of demand for air transport over long-haul or international routes is less researched.

Major methodologies used were regression, time series analysis – Holts’ exponential smoothing method. Two econometric models are formulated that capture the direct and indirect drivers of airline demand in the Indian context. Forecasts of demand are made over the next seven years until 2020.

It is interesting to find that demand not only is influenced by direct parameters such as population- and behavior-oriented parameters such as income, but the macroeconomic environment of the country concerned also plays a major role in demand origination. Variables like investment, gross domestic product, etc. contribute a lot in terms of international airline demand. It is also expected that in the Indian context, demand is on a spike path over the next seven years considering the macroeconomic environment and other general economic conditions.

This paper is developed and applied in the Indian context. Results may change when applied to different countries depending on their macroeconomic conditions.

This study will be useful for any airline in route planning, and in formulating major policy decisions. Other benefits include effective fleet scheduling, decisions on aircraft and fuel purchases and developing optimal fare policies.

This paper adds to the existing literature by developing two demand drivers’ models in the Indian context. It is first such attempt to analyse the Indian aviation industry ever since the Indian economic liberalization in 1991. Forecasts provided yield major benefits for airlines operating to and from India.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to carry out a comprehensive literature review for state of the art regarding airline schedule planning and second to identify some new research directions that might help academic researchers and practitioners.

The authors mainly focus on the research work appeared in the last three decades. The search process was conducted in database searches using four keywords: “Flight scheduling,” “Fleet assignment,” “Aircraft maintenance routing” (AMR), and “Crew scheduling”. Moreover, the combination of the keywords was used to find the integrated models. Any duplications due to database variety and the articles that were written in non-English language were discarded.

The authors studied 106 research papers and categorized them into five categories. In addition, according to the model features, subcategories were further identified. Moreover, after discussing up-to-date research work, the authors suggested some future directions in order to contribute to the existing literature.

The presented categories and subcategories were based on the model characteristics rather than the model formulation and solution methodology that are commonly used in the literature. One advantage of this classification is that it might help scholars to deeply understand the main variation between the models. On the other hand, identifying future research opportunities should help academic researchers and practitioners to develop new models and improve the performance of the existing models.

This study proposed some considerations in order to enhance the efficiency of the schedule planning process practically, for example, using the dynamic Stackelberg game strategy for market competition in flight scheduling, considering re-fleeting mechanism under heterogeneous fleet for fleet assignment, and considering the stochastic departure and arrival times for AMR.

In the literature, all the review papers focused only on one category of the five categories. Then, this category was classified according to the model formulation and solution methodology. However, in this work, the authors attempted to propose a comprehensive review for all categories for the first time and develop new classifications for each category. The proposed classifications are hence novel and significant.

Deregulation of domestic markets and the liberalization of international markets have dramatically changed air transportation. One of the important results of this change is the environmental effects of air transportation. This study aims to examine the implications of air transportation on environmental sustainability in the context of airline business strategies in liberalized and globalized air transport industry.

The paper discusses the relationship between liberalization, airline strategies and environmental sustainability of air transportation using the related literature. Then, to show some environmental impacts on the axis of the relationship discussed, emission rates for the aircraft landing and take-off phase were calculated on a global basis based on the aircraft traffic.

The discussion in the paper shows that the liberalization policies and the strategies of airlines supported by these policies, in essence, contradict the environmental sustainability of air transport. Considering the flight share projections of EUROCONTROL for different aircraft types on a global basis and the World Bank’s global flight traffic forecast for the years 2016 and 2025, it has been demonstrated that the number of aircraft departures will increase by 30%, whilst the number of aircraft emissions will increase by 41.5%.

Airlines are one of the main actors that will play a role in reducing the environmental impacts of air transportation. Therefore, this study is important in giving an idea to both policymakers and airline managers on how airline companies’ strategies should be shaped to realize both corporate sustainability and environmentally sustainable air transportation.

There are many studies in the literature regarding the environmental effects of air transport. However, there are not many studies linking environmental impacts with airline strategies that directly affect air transport demand. This study is different in that it gives environmental sustainability by associating it with its root causes.

Research carried out within the scope of the present new emerging optimum market to Greek regional airlines. This study (based on interconnected flight network) aims to provide an optimal alternative for flights to be carried out by small Greek airlines to Eskisehir Airport in Turkey. The airlines seek to sustainable demand base to improve themselves in a profitable way.

In this study, the analytical network process method was used. In the construction of network models, specific criteria have been considered, and the analysis has been accomplished as multi-criteria decision-making problem because of the relationship and interaction between them. A number of professionals with high knowledge of the Greek and Turkish aviation market were participated in the study.

Both Greek and Turkish experts think that the scenarios should include more airports (multi leg flights) to benefit from the increased traffic from all these destinations. Although, the model showed that more sustainable and effective routes are the simplest ones (single leg flights). Thus, the experts suggested the following five routes: Athens (ATH)-Antalya (AYT)-Eskisehir (AOE)-ATH; Heraklion (HER)-AOE-ATH; ATH-Istanbul (IST)-AOE-Thessaloniki (SKG); ATH-AOE-Cologne (CGN)-ATH and ATH-AOE-Izmir (ADB)-CGN-ATH. In addition, the experts pointed out the routes Eskisehir (AOE)-Brussel (BRU) and AOE-Cologne (CGN), as the passenger demand for them is high. These are considerable suggestions and should be examined by airlines’ managers, while aviation authorities should take these under consideration.

There are some factors that limit the potential extension of the small Greek regional airlines to Eskisehir airport. Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport is the most used airport for international connected flight in Turkey, and the most airlines prefer this as a destination airport, although it has slots limitations and intense traffic. According to a previous project, sustainable flight network may include Istanbul and Izmir. Also, the bilateral agreement between Greece and Turkey according to Memorandum of Understanding between the Aeronautical Authorities of the Republic of Turkey and Hellenic Republic consists the main limitation of the traffic increase.

Connected flight network model suggestions developed in this research may provide contribution to airlines’ research and development activities. Also this kind of studies may contribute to the increase of the passengers’ traffic between the two countries with mutual benefits.

Based on the current study, with determined the grid network flights, new flights can be scheduled that are offering significant benefits. Also passengers will have the ability to travel to an attractive destination. In particular, the study may positively contribute to the further development of AOE and to the region around the city. On the other side, the Greek regional airlines can find an important market. Anadolu University’s entrepreneurship ability will be improved and also AOE’s business will be increased. This study will enforce the stronger links between both Greek [Hellenic (Greek) Civil Aviation Authority] and Turkish (General Directorate of Civil Aviation) aviation authorities. In addition, this study may contribute to the improvement of the economic relations between Greece and Turkey with mutual benefits.

It is thought that this research shows Greek and Turkish airports feasibility to cooperate providing benefits to passengers, airlines and the countries’ economies. The study includes current social, economic and cultural dynamics of the countries making significant contribution to academic literature. The capacity and demand analysis is useful for the management of the specific Greek carriers. Expert opinions are consulted over the course of taking strategic decisions. The analysis has been conducted, based on expert opinions and referred to for these pairwise comparisons. Airlines and airport managers based on the suggested methodology may examine potential flights, although more numerical data are necessary.

This paper aims to evaluate the main business models used for airlines' maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities and determine the activities to which these relate.

A critical literature review is used to develop a conceptual model of MRO activities. This is evaluated through a SWOT analysis before an exploratory study of eight airlines is used to confirm the applicability of the conceptual model.

Four levels of MRO outsourcing are identified; from fully outsourced to fully in‐sourced. From the exploratory study it is shown that critical MRO activities such as line maintenance are frequently in‐sourced, while activities with low demand at an airline level such as engine maintenance are often outsourced.

MRO represent around 10‐15 per cent of an airline's operational costs. By identifying the strength and weaknesses of different MRO models, it is possible to evaluate alternative MRO strategies.

Unlike other research in maintenance which was aimed mainly at the manufacturing sectors, this research provides insights into the maintenance practises in a service sector. In particular this research studies the different outsourcing levels existing in airlines' MRO. The knowledge gained by understanding the mechanism of outsourcing in airlines' MRO can be further extended to other industries and help in best configuring their maintenance units.

Airport capacity constraints lead to operational congestion and delays, which have become major threats to the aviation industry. They impose large costs on airlines and their passengers. Uncertainty in demand or unexpected events can cause a mismatch between capacity and demand, resulting in either capacity oversupply, with a decrease in efficiency, or airport congestion over an extended period. Moreover, airport capacity is rather difficult to define due to its multifaceted and dynamic nature, and it depends both on the available infrastructure and on operating procedures. Additionally, traditional capacity management methods do not consider relevant behavioral economic challenges to conventional analysis, particularly failure of the expected utility hypotheses and dependence of valuations on reference points. This study aims to develop a preliminary framework to include economic concepts when evaluating expansions of airport capacity.

This paper reviews major opportunities in airport demand and capacity management from an economic perspective while appraising the challenges involved in airport capacity expansion processes that have not been fully completely in past studies. Although welfare economics provides the conceptual foundations for demand/capacity analyses, the authors integrate the findings regarding capacity definition, uncertainty management and behavioral economics into standard economics to guide the measurement of the airport capacity expansion problem.

The authors obtain several insights regarding airport capacity and demand management. First, airport capacity is a complex metric when evaluating airport expansion, and it depends both on the available infrastructure and on operating procedures. Furthermore, airport throughput is highly conditioned by factors that shape capacity and delay and shows significant variability when these factors are modified. Second, a marginal change in capacity at congested airports may have a great impact on demand distribution, airline competition, aircraft types, fares, operating revenues, route map and other characteristics of a given airport. Behavior after capacity expansion is highly reliant on the slot allocation models. Additionally, overall social welfare is usually affected after changes in infrastructure in terms of increased connectivity, economic benefits and negative externalities, including noise and local pollution. Third, on-time performance is clearly nonlinear, and thus sensitive to variations in demand and capacity. Finally, airport capacity and demand management involve a trade-off between mitigating congestion and maximizing capacity utilization, so decision-making tools are required to support and enhance policy and managerial choices. Three main challenges arise when developing new methods for evaluating airport expansions: the definition of capacity, the management of uncertainty in demand and the need to consider economic concepts.

This paper explores and produces an in-depth understanding of the problem of airport capacity and demand balance. The authors propose a preliminary framework that considers the challenges that have been previously identified and that, particularly, provides an economic perspective for airport capacity expansion processes. This framework is completed with a theoretical model to help policymakers and airport operators when faced with a capacity development decision.

Drawing upon the existing theoretical and empirical sourced knowledge of aesthetic labour and gender, this paper aims to explore the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour in the Chinese airline industry and the underlying causes from a contextual point of view.

This qualitative study has emerged from a broader research project which aimed to explore women’s experiences of work-family conflict and their career aspirations in the Chinese airline industry in which aesthetic labour was prevalent as a significant issue during semi-structured interviews with female employees and HR/line management. Thus, the study draws upon interview data focusing on recruitment and selection of flight attendants in three Chinese airlines. This is complemented by secondary sources of data from Chinese television programmes and job advertisements.

This study reveals that aesthetics is both gendered and context-bound. It exposes that aesthetic labour in Chinese airlines is demanded from women but not men. It highlights that gendered aesthetic labour is continuously shaped by four influential contextual issues – legislation, labour market practices, national culture and airline management practices.

By uncovering the dynamic interconnectedness of gender and aesthetics and illustrating the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour for commercial gains in Chinese airlines, this paper contributes to the understanding of the gendered aesthetics in the airline industry. It also offers new insights into the theory of aesthetic labour by locating it in a context that differs significantly from other socio-cultural contexts.

A case study of an organisation in transition is examined. It describes a Canadian regional airline which is facing major environmental changes and challenges, and attempts to make the required organisational adjustments. The dynamics of strategic change at that company are then related to the available literature. Of particular interest are the stakeholder model and the literature on organisational learning.

Air connectivity is one of the most important aspects of tourism development, especially for island state destinations (ISD) which rely on air travel for accessibility. The complexity of the tourism industry necessitates close interaction among involved stakeholders to ensure successful policy implementation of air transportation operations that facilitate tourism mobility at a destination.

In this paper self-administered questionnaires in a structured format were distributed to 200 managers. Additionally, seven unstructured follow-up interviews were conducted to enrich the content and better support the conclusions.

The results of the study suggest that air transportation and connectivity are not fully integrated with tourism policy and strategy planning. Yet it is crucial that a stakeholder approach is adopted that accounts for the needs of diverse stakeholders and airline strategies, along with a diversified tourism policy that can establish Cyprus as year-round destination.

The role of the airline industry in overall tourism strategy and policy is examined and the unique problems and challenges ISDs like Cyprus face in developing as a tourism destination and overcoming tourism seasonality are underlined.

The primary aim of revenue management (RM) is to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price. Ever since the deregulation of US airline industry, and the emergence of the internet as a distribution channel, RM has come of age. The purpose of this paper is to map out ten turning points in the evolution of Revenue Management taking an historical perspective.

The paper is a chronological account based upon published research and literature fundamentally drawn from the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

The significance and success to RM is attributed to the following turning points: Littlewood’s rule, Expected Marginal Seat Revenue, deregulation of the US air industry, single leg to origin and destination RM, the use of family fares, technological advancement, low-cost carriers, dynamic pricing, consumer and price transparency and pricing capabilities in organizations.

The originality of the paper lies in identifying the core trends or turning points that have shaped the development of RM thus assisting futurists or forecasters to shape the future.