Aviation Planning and Operations

The delivery of reliable and efficient aviation services is predicated on effective decisions being made concerning the planning and provision of airport and aircraft infrastructure. Decisions that are made about investment and capacity provision have long term implications for airports, airlines and consumers. This Volume addresses issues of forecasting, infrastructure planning and provision, capacity, scheduling, safety and security, disruption management and resilience.

Accurately forecasting consumer demand for air travel is a vitally important but notoriously challenging aspect of aviation policy formation and management. Forecasts of airline and airport activity may differ considerably from original predictions and there have been many examples of operational difficulties resulting from the over or underestimation of demand. Such issues are apparent not only in terminal buildings but also on the airfield and are of critical interest to planners and operational decision makers. Another activity which is of paramount importance is scheduling. Scheduling forms a vital part of airline operations as it is concerned with making the optimum use of scare resources and meeting consumer demand profitably.

In terms of aviation planning and operations the importance of safety and security cannot be overstated and a number of essays in this Volume address this area. Together with safety and security concerns, a number of other factors have the potential to disrupt planned schedules and any disruption has the potential to cause delays, inconvenience and lost productivity and so ensuring a quick and orderly return to normal routine operations is vital.

Lucy Budd is Professor in Air Transport Management and Stephen Ison is Professor of Air Transport Policy at De Montfort University, UK.