Investigation of the Fuel Efficiency of the U.S. Air Transportation Network Structure

Abstract

The combination of increasing demand for air transportation, high fuel prices and the growing environmental awareness motivates the need for fuel efficiency improvements and emissions reductions of the aviation sector. One potential approach to improve aviation’s fuel and CO2 emissions efficiency is to improve the structure of the air transportation network. This research focuses on alternative topologies for the US air transportation network, passenger routing and fleet composition. In order to identify and evaluate these alternatives, an optimization model was developed were the network topology, routing strategies and aircraft assignment are jointly optimized. It was found that the 2007 US air transportation network exhibits a topology that is close to its optimum and that further topological improvements may only yield a reduction in fuel burn of approximately 1%. Changes in aircraft assignment and alternative airline routing strategies between origin and destination markets appear to provide greater potential for efficiency improvements. It was found that improved passenger routing could decrease fuel burn by over 8% while the utilization of larger aircraft yields a reduction of 10%. These findings suggest that there is limited potential from structural network topological improvements for the US air transportation network. However, strategies and policies that would incentivize the use of larger aircraft and alternative aircraft and passenger routings would provide greater potential for fuel efficiency and climate change emission reductions.