Taxonomies of airline scheduling strategies: cross-regional worldwide analysis

Abstract

Airlines use different scheduling strategies to manage their operations. Selecting the right scheduling strategy that fit with the airline overall strategy is an issue. In the last few years, several airline scheduling problem studies have been conducted. Most of these studies have focused on the optimisation side of the problem. This study aims to identify taxonomies of airline scheduling strategies based on cross-regional airlines analytical study. Scheduling data of 360 worldwide airlines have been collected, analysed, and therefore used to explain and classify airline scheduling strategies into anticipated taxonomies. Data were collected from five regions; Africa, Arab states, Asia and Pacific, Europe, North America and South/Latin America. Standardised ratings were developed and K-means Clustering analysis was used to develop the taxonomies of airline scheduling strategies. This study revealed that; the adopted taxonomies of airline scheduling strategies are; intercontinental, focused intercontinental, focused/selective international and focused regional scheduling strategies. The widely-adopted taxonomy is focused regional and the least adopted one is the intercontinental. These new taxonomies build the theoretical base for the next research areas in airline scheduling, and help airlines to find the best scheduling strategy that fitted their regional characteristics and/or corporate and operational strategies.