Cargo Flights Research Articles

Indirect estimation of the monthly transport turnover indicator in Italy

The paper discusses the results of a selection of a set of monthly indicators to be used as predictors of the quarterly index of Italian service turnover. A mixed frequency approach based on sparse temporal disaggregation is used, which outperforms the classical methods of the Chow and Lin family, allowing both a high number of regressors by the LASSO method and stable estimates. The application refers to the turnover in transport, a sector strongly affected in 2020 by the dramatic movements due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of inflation at the end of 2021. The monthly indicators are selected from 143 time series: 56 series of business surveys in transport about both the climate and frequency of the answers; 18 series from Assaeroporti about both passengers and cargo flights split by national and international routes; 69 series of monthly turnover in industry split by both sector of economic activity and reference market. The sample spans the months from January 2010 to December 2021 for both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data. Several aspects of the estimation are considered: the stability of selected indicators over the quarters 2017–2021; their forecasting performance; the reliability of the estimates in terms of their monthly pattern.

Stochastic Modelling of Aircraft Ground Time at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

Ground time plays an important role in keeping flight on-time performance and passenger smooth flow. It varies depending on the aircraft type, procedures, passenger number and/or cargo amount, maintenance requirements, and ground handling service quality. This research aims to explore the ground time distribution pattern at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The daily flight historical data is divided into several categories based on the airline’s service type for local airlines, the airline’s origin for foreign airlines, the type of flight, and aircraft size. Ground time data of each flight category is then fitted to all possible distribution types by using the Distribution Fitting app in Matlab. The best-fitted distribution definition uses the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test by comparing the p-value of each distribution. 6 distributions fit 20 flight categories. Almost all local airlines’ ground time except full-service carrier international flights and low-cost carrier international flights with wide-body aircraft fit to Burr distribution. Full-service carrier international flight with narrow and wide-body aircraft, international flight with narrow-body aircraft operated by airlines from China and other countries fit Generalized Extreme Value distribution. Low-cost carrier international flights with wide-body aircraft and private flights fit to Inverse Gaussian distribution. International flights with wide-body aircraft operated by airlines from Korea, Japan, and other countries airlines fit for Nakagami distribution. While the cargo flights fit t Location-Scale distribution for wide-body aircraft and Weibull distribution for narrow-body aircraft. Then the stochastic models are developed based on each flight category’s distribution parameters. These models are expected to be able to guide future research in ground time or apron capacity management as they provide the data distribution without more primary data needed.

Air Traffic Management Using a GPU-Accelerated Genetic Algorithm

Abstract Air traffic management is becoming highly complex with the rapid increase in the number of commercial and cargo flights, leading to increased traffic congestion and flight delays. To mitigate these issues, we present a flight path generation system that distributes the aeroplanes across the airspace and imparts minimal delays to the flight if required, thus ensuring that the aircraft follows the shortest route wherein it encounters the least amount of traffic. We develop a parallel genetic algorithm in CUDA-C with a novel fitness function allowing the system to reach an optimal solution where the air traffic density is minimised. The proposed algorithm was tested on one day's domestic flight schedule and achieved an 18% reduction in traffic density, with the flight times and delays remaining proportional to the data observed in the existing air traffic management system.

Econometric analysis of the determinants of air cargo services supply in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper examines econometrically the determinants of air cargo supply in the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) using city-pair data for 2011–2020. We find that air cargo supply tends to be concentrated in airports located in highly populated cities. The relationship between income and air cargo supply is more complex although its positive effect seems to be more consistent for dedicated cargo flights. In addition, we only find a negative relationship between distance and air cargo supply when we focus on belly cargo. Low-cost airlines spur cargo in passenger flights buy they do not have any positive role in dedicated cargo flights. Free trade agreements seem to contribute positively to a greater supply of air cargo, but this effect is concentrated on belly cargo and intra-regional routes. In contrast, the quality of the infrastructure at the airport of origin positively impacts air cargo supply only on dedicated flights and extra-regional routes. Finally, we do find evidence that a more intense competition between airlines and the greater use of wide-body aircraft have a positive effect on cargo supply.

Impacts of travel bans and travel intention changes on aviation emissions due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-023-02916-8.

National Project Land Acquisition Controversy: New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA)

Controversy over the construction of the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) has occurred since the airport development plan was declared. Because of the overcapacity of passenger and cargo flight activities at Yogyakarta's Adi Sucipto Airport, the government thinks it necessary to build an international standard airport. However, the community and Wahana Tri-Tunggal rejects it because of the NYIA development project, which was projected to take up 637 hectares of land and was feared, would "evict" around 11,000 people. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the land acquisition controversy in the NYIA development plan. The results show that, firstly, there is no consistency with the Regional Regulation of Kulon Progo Regency Number 1 of 2012 relating to Regional Spatial Plans with the NYIA Policy, where Temon District according to Article 7 paragraph 2 is an urban system service center that mainly focuses on agriculture, plantations, and agropolitan and Temon urban area. Tsunami Evacuation which means a protected land area was built by NIYA. Second, the inconsistency of the Minister of Environment Number 5 of 2012 with the NYIA Policy where the development EIA was made after the issuance of the Permit, but land acquisition had occurred before. Third, the deviation from the land productivity-based slogan "Bela Beli Kulon Progo" causes freedom for modern shops to compete with traditional markets. The conclusion is the government, which originally showed its alignment with the agricultural sector through several policies, actually violated existing policies through the NYIA development project and it caused controversy.

Exploring factors affecting airport selection during the COVID-19 pandemic from air cargo carriers’ perspective through the triangular fuzzy Dombi-Bonferroni BWM methodology

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unexpected demand for air cargo in terms of rapid mobility of critical basic needs. Air cargo carriers aim to maximize their profits by taking advantage of the current demand and using their limited capacity in the right place. At this point, some of the qualifications of the airports in the places where demand plays a crucial role in this decision of the carriers. Thus, evaluating the factors considered in the airport selection for air cargo carriers during the COVID-19 period is curious. This study proposes a triangular fuzzy Dombi-Bonferroni best-worst method (BWM) framework with vast flexibility to establish the priority preferences of factors considered in selecting airports. The fuzzy BWM model becomes a superior decision support system by combining the Bonferroni mean operator's ability to consider interrelationships between attributes and the flexibility of the Dombi operator. In this sense, we highlight eighteen criteria based on five airport aspects: location, physical features, performance, costs, and reputation. Findings reveal that the foremost aspects are location and costs, whereas the most crucial factors are airport charges and handling charges. The study suggests that airports should follow a low-price policy for airport-related charges without compromising their sustainability to have a share of the increasing number of air cargo flights, especially during the COVID-19 period, when airline passenger flights are decreased. The study is crucial in deciding the strategy and policy of air cargo carriers and airports during the pandemic period.

U-Space and UTM Deployment as an Opportunity for More Complex UAV Operations Including UAV Medical Transport.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) commonly called drones are relatively new entrants to the airspace. The regulatory agencies, numerous States and entities are involved in creation of the safe integration with manned aviation. The so-called U-space concept announced by the European Commission is one of the approaches to achieve that goal. There is also known concept of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) – a tool which would enable the services needed for safe conduct of UAV flights in generally accessible airspace. There are quite a few European projects which focuses on testing UTM capabilities in order to find a solution which could enable the market and ensure safe UAV operations. One of those systems is PansaUTM – which was developed in order to coordinate drone flights in different types of airspace in Poland. The first part of the paper will present an example of the implementation of this system as a foundation for new possible applications of drones and increasing number of operations. The conclusion of the first part of the article is that, in line rapid growth of UAS flights and different applications of drone services, the European drone ecosystem should evolve even further to deploy very complex drone operations in scalable manner. In order to accommodate unmanned air taxi operations, cargo flights, medical cargo flights, automatic surveillance flights, etc. Europe is preparing towards deployment of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).The second part of the text indicate the possibility of extensive use of drones in medical logistics as well as minimizing the epidemiological risk as a result of the use of this mean of transport. At the same time, it should be stressed out that the medical transport using drones can be used in urgent situations, where the main variable that has an impact on the success of life and health saving is the breaking of barriers to reaching difficult-to-reach places. In addition, the development of transport using drones can have a lasting impact on improving the quality of life of chronically ill patients who experience severe disease recurrence and thus on the need to implement emergency prevention or treatment measures.The second part of the article focuses as well on the U-space concept as an opportunity for UAVs to be widely used in the field of day-to-day supplies as well as health-related supplies. In the context of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus, drones may be used to provide diagnostic screening tests, medicinal products and septic materials, transport of samples of biological material, as well as an information campaign on how to deal with an epidemic, quarantine or isolation at home. The use of UAV for medical supplies is economically and legally justified. The U-space environment from the operational and regulatory side is a multidisciplinary approach that requires the interaction of aviation, law, medicine, robotics, mechatronics and engineering experts. The legal framework for the development of U-space should be taken into account, as well as sector-specific regulations taking into account the principles of the use of drones in strictly defined areas, including in the process of medical supply, and liability for damage caused by UAV medical supply or AI-controlled intelligent machines.

APPLICATION OF HFACS-HFIX FRAMEWORK IN NTSC’S FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: WAMENA AIR ACCIDENTS’ CASE STUDY

Wamena airport experienced accidents in 2002, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2016. All accidents were cargo flights and in approach and landing flight phases. As the Swiss Cheese concept, accident happened when errors penetrated safety defenses’ layers in straight line. Structuring NTSC’s investigations, under HFACS framework to understand the human factor failures type and HFIX strategy to close the failures by applying the recommendations, need to be done in air accident investigation. Eleven aviation experts and practitioners were interviewed in this study, to validate the framework. There were layers without any failures in accident 2008, 2013, and 2016. Accident in 2016 has no recommendation due operators’ safety actions were considered relevant to block failures. Accidents in 2002, 2009, 2013, and 2015 have failure in a layer which intervened by two or more recommendations. There were failures remain open in accident 2002, 2009, 2013, and 2016. Repetitive failure, error or violation of repetitive accidents in 2002, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2016 is un-stabilized approach and has not been blocked with effective interventions. HFACS and HFIX are useful to framework the accident investigation, preventing similar accident happened in the future.

Analisis Pengaruh Pandemi COVID-19 terhadap Transportasi Udara pada Maskapai Susi Air

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Susi Air as an airline service company experienced a decrease in the number of passenger flights and cargo flights. This study aims to determine the effect of COVID-19 on the number of passenger and cargo flights and the way Susi Air has stabilized the number of flights during the COVID-19 pandemic. The method in this study uses a combined method or mixed methods. This study uses two types of data, namely primary data in the form of observation data carried out directly by researchers in the field, and secondary data in the form of time series data on the number of passenger flights and cargo flights of Susi Air Airlines at Nusawiru Cijulang Airport and interview data conducted with two operational staff. Susi Air Airlines. The results of the study show that the COVID-19 pandemic affects the number of passenger flights with Susi Air Airlines with a significance value in the run test, which is 0.000, the COVID-19 pandemic affects the number of Susi Air cargo flights with a significance value in the t test, namely amounting to 0.000, as well as the way Susi Air has stabilized the number of flights during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely by utilizing Instagram social media as a promotional tool, conducting ticket sales cooperation through the Traveloka platform, establishing pioneering flight collaborations between Susi Air Airlines and the Provincial Government. , providing discounts on airline ticket prices, and providing Charter Medical Evacuation (Medevac Emergency Indonesia) services as one of its service products.

An analysis of the Chinese scheduled freighter network during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 caused the vast majority of passenger flights to be grounded, but the crisis raised the importance of the network of dedicated cargo flights and, therefore, interest in its development. This paper aims to evaluate the Chinese scheduled freighter network (CSFN) via its topological properties and to explore its changes following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using spatial analysis with the complex network theory (CNT), the paper found that the CSFN displays small-world and scale-free network properties, similar to that of air passenger network. Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing are the dominant national hubs in the CSFN because they host the headquarters of many e-commerce giant enterprises and have relatively underutilized airport capacities. The CSFN has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased network average degree, clustering coefficient, and closeness, and reduced average path. These improvements were mainly driven by major hub cities whose centralities had been strengthened with more route connections. Since China's air passenger traffic had quickly restored in the second half of 2020, we argue that the changes in the CSFN during COVID-19 were unlikely to be a result of the substitution effect between freighter and passenger aircraft. It was more likely a result of the higher air cargo demand during the pandemic and airlines' realisation of the importance of freighter operations in China.

АНАЛІЗ ВІДПОВІДНОСТІ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ПОВІТРЯНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ УКРАЇНИ ВИМОГАМ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СОЮЗУ ДО КРАЇН – КАНДИДАТІВ

The article is devoted to the analysis of the conformity of the regulation of air transport activities of Ukraine with the requirements of the European Union to the candidate countries and the determination of priorities for the development of Ukraine in the field of civil aviation. Systematization of the questionnaire made it possible to determine its general and profile content blocks: air transportation; airport management; provision of air navigation services; aviation insurance; aviation security; aviation security; ensuring environmental friendliness of air transport activities; participation in international activities; social protection of aviation personnel; administrative capacity of air transport. A meaningful analysis of the profile blocks shows the positive dynamics of bringing the requirements for flight operation in the civil aviation of Ukraine into compliance with the international requirements for aviation safety, the introduction of appropriate procedures for Ukrainian aviation enterprises and objects of aviation activity by incorporating the relevant directives and regulations of the European Union into the Air Code, Aviation Rules of Ukraine and other regulatory documents. The latter allowed Ukrainian air carriers that have a valid operator's certificate, issued in accordance with the requirements and procedures for flight operation in civil aviation, approved by the State Aviation Service of Ukraine, to continue unhindered passenger and cargo flights, including in EU countries, under martial law conditions and bans on the use of Ukrainian airspace by civil aircraft. A conclusion was drawn on the expediency of ensuring the further development, adoption and implementation of aviation rules of Ukraine in accordance with the standards and recommended practice of the International Civil Aviation Organization, regulations of the International Air Transport Association, the European Association for the Safety of Air Navigation ("Eurocontrol"), the European Aviation Safety Agency, others international aviation organizations and taking into account the legislation of the European Union in the field of civil aviation.

Leaping over the Dragon's Gate: The “Air Silk Road” between Henan Province and Luxembourg

AbstractThis article traces the process behind the implementation of the “Air Silk Road,” a cargo flight connection between Luxembourg and Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. Its origins lie in economic competition between Henan and its neighbouring provinces, dating back a decade before the official announcement of the Air Silk Road in 2017. Provincial and municipal governments in Henan displayed opportunistic risk-taking behaviour in persistently pushing for the development of Zhengzhou's airport economy, but only timing and coincidence allowed the province to gain a foothold in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). With findings drawn from fieldwork in China between 2019 and 2020, we contribute to an understanding of the implementation of the BRI, the underlying rationale and the challenges inland provinces face in integrating into the world economy.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON EUROPEAN AND TURKEY AIR TRAFFIC NETWORKS

Covid-19, which was defined as a result of research conducted in a group of patients developing respiratory symptoms in late December 2019 in Wuhan province of China, spread to other countries in a very short time by infecting from people to people. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the “International Public Health Emergency” due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions have been imposed by countries to prevent the pandemic. With these restrictions, air traffic has come to a halt, only health, humanitarian, military, repatriation and cargo flights have been carried out. Due to the Covid-19, more than 6 million traffic losses occurred in the European air traffic network. There were 0.2 million flight losses in the 9/11 attacks and 0.8 million flight losses in the great financial crisis. It is not known how long the recovery will take to reach traffic data in 2019. In this study, the impact of Covid-19 on the European and Turkey air traffic networks in 2020 was analyzed compared to the 2019 data. Within the scope of forecasts published by aviation authorities, assessments regarding the recovery process are also included. It is predicted that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the air traffic networks will not be compensated for a long time in line with current data and predictions for the pandemic.

Анализ эффективности применения анизотропных теплозащитных материалов при реализации траекторий с многократным входом в атмосферу

In the case of full implementation of the programs of studying and developing the Moon, announced in recent years (“Luna”, Artemis, Chang’e), significant increase in cargo turnover between the Moon and the Earth is expected. Therefore the research and development of appropriate spacecrafts and their structural elements is believed to be promising, especially thermal protection coatings ensuring spacecraft safety during movement (descent) in the dense atmosphere layers. A special characteristic of the trajectory of the spacecraft returning from the Moon’s orbit is the closeness of the speed of its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere to the parabolic one. This circumstance significantly complicates solving the problem of creating thermal protection for such a vehicle, because of higher convective and radiative heat flows compared to those acting on orbital landers. The analysis showed that when implementing the trajectory of the return of spacecraft with multiple re-entries into the Earth’s atmosphere, a trajectory can be selected (at least for cargo flights) so that the intensity of heat exchange on the surface of the coating does not exceed the permissible level. In this case, use of modern and advanced anisotropic heat-protective composite materials can reduce the spacecraft surface temperature to a level that does not cause destruction of the thermal protection coating.

Occurrence record during the pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of flight reduced up to 70% to 80% (reported). Except for Papua, the frequency of cargo flight did not affect significantly. Anticipating decreasing of operation activities, DGCA issued several regulations and exemptions. KNKT investigation did not decrease significantly. CASR 121.439 requires for a pilot to perform minimum of 3 take offs and landings within 90 days. CASR 121.441 requires a pilot to perform proficiency check for a pilot in command, within 6 months and for other pilots, within 12 months.

Amplified British Aviation Authority in Africa, 1947–1960: Regulation of Low-cost Overseas Airlines

ABSTRACT Britain first exerted considerable civil and military aerial authority in Africa in the 1920s and 1930s. The occasional but striking presence of British pioneer pilots and aircraft was soon followed by formal agreements about Empire airbases, and operation of imperial airline service. During the Second World War, all British aviation resources in Africa were tailored to mobilising and executing military action. At the end of the War, Britain’s nationalised airline resumed scheduled commercial services to and from Africa. In the post-War Commonwealth there was demand for air services at lower prices than Britain’s flag-carrying airline offered. Private charter airlines provided long-haul but low-cost ‘trooping’ flights, ‘colonial coach’ passenger flights, and ‘tramp’ cargo flights, and consolidated and extended British aerial presence and influence in Africa. Mostly, London set and managed the regulatory regime under which they operated. Coloniality provided a key licensing element. In the 1950s, before widespread decolonisation, the authority for the least expensive long-haul flying across Africa vested in layers of complex regulation in Britain.

Application of High Reliability Organizations (HRO) in Civil Aviation Related With Civil Aviation Business Models as an Overview

Civil aviation industry has been in a significant growth trend. This trend have increased with using of customs area which is prohibited for unauthorized personnel and uncommercial situations named as apron or rat area (runway apron+taxiways as a customs area) since the beginning of 1970’s. Between the years of 1968-1972, 272 aircrafts were hijacked. After customs area started operating in airports, this unsafety event has been decreased rapidly. Moreover, the absence of comprehensive literature on the Turkish civil aviation industry and its relationship to economic growth perceived in Turkey is encouraged for preparing this paper. So the development of civil aviation industry has been in a gradual trend by the way. In this paper, high reliability organizations (HROs) are described in the introduction part. Next, an overall literature is explained about the business models used in civil aviation. In third and fourth stage; models are used for to evaluate reliability factors such as freight, domestic and international flights, classification of aircrafts with the scope of passenger and cargo flights. In methodology and results on relation between passengers versus freight part, stationary of time series data is analysed for interpreting the relationship between passenger and freight air transportation.

ПРОГНОЗИ ЩОДО АВІАТРАНСПОРТНОЇ ГАЛУЗІ ПІСЛЯ КРИЗИ COVID-19

The air transport services industry is one of the most affected branches of the global crisis industry caused by the new COVID- 19 coronavirus. After a sustained growth in the last decade, this industry came to report declines of almost 50% at the end of the first quarter of 2020. Given that no one can approximate how long the global pandemic will end, it is very difficult to predict how long the air transport services will return to January 2020, as well as how many operators will declare insolvency or how many they will be able to adapt their strategies so that they can make a profit. Part of global airline operators have managed to adapt their activity by operating mainly cargo flights, but even so, a very large part of the fleet remained on the ground. Through this article to followed highlighting the situation in which air transport services are found, almost half a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic by highlighting the amounts that some European countries have not received while issuing forecasts on how in which the staged resumption of flights will take place and how the air operators will manage to follow common return policies or will develop their strategies.

Design of An Integration Model for Air Cargo Transportation Network Design and Flight Route Selection

Air cargo transportation is an essential component in the freight transportation market, primarily due to the transportation requirements of time-sensitive products. Air cargo transportation plays an increasingly important role alongside economic development. Cargo flight network design and fleet routing selection significantly affect the performance of the air cargo transportation. In this research, we propose an integrated model simultaneously considering cargo flight network design and the fleet routing selection for the air cargo transportation. Two transportation modes, the direct transportation mode in point-to-point networks and the transshipment mode in hub-and-spoke networks, are compared. In order to solve the proposed optimization problem, a swarm-intelligence-based algorithm is adapted. Numerical experiments were conducted to examine and validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model and algorithm. The computational results suggest that the proper settings of hub and transshipment route selection in an air cargo transportation network can significantly reduce the transportation cost, which can provide practical managerial insights for the air cargo transportation industry.