Abstract
We study airline decision-making in response to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airspace Flow Program (AFP) to empirically describe policy-relevant behavioral strategies and preference structure of air carriers. Using observed responses made by airlines, we infer utility functions of different route options in AFP with respect to flight time and arrival delay using a finite mixture latent class choice model. We empirically describe the trade-off that airlines face between flight time and departure or arrival delay. The average estimated cost of airborne delay is 24 times greater than the cost of ground delay. Airborne cost per minute is over 100 greater than ground delay cost for large carriers and 4–20 times greater for small airlines. The results are applicable to future traffic flow management programs, such as Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
McFadden, D.: Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behaviour. In: Zarembka, P., (ed.) Frontiers in Econometrics. No. 330.18 Z3 (1973)
Xiong, J., Hansen M.: Airlines’ flight cancellation and delay trade-off analysis through slot credit substitution process TRB Annual Meeting, January 2014, paper 14-2279_A
Seelhorst, M., Hansen M.: Flight cancellation behavior and delay savings. In: 5th International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (2012)
Xiong, J., Hansen, M.: Modelling airline flight cancellation decisions. Transp Res Part E: Logist Transp Rev 56, 64–80 (2013)
Cook, A., Tanner G.: European airline delay cost reference values (2015). https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/8zxq0/european-airline-delay-cost-reference-values
Vij, A., Krueger, R.: Random taste heterogeneity in discrete choice models: flexible nonparametric finite mixture distributions. Transp Res Part B: Methodol 106, 76–101 (2017)
A. Estes, Airspace flow program visualizer. https://math.umd.edu/~aestes/afp_visualizer_dev/. Accessed 5 Sept 2017.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Robert Hoffman and Bert Hackney of Metron Aviation for supplying us with both data and valuable input for this project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tereshchenko, I., Hansen, M. Relative trajectory cost estimation for CTOP applications using multivariate nonparametric finite mixture logit. CEAS Aeronaut J 11, 367–377 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-020-00442-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-020-00442-1