FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO Airport Slot Allocation Processes Rafael Filipe dos Santos Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Eletrotécnica e de Computadores Supervisor: Maria Antónia da Silva Lopes de Carravilla February 1, 2018 Airport Slot Allocation Processes Rafael Filipe dos Santos Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Eletrotécnica e de Computadores February 1, 2018 Resumo Hoje em dia aeroportos encaram imensos casos de congestionamento, resultando em atrasos de voos, levando assim a tentar encontrar uma solução que permita mitigar este problema. Uma das soluções mais adoptadas para mitigar congestionamento de aeroportos é utilizando o processo de alocação de slots da International Air Transport Association (IATA). Este processo consiste em alocar horários de voos de acordo com certas regras e com base nos pedidos feitos pelas companhias aéreas. Contudo, é um processo que é extremamente difícil de optimizar devido a restrições impostas por aeroportos, levando a casos em que existe uma discrepância enorme entre horários requisitados e horários alocados. Esta tese consiste em encontrar uma forma optimizada the resolver o problema de alocação de slots em aeroportos. O principal desafio neste problema é encontrar um método capaz de alcançar um solução admissível, que siga maior parte das guidelines impostas pela IATA. O projeto desenvolvido começa com uma revisão literária de maneira a adquirir a informação necessária de como o processo de alocação de slots é realizado tendo em conta as regras da IATA. Uma análise meticulosa é feita em ordem a perceber quais são as regras prioritárias principais e como essas influenciam o processo de alocação de slots. Uma análise da congestão de aeroportos é também feita de maneira a perceber como surgem atrasos e como diferentes maneiras podem ser tomadas de maneira a mitigar esses atrasos. Uma análise cuidadosa teve de ser feita visto a tese focar-se numa abordagem em particular, e então um bom entendimento de todos os processos involvidos nessa abordagem tem de ser garantido de maneira a encontrar sucesso na solução apresentada. Visto que o problema é extremamente complicado, vários autores já tentaram encontrar soluções por métodos exatos, de maneira a alcançarem soluções ótimas, no entanto apenas provaram terem sucesso em aeroportos de menor dimensão. Face a este problema, a solução definida para esta tese foi a de implementação de um sistema de apoio à decisão, devido ao facto de que o processo de alocação de slots necessitar de tomadas de decisão importantes para garantir satisfação dos pedidos de voos. Essa solução consiste num Sistema de Apoio à Decisão que permite avaliar o cumpri- mento das restrições à medida que uma solução é construída. O processo the implementação necessitou de uma análise da informação fornecida a coordenadores de slot, de maneira a perceber quais seriam os inputs que o sistema teria de usar no seu método. De seguida foi necessário de- cidir uma plataforma de implementação que garantisse que toda a informação estivesse guardade a apresentada ao utilizador numa interface intuitiva e de fácil compreensão. i ii Abstract This thesis consists in finding an optimal way to solve slot allocation problems in airports. The main challenge to this problem is to find a method that is capable of finding an optimal or close-to optimal solution that follows most of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) guide- lines. Nowadays airports face immense cases of congestion resulting in flight delays which lead to finding solution to mitigate this issue. The developed project starts with a literature review in order to acquire the information needed to understand how the slot allocation process is made in accordance to the IATA rules. A thorough analysis is made in order to understand what are the key priority rules established and how the influence the slot allocation process. An analysis of the airports congestion is also made to understand how delays appear and how can different approaches can be taken into account in order to mitigate them. Careful analysis must be made since the thesis focus in one approach in particular and so a good understanding of all the processes involved in the selected approach has to be ensured to have success in the solution presented. The defined solution for the thesis was that of a decision support system implementation, due to the slot allocation process being one that requires important decision making to satisfy as op- timally as possible flight requests. The process of implementation first required an analysis of the information provided to slot coordinators to understand what were the inputs that the decision support system would have to use in the method. Secondly, it was needed to decide an imple- mentation platform for the decision support system in order to have all the information stored and presented in a user interface intuitive for the user. iii iv Acknowledgements First and foremost i would like to thank my parents for all the support and love they have given me throughout the years, for investing in me and my education to ensure a solid basis for my future. I also thank my sister, she has been accompanying me ever since she was born and supporting me through the good and bad times. I would also like to thank my supervisor Maria Antónia Carravilla for always giving me sup- port in our meetings, approving or disapproving of my ideas, and always maintaining a friendly ambience in order to ensure my calmness through stressful times. A really big thanks for all the help. Finally, to all my friends that supported me throughout my time in college, the ones that were close to me already from before and the ones close to me now, a really big thank you to all, you always supported me and incentivized me to keep working and finish this work. I hope i also did a good job in helping you in the same situations you helped me. Rafael Santos v vi “You build on failure. Use it as a stepping stone and close the door on the past. Don’t try to forget the mistakes, but don’t dwell on it.” Johnny Cash vii viii Contents 1 Introduction1 1.1 Motivation . .2 1.2 Research Problem . .2 1.3 Project Goals . .3 1.4 Methodology . .3 1.5 Document Structure . .3 2 Literature Review5 2.1 IATA Worldwide Slot Guidelines . .5 2.2 Slots and the IATA Slot Allocation Process . .6 2.2.1 Slot Definition . .6 2.2.2 IATA Slot Allocation Process . .7 2.2.3 Airport Level Classification . .7 2.2.4 Initial Slot Allocation . .9 2.2.5 IATA Slot Conference . 10 2.2.6 Slot Returns and Adjustments . 11 2.2.7 Slot Allocation Software . 11 2.2.8 Slot Allocation Worldwide . 12 3 Capacities and Existing Optimization Models 15 3.1 Airport Capacities . 15 3.1.1 Landside Capacities . 17 3.1.2 Airside Capacities . 18 3.2 Airport Congestion . 20 3.2.1 Congestion Mitigation . 20 3.3 Existing Optimization Models . 22 3.3.1 The Zografos Model . 22 3.3.2 The Pyrgiotis Model . 24 4 Solution Approach 29 4.1 Decision Support System . 29 4.2 Applied Method . 30 4.2.1 Excel Approach . 36 5 Final Thoughts and Future Work 43 5.1 Pros and Cons of the DSS . 43 5.1.1 Alternative Ideas Suggested for Constraints . 43 5.2 Future Work . 44 ix x CONTENTS References 45 List of Figures 2.1 Slot Allocation Process workflow by WSG IATA . .7 2.2 Airport Level classification by WSG IATA . .8 2.3 Slot Allocation Process (extracted from Ranieri and Alsina(2014)) . 10 2.4 PDC SCORE Software (extracted from (PDC Aviation, 2018)) . 12 2.5 Geographical distribution of the EUACA members (extracted from (European Air- port Coordinators Association, 2018)) ....................... 13 2.6 Level 2 and 3 Airports Worldwide (extracted from (International Air Transport Association, 2017))................................. 14 3.1 Declared Capacities of the Porto Airport (extracted from (International Air Trans- port Association, 2017)) .............................. 16 3.2 LOS Guidelines (extracted from (IATA Level of Service, 2017)) . 18 3.3 Zografos model (extracted from (Nuno Antunes Ribeiro, 2016)) . 23 3.4 Zografos model Sets and Parameters (extracted from (Nuno Antunes Ribeiro, 2016)) 24 3.5 Pyrgiotis model (extracted from (Nuno Antunes Ribeiro, 2016)) . 25 3.6 Pyrgiotis model Sets and Parameters (extracted from (Nuno Antunes Ribeiro, 2016)) 26 4.1 Madeira airport declared capacities (extracted from (ANA Coordenação de Slots, 2018))........................................ 33 4.2 Lisboa airport declared capacities (extracted from (ANA Coordenação de Slots, 2018))........................................ 33 4.3 Operational Time (calculated in days) . 37 4.4 Frequency of Operation . 37 4.5 Excel Sorting Window . 38 4.6 Excel Sorting Result . 38 4.7 Initial Schedule Allocation Result . 39 4.8 Surpassed Capacities . 39 4.9 Surpassed Capacities . 40 4.10 Total Schedule Shifts . 40 4.11 Maximum Index Calculated in Initial Allocation Table . 41 4.12 Maximum Index Calculated in Re-Schedule Allocation Table . 41 xi xii LIST OF FIGURES List of Tables 2.1 Heathrow slot valuations from reported trades 1998 to 2013 (Heathrow, 2013)..6 4.1 Fictional Airport Declared Capacities . 34 xiii xiv LIST OF TABLES Abreviaturas e Símbolos IATA International Air Transport Association WSG Worldwide Slot Guidelines EUACA European Airport Coordinators Association LOS Level of Service DSS Decision Support System WWW World Wide Web xv Chapter 1 Introduction Airlines are one of the most used methods of transportation nowadays. Since its growing industry, the need for air transportation has had a significant augmentation therefore it gets extremely diffi- cult for the airports to increase their capacity leading to immense cases of congestion and delays causing high costs for airports, airlines and passengers alike. Knowing this, airports need to have a solution to help them mitigate some of these issues.